National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2020
“Even by DreamWorks standards, the charm and magic of "Shrek" seemed extraordinary upon its initial release almost 20 years ago — and its power has yet to diminish in the intervening years.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
Studio
DreamWorks · DreamWorks Animation · Pacific Data Images · 90 min
Box office
$488.4M worldwide on a $60M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 1 win, 2 nominationsAnnie Awards — 1 winBritish Academy Film Awards — 1 winCritics' Choice Movie Award — 1 winAll 4 wins · 3 nominations on record
Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature
Annie Awards: Best Animated Feature
British Academy Film Awards: BAFTA's Children & Young People Award - Feature Film
Critics' Choice Movie Award: Best Animated Feature
Scholarship
Named in the title of 17 peer-reviewed works
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Shrek arrived in 2001 as DreamWorks Animation's first true genre-defining success, a computer-animated feature that upended fairy-tale convention with irreverence and heart. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, it paired Mike Myers' ogre with Eddie Murphy's Donkey and Cameron Diaz's Fiona, earning the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Its box-office success and cultural reach launched a franchise and reshaped how major studios approached animated comedy, blending pop culture references with genuine sentiment.
This cell preserves the opening card that announces the film itself, the frame where the audience first meets the name Shrek before story or character take hold. Title cards from a film's opening carry particular weight for collectors, marking the threshold between anticipation and narrative, often the first physical trace of a production's identity on film. As a piece of 35mm history, it stands as a tangible fragment of the exhibition print that introduced millions of viewers to a new kind of animated storytelling.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital theatrical release print of Shrek (2001).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean throughout the visible strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge beside the perforations, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip in the inter-perforation zone on the same edge.
Edge print
Top edge reads (mirrored): '2383 504 06 9 1 3 7 KOD. 4K 28 2001 U'; bottom edge text is partially obscured by the soundtrack area.
Base & colour
Base appears with a light blue-cyan tint consistent with a 2383 print stock; the dye image reads as a deep black field with yellow title graphics, showing no visible colour shift or fading.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive image; all three frames appear to show the same title-card composition, consistent with a title sequence from Shrek (2001).
Era check
The Kodak 2383 print stock edge code, the combined Dolby Digital and variable-area optical soundtrack layout, and the cyan-base tint are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 2000s.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063113
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
