Shrek – I Feel Good Animation Test

Lore & Background

The test was produced during the early stages of Shrek's development, when the film was conceived as a low-budget, grunge-style project using motion capture and live-action set backgrounds. The Propellerheads, a crew of animators, were hired to create this test. At the time, there were discussions about reducing the dark tone to appeal to a wider audience, and the final film ultimately adopted a more whimsical tone using traditional computer animation.

When presented to DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg in May 1997, the test was poorly received. Katzenberg stated, 'It looked terrible. It didn't work, it wasn't funny, and we didn't like it.' The Propellerheads were fired after the presentation. The test remained largely unseen for years, with only brief snippets appearing in demo reels on YouTube and Vimeo in 2010 and 2011.

The test was originally held by an unknown eBay buyer who purchased it along with several sculptures of the old Shrek model in 2014 via an auction opened by an employee named Tim Lawrence II. This auction provided the first screenshots of the test. On November 23, 2023, production designer Barry E. Jackson released the full test on his YouTube channel, The Zoom Art Studio, following an interview.

Reader's Guide

The Shrek – I Feel Good Animation Test holds significance as a rare artifact of the early development of a major animated franchise. It illustrates the initial creative direction for Shrek, which was originally envisioned with a darker, grunge aesthetic before being reworked into the commercially successful family film. The test's long status as lost media fueled interest among animation enthusiasts and lost media researchers, with fragments surfacing over more than a decade before the complete test was released in 2023. Its discovery and eventual public release provide insight into the iterative process of animation production and the corporate decisions that shape final films. The test also preserves the vocal performance of Chris Farley as Shrek, offering a glimpse of what the character might have sounded like before the role was recast.

Did You Know?

• Chris Farley provided the voice of Shrek in the test, and Tom Kenny voiced a mugger.
• The test was first made publicly available on November 23, 2023, by production designer Barry E. Jackson.
• An unknown eBay buyer purchased the test and several sculptures of the old Shrek model in 2014.