Shrek
The grumpy ogre who just wanted to be left alone, dragged into a quest to rescue a princess and discover his own capacity for love. Shrek arrived in May 2001 as a subversive fairy-tale comedy from DreamWorks, won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and spawned a franchise that defined early-2000s family cinema.
DreamWorks' Shrek released May 18, 2001, with Mike Myers voicing the titular ogre, Eddie Murphy as the indefatigable Donkey, and Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona. Loosely based on William Steig's picture book, the film was a fairy-tale deconstruction — funny, heart-driven, and anchored by the opening Smash Mouth track "All Star" that became instantly iconic. The film grossed nearly $500 million worldwide.
Shrek 2 (2004) followed and became the highest-grossing film of 2004 in the United States, cementing the franchise's dominance. The first film's irreverent humor and character warmth made it a rewatchable staple; the sequels diluted that magic, but the original remains a touchstone of early-2000s animation.
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Toy Story
Pixar's Toy Story was the first fully computer-animated feature film, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as mismatched toys Woody and Buzz. Released November 1995, it reinvented animation and launched a franchise that still dominates 30 years later.
The Rugrats Movie
The babies hit the big screen: newborn brother Dil arrives, the Reptar wagon careens into the woods, and the Pickles crew has to find its way home. Nickelodeon's first feature-length animated film, released November 1998, became the first non-Disney animated feature to cross $100 million at the US box office.
"All Star" by Smash Mouth
Somebody once told me — you know the rest. Smash Mouth's 1999 radio staple peaked at #4 on the Hot 100, but immortality arrived in 2001, when it played over Shrek's opening credits and fused itself permanently to a green ogre. The internet did the rest.
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Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
MTV's cackling couch potatoes trade their couch for a cross-country road trip when their TV gets stolen. It's chaotic, it's vulgar, and it opened #1 with the biggest December weekend any film had ever managed at the time. Mike Judge's feature debut turned a controversial TV phenomenon into a theatrical event that felt impossibly big.