https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3adv8v/shrek-concept-artist-explains-why-lost-grungier-film-never-made-it-to-theaters

Ah, Shrek. Perhaps the greatest movie of our generation’s childhood.  The film came out in 2001, in the early days of 3D animation, but it has stuck in our hearts and meme culture since then. Because of that prolonged popularity, people are doing their research into the film’s lore—and they’re finding some pretty weird early renderings of the movie.

Shrek—the story of a lovable, grumpy ogre and his donkey friend—was an instant classic, so it’s no surprise that people have kept it alive by finding media that was “lost” from the movie, often published by former employees of the film’s production. In early August, a video was posted to YouTube claiming to be early renderings from a Shrek animation test, in what looks to be a very dark, grungy town, set to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.”