Its namesake, Cornelis Bol, came to the U.S. Perry ate fistfuls of grass and continued to live here, in Cornelis Bol Park, a quirky patch of grass in the Barron Park neighborhood of Palo Alto that’s five times as long as it is wide and runs alongside Matadero Creek.ĭonkeys have actually lived in the 13-acre park before it even became a park, dating back to its farmland days in the Great Depression. “Shrek” grossed almost $500 million and spawned three sequels. Jenny Kiratli (left) walk alongside Perry and Mike Holland on their weekly Sunday walk. It’s amazing how much of our donkey is in Donkey, the way he flips his head when he’s mad at Shrek, the way he trots.”īuddy and Dr.
“It’s evident if you know Perry and watch the movie that it’s him. Jenny Kiratli, Perry’s lead handler, tells me. They were subcontracted to do the modeling for Donkey, so they came to the pasture,” Dr. “‘Antz’ was their claim to fame before that. He was paid $75 for his time by Pacific Data Images, an animation studio that has since merged with DreamWorks and gone on to win seven Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. Perry - a Jerusalem donkey born in New York and brought to Stanford in the 1990s to be a calming influence on the polo ponies - famously posed for photos, video and sketches used to model Donkey from DreamWorks’ Academy Award-winning 2001 release “Shrek.” Turns out it’s hard not to pet the world’s most famous donkey.