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 as a fairy tale turned inside out, pairing sly humor with genuine warmth and a soundtrack that became inseparable from its identity. It won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and helped establish computer animation as a home for adult wit alongside family charm. The film's success reshaped the genre, proving audiences wanted irreverence as much as sentiment, and it launched a franchise that remains a cornerstone of modern animated storytelling, referenced and parodied for two decades since.
This cell centers on Shrek himself, the ogre whose gruff exterior and unexpected decency reordered what an animated protagonist could be. Collectors seek him out because he is the film's anchor, the character audiences met before anyone else in the story. A cell bearing simply his name suggests an introductory or defining frame, the kind of image used to establish who he is before the fairy tale logic bends around him. It represents the character in his own right, unaccompanied, a quiet marker of origin within the wider Shrek mythology.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital theatrical release print of Shrek (2001).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by 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 missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge beside the picture area, appearing as two bilateral variable-area tracks with a Dolby-style format; a band of fine digital data blocks consistent with a Dolby Digital inter-perforation data track is also visible in the lower perforation zone.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
The base shows a light cyan-blue tint consistent with a colour print stock; the dye image appears neutral with no visible red shift or fading.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the animated character visible is consistent with the DreamWorks animated feature on record.
Era check
The combination of cyan-tinted base stock, bilateral variable-area optical track, and inter-perforation Dolby Digital data blocks 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 000063155
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
