National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

DreamWorks Animation released Shrek in May 2001, marking a turning point for computer-animated features and signaling a genuine challenge to Disney's long dominance of the genre. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the film earned the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and became a defining cultural touchstone of the early 2000s, launching one of animation's most successful franchises.

This three-frame 35mm cell, titled Shrek and Donkey, captures a consecutive sequence from what appears to be the Duloc castle exterior, its distinctive architecture rising against an open blue sky. Shrek occupies the foreground, glancing upward, with Donkey present alongside him in a moment that reflects the film's central unlikely partnership.