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 computer-animated feature that upended fairy-tale convention with an ogre hero and a sly, referential sense of humor. It became a critical and commercial landmark, winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and helping establish DreamWorks as a genuine rival to Disney's dominance in the genre, all while proving audiences would embrace a subversive take on the princess story.
This cell brings together Shrek with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, figures borrowed wholesale from the classic Disney canon and repurposed here for comic effect. Their appearance together signals one of the film's many fairy-tale mashups, moments where familiar storybook characters collide with the ogre's decidedly unroyal world. For collectors, this pairing represents the movie's signature strategy: placing beloved archetypes into new, incongruous company as a way of poking fun at genre expectations. A 35mm cell preserving this combination captures a piece of the film's parody engine at work.
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 visible torn or missing perforations.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along the bottom edge, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip running in the inter-perforation gap beside it, and a blue DTS timecode line is also visible along that same edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
The base shows a light cyan-blue tint consistent with a colour print stock; the dye image reads as warm amber-gold with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible splices, cue marks or heavy scratching are apparent; the image surface appears consistent with a projected release print.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the animated character and environment are consistent with the film on record.
Era check
The combination of a cyan-tinted base, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode stripe, and variable-area optical track 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 000063133
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
