Jubenhimer
Member
In 1997, former president of Walt Disney Pictures Jeffery Katzenberg, teamed up with Steven Speilberg to form a new film and television company that hoped to take on the big boys called DreamWorks. The new start up included its own animation studio, which Katzenberg hoped could challenge Disney, who at the time was at the height of its animation renaissance.
Though DreamWorks put out some cult hits, it's biggest break came in 2001 with the release of Shrek. A film that subverted, parodied, and deconstructed the Disney fairy tale formula. Shrek became a massive success, catering to a counter-culture audience of movie goers who wanted an alternative to the squeaky clean, rubber-stamped Disney movies.
Today, DreamWorks as a company, exists exclusively as the animation studio, now owned by NBCUniversal. And in the years following Shrek, the studio's output progressively became more and more generic. What was once a brand that challenged itself to do what other animation studios wouldn't do, was now doing exactly what every theatrical animation studio in the industry was doing at the time (Celebrity voices, wise craking talking animals, obnoxious LOLsoRanam! humor) With the occasional gem like How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda thown in.
But that seems to be changing lately. With Disney and Pixar's animation output going through some rough times the past year, DreamWorks was once again, able to capitalize on the need for an alternative. It started with last year's The Bad Guys, a well received adaptation of the graphic novels of the same name by Aaron Blabey. It's distinctive cartoony animation style set itself apart from the more realistic style of other animated features, including from DreamWorks themselves. But the real triumph for DreamWorks in 2022 was the release of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The sequel to the 2011 Shrek spin-off delivered one of the most critically acclaimed narratives of the year, and it did so on a budget of only $90 million. The upcoming films, such as Ruby Gillman: Teenage Krakken seem to be following in the footsteps of last year's hits.
So does anybody think DreamWorks has rightfully taken its place back as the "anti-Disney", being the edgy alternative to whatever mainstream direction Disney is following, or was The Last Wish a fluke, and we'll just go back to getting Boss Baby clones till the end of time?
Though DreamWorks put out some cult hits, it's biggest break came in 2001 with the release of Shrek. A film that subverted, parodied, and deconstructed the Disney fairy tale formula. Shrek became a massive success, catering to a counter-culture audience of movie goers who wanted an alternative to the squeaky clean, rubber-stamped Disney movies.
Today, DreamWorks as a company, exists exclusively as the animation studio, now owned by NBCUniversal. And in the years following Shrek, the studio's output progressively became more and more generic. What was once a brand that challenged itself to do what other animation studios wouldn't do, was now doing exactly what every theatrical animation studio in the industry was doing at the time (Celebrity voices, wise craking talking animals, obnoxious LOLsoRanam! humor) With the occasional gem like How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda thown in.
But that seems to be changing lately. With Disney and Pixar's animation output going through some rough times the past year, DreamWorks was once again, able to capitalize on the need for an alternative. It started with last year's The Bad Guys, a well received adaptation of the graphic novels of the same name by Aaron Blabey. It's distinctive cartoony animation style set itself apart from the more realistic style of other animated features, including from DreamWorks themselves. But the real triumph for DreamWorks in 2022 was the release of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The sequel to the 2011 Shrek spin-off delivered one of the most critically acclaimed narratives of the year, and it did so on a budget of only $90 million. The upcoming films, such as Ruby Gillman: Teenage Krakken seem to be following in the footsteps of last year's hits.
So does anybody think DreamWorks has rightfully taken its place back as the "anti-Disney", being the edgy alternative to whatever mainstream direction Disney is following, or was The Last Wish a fluke, and we'll just go back to getting Boss Baby clones till the end of time?
