Shrek arrived from DreamWorks in 2001, a computer-animated feature that upended the fairy-tale template Disney had long owned. Built on William Steig's book and a script thick with pop-culture asides, it paired Mike Myers' ogre with Eddie Murphy's Donkey and became a cultural flashpoint, launching a franchise and helping establish the modern animated blockbuster as a vehicle for adult wit as much as family spectacle. Its trailer campaign was part of that shift, selling audiences on a fractured fairy tale before the film itself had proven its footing.
This cell preserves the end card from that original trailer, the closing frame meant to seal the promise made in the preceding reel. Trailer ephemera like this occupies a particular niche for collectors: it is promotional material rather than feature footage, tied to marketing rather than narrative, and its scarcity often owes to prints being run once and discarded. An end card carries the weight of a sendoff, the last image a 2001 audience saw before the house lights returned, making it a marker of anticipation rather than plot.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive trailer print of Shrek (2001).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
Not visible in this capture; the area beside the picture frame is obscured by the edge of the strip and the light panel reflection.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-cyan tint consistent with modern safety stock; dye image reads as neutral with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames show the same promotional title-card composition, consistent with a looping trailer leader or title sequence from the film on record.
Era check
The neutral dye image, cyan-tinted safety base, and positive print format are consistent with a 35mm release or trailer print from the early 2000s period of the film 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 000063268
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
