National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

DreamWorks Animation released Shrek in May 2001, marking a turning point for computer-animated features outside the Disney-Pixar partnership. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the film earned the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and demonstrated that irreverent, layered storytelling could find enormous mainstream success. Its cultural footprint has only grown in the decades since, cementing it as a defining work of early 2000s cinema.

This cell, titled Shrek, captures three consecutive 35mm frames from a close-up of Shrek himself against a dark background, his layered vest and tunic visible as he holds what appears to be a tense, dramatic pose. The sequential nature of the frames preserves a brief but tangible fragment of the character's on-screen presence.