National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

DreamWorks Animation released Shrek in May 2001, marking a turning point for computer-animated feature filmmaking and signaling a genuine challenge to Disney's long dominance of the genre. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the film blended fairy-tale irreverence with genuine warmth, earning the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and launching one of animation's most enduring franchises. Its cultural footprint remains substantial more than two decades on.

This cell, titled Donkey, presents three consecutive frames from a single sustained shot, capturing Donkey — voiced by Eddie Murphy — standing amid lush greenery and flowers beside a wooden structure, his gaze directed upward. The continuity across all three frames offers a rare, uninterrupted glimpse into the film's richly detailed outdoor environments and the expressive physicality that made this character so central to Shrek's enduring appeal.