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 in 2001 as DreamWorks Animation's breakthrough, a computer-animated feature that upended fairy tale convention and traditional Disney sentiment alike. Directed with a sly, irreverent voice and anchored by Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz's vocal performances, it became a cultural phenomenon, winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and launching a franchise that reshaped family entertainment for a generation.
This 35mm cell preserves a shared moment between Shrek and Princess Fiona, the film's central pairing and the emotional core of the story. Fiona, voiced by Cameron Diaz, subverts the damsel archetype, while Shrek, voiced by Mike Myers, redefines the reluctant hero. Collectors seek frames featuring these two together, as their evolving relationship drives the narrative's heart. A cell like this represents a physical artifact from the actual release print, a tangible piece of animation history rather than a reproduction.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm 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 holes appear cleanly formed with rounded corners.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block strip in the inter-perforation zone adjacent to it, and a blue-tinted DTS timecode line also visible along that same edge region.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
The base shows a light cyan-blue tint consistent with a dye-coupler colour print stock; the dye image appears warm-toned with strong yellows and no obvious fading.
Projection history
No splices, cue marks or prominent scratches are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be the same or near-identical consecutive frames from a single shot, and the animated character rendering is consistent with the DreamWorks animated feature on record.
Era check
The combination of cyan-tinted colour print stock, variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, and DTS timecode stripe 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 000063227
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
