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, landing between the tail end of traditional studio fairy tales and the new era of computer animated features. It won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and helped establish DreamWorks as a genuine rival to Pixar and Disney, largely by turning the fairy tale formula inside out with a cranky ogre hero and a script full of winking references to the very stories it borrowed from.
This cell brings together Shrek, Snow White, and the Seven Dwarfs, a pairing that places DreamWorks' irreverent lead alongside one of animation's most recognizable classic ensembles. Collectors prize frames like this for the crossover itself, since Snow White and her dwarfs carry decades of instantly identifiable studio heritage while Shrek represents the film that upended their genre. A 35mm cell preserving this meeting captures a moment where old fairy tale iconography and new animated satire share the same frame of film history.
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, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible on one edge, alongside what appears to be a Dolby Digital data block strip between the perforations on the same side; a DTS timecode line also appears present as a thin continuous stripe.
Base shows a light cyan-blue tint consistent with a colour print stock; the dye image appears warm-toned with no obvious fading or red shift visible.
Projection history
No visible splices; faint longitudinal lines are present across the frames consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and are consistent with an animated feature matching the film on record.
Era check
The combination of Kodak print stock with cyan 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 000063134
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
