National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

DreamWorks Animation released Shrek in May 2001, marking a turning point for the studio and for computer-animated features broadly. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the film earned the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and demonstrated that CGI storytelling could carry genuine wit and emotional weight alongside its technical ambition. Its irreverent fairy-tale world became one of the defining pop-culture touchstones of the early 2000s.

This cell, titled Shrek's Swamp, captures three consecutive 35mm frames from the opening sequence establishing Shrek's territory. Each frame presents the hand-carved wooden sign reading Beware of Ogre, set against dark, root-tangled swampland. Shrek himself does not appear directly, though the sign stands as his proxy, announcing his presence before the ogre is ever seen.