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 breakthrough statement, a computer-animated fairy tale that upended Disney conventions with irreverence, pop music cues, and a swamp-dwelling antihero as its lead. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, it won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and became a cultural touchstone, spawning a franchise that reshaped family entertainment for a generation raised on VHS and early DVD.
This cell captures Shrek and Princess Fiona in a moment framed by assistance, Fiona extending aid to the ogre who defies the genre's usual hero mold. Their pairing is the emotional core of the film, a reversal of rescue tropes that made the story resonate with audiences and collectors alike. As a piece of 35mm film history, this frame preserves a physical artifact of animation's shift into a new medium, tying the tactile past of film stock to a story built on subverting expectation.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm 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 with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a stereo optical print; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are not clearly resolved at this size, and no DTS timecode stripe or SDDS outer-edge tracks are distinguishable.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
The base appears with a slight blue-cyan tint consistent with a safety estar base; the dye image reads as warm and saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be from the same continuous shot and the animated characters visible are consistent with the DreamWorks animated feature Shrek (2001).
Era check
The combination of a variable-area optical soundtrack, cyan-tinted safety base, and positive colour dye image is consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 2000s, matching the 2001 release date on record.
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 000063124
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
