The first movie is a classic. It's very impressive what they created out of a children book with less than 30 pages.

Farquaad was created for the movie. He isn't in the book.

First movie is better. They took a book with less than 30 pages and made something very creative/refreshing out of it.

In the mid 90s, a very young DreamWorks decided to make an animation movie that uses a few minor elements from the 1990 book "Shrek!". After a long development period, the movie came out in 2001. Why is it still relevant to this day?