"Shrek Retold" was made as group effort, although each creator made their part of the movie on their own. Director Grant Duffrin separated the film into scenes of different length, then each scene was remade by a creator. In an interview with "Quartz", Duffrin said his love of "Shrek" was real, not like the "ironic" "Shrek" internet memes that were popular at the time. Soon before the film's release, a trailer for the film was uploaded to the 3GI channel which was talked about by many news outlets. The film was first shown on YouTube to a live audience on November 29, 2018, and is still on the site. On November 29, 2019, 3GI announced that the film would be able to be purchased in VHS format and as a free digital download. In March 2020, "Shrek Retold" was followed up by "Sonic Rebuilt", a similar recreation of the 1999 "Sonic the Hedgehog" film.