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 found an audience that has sustained the franchise for decades.

This cell, titled Shrek's Swamp, presents three frames from the same shot: the hand-carved wooden sign reading Beware Ogre that marks the entrance to Shrek's territory. The gnarled ogre face cut into the wood and the surrounding darkness establish his domain before Shrek himself appears, making this a quietly iconic piece of environmental storytelling from the film's opening passages.