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 from DreamWorks Animation in 2001, a subversive counterprogramming move against the fairy-tale conventions Disney had spent decades polishing. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, it took the genre's tropes and inverted them with irreverent humor, pop culture asides, and an unlikely romance at its core. The film won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and became a cultural touchstone, spawning a franchise that reshaped how studios approached animated comedy. Its success proved audiences wanted heart wrapped in wit rather than polish.
This cell centers on Princess Fiona, the film's reimagined heroine whose story defies the passive damsel archetype baked into traditional fairy tales. Collectors seek her frames because she represents the character work that made Shrek distinctive, a princess with agency, contradictions, and layered identity rather than ornamental purpose. A cell like this preserves a single physical fragment of that portrayal, cut directly from the release print, offering a tangible link to her presence on screen. It stands as a piece of the film's visual record, isolated from the surrounding narrative but tied permanently to her character's place in the story.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Shrek (2001).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible 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 deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip in the inter-perforation zone on the same edge; a blue-tinted DTS timecode line is also visible along the lower edge.
Base shows a light cyan-blue tint consistent with a colour print stock; the dye image appears warm and well-saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible scratches, splice marks or cue marks are apparent in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the image content is consistent with the animated feature Shrek (2001).
Era check
The combination of Kodak print stock with cyan base, variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, and DTS timecode stripe 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 000063126
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
