Creator / DreamWorks Animation

Bringing a whole new meaning to "man in the moon."

There was this wonderful great mission statement that Walt Disney had: 'I make movies for children, and the child that exists in all of us'. And 14 years later at DreamWorks I can say 'We make movies for adults, and the adult that exists in every child'. And that literally has been our approach.

— Jeffrey Katzenberg, in a 2007 interview promoting Bee Movie

The studio that managed to finally destroy the long-held perception that all feature film animation is Disney.

DreamWorks Animation is an animation studio located in Glendale, California, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal since 2016. Their story begins with Jeffrey Katzenberg — one of the architects of the Disney Renaissance — resigning from Disney,^note As to exactly why he resigned, there were two factors. First, Katzenberg's reckless actions in promoting Aladdin permanently strained Disney's relationship with Robin Williams, and although Williams would return to work with Disney a few more times in the last years of his life following Katzenberg's resignation, the fiasco resulted in serious repercussions for decades to come. Second, Katzenberg's involvement in the Black Friday cut of Toy Story was exactly what he wished for (Katzenberg's and Michael Eisner's visions demanded a cynical outlook, which was depicted with the toys meaner than in the final draft, Woody in particular deliberately throwing Buzz out the window rather than getting jealous, but only accidentally knocking him out of it in the final version) and almost destroyed the film. and co-founding DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Katzenberg used his portion of the studio to create a new animation subsidiary and later merging with animation studio and partner Pacific Data Images (PDI), which DW had a majority interest in the company at that time.^note Also known as PDI/DreamWorks, this was a company that got their start doing Ad Bumpers for networks like ABC, CBS, HBO, NBC and others, before branching out into visual effects during The '90s, in addition to a sequence for a 1995 Halloween episode of The Simpsons where Homer hides behind a bookcase that takes him into a computer-generated 3D world. After Spielberg's Amblimation shut down, most of its animators moved to DreamWorks.

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History:

1994-2004: Katzenberg's dream and humble beginnings

Katzenberg's ultimate goal was to compete directly with his old bosses on their home turf: feature animation. To that end, DreamWorks came roaring out of the gate in 1998 with The Prince of Egypt, an animated epic telling the story of Moses and the Exodus — similar to but distinct from Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. A fine article about the environment in which Prince was made can be read here. Prince performed extremely well at the box office, though still below Disney's films from that decade. The same year, DW released the All-CGI Cartoon Antz, a blatant Follow the Leader of Pixar's A Bug's Life – although Antz actually premiered first. More on that film and its repercussions further down this page.

In addition to its in-house films, DW also benefited from a partnership with Aardman Animations, with Nick Park creating well-received stop-motion films like Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Although Prince of Egypt had been a success, DW's follow-up traditionally-animated films met with diminishing returns. The Road to El Dorado failed to turn a profit, as did Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas which turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for 2D film animation at DreamWorks.^note Incidentally, Sinbad isn't completely to blame here. 2D animation in general was going the way of the dodo at this point. Disney themselves had had a string of mediocre to bad 2D films and — combined with America's increasing acceptance of and preference for CGI due to Pixar's efforts — shuttered their 2D feature animation operations less than a year after DW did (Disney would restart traditional animation in 2009). Fox — which also tried to compete with Disney in the 90's, took a financial bath with Don Bluth's Titan A.E. in 2000 and shut down their animation studio as a result. Warner Bros., meanwhile, faced Troubled Production after Troubled Production and flop after flop; they stopped their forays into feature animation at the same time DWA and Disney went all-CGI and would not make another animated film until The LEGO Movie in 2014.

Computer animation was another story entirely. Antz proved a surprisingly big hit with comparable critical acclaim to Pixar's A Bug's Life, and it eventually showed DWA the path they would take to success. The premiere of Shrek in 2001 changed the animation game completely. Using Katzenberg's penchant for rampant celebrity casting and modelling the characters from their movies after the actors voicing them to the max, this film finally put DWA on the map as a legitimate competitor in the feature film market, permanently opening the door Disney largely held shut for decades. It's a fact made undeniable with this film winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The studio's success in animation led to Katzenberg leaving the DreamWorks venture entirely in 2004, taking the animation division with him, and DWA became its own, publicly-traded studio and remained so for over a decade. The live-action DreamWorks studio continued to release DWA's films up until DreamWorks was acquired by Paramount Pictures, the film unit of Viacom, in 2006. As a result, DWA struck a separate distribution deal with Paramount thereafter, freeing them of any obligations with their former parent company.

2004-2012: Brief creative slump, then rebound

Post-Shrek 2, however, DWA hit something of an Audience-Alienating Era — an impressive feat for a studio less than a decade old. In addition to the increasingly blatant Stunt Casting, their films became notorious for being simply conduits for pop-culture references and toilet humor (and predictable plots). With the notable exception of 2006's Over the Hedge, nearly every film DWA put out in the middle of the 2000's was savaged by critics — though they still performed well at the box office (usually beating contemporary Disney CGI films). Shark Tale holds the distinction of being the worst-reviewed DreamWorks animated film. Madagascar generally got mediocre reviews and, though it made a healthy enough profit to spawn two sequels, did not have as much financial success as the first two Shrek films. The studio arguably hit its nadir in 2007 with Shrek the Third and Bee Movie disappointing at least critically, and Aardman breaking away from DreamWorks after the release of Flushed Away.

Beginning in 2008 however, the studio grew its beard with a new crop of films arising with a greater focus on story, characters, and quality. So far, this new direction has been paying off handsomely in the box office worldwide. For instance, not only was the classic Kung Fu Panda released, but Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa marked the transition as that franchise moved from a hastily pre-emptive strike against Disney's The Wild to become a gradually improving series with its own voice.

Originally arch-rivals with Disney in the 1990s, they became arch-rivals with Pixar in the 2000s, before becoming kind-of/sort-of arch-rivals with both studios in the 2010s. Disney alum Jeffrey Katzenberg produced more animated feature films through his studio alone than Walt Disney did when he was alive! While the quality of the films had been more inconsistent than Disney, the best of the bunch managed to reach for Disney and Pixar quality (with How to Train Your Dragon sharing a director team with Lilo & Stitch). In fact, in 2011, DWA exceeded them in critical reception with Kung Fu Panda 2 (RT 81%) and Puss in Boots (RT 84%) considered far and away superior films to Pixar's Cars 2 (RT 39%) and both were nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar while the Pixar film was shut out. Furthermore, KFP 2 out-grossed Cars 2 in the box office worldwide. In short, Katzenberg's dream had come true.

2012-2015: Expansion to television, emerging into the Chinese market, from Paramount to Fox

DreamWorks teamed up with China Media Capital (CMC), Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance to launch Oriental DreamWorks in 2012, which would develop and produce original Chinese live-action and animated content for distribution in China and internationally. ODW later acquired animation studio 37 Entertainment.

To bolster the company's revenues with meat and potatoes stuff, DWA acquired Classic Media later that same year, whose library contains rights to many classic cartoons, including most of the Filmation library (e.g. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), Big Idea (VeggieTales), the Gold Key properties that aren't owned by Random House, most of the old Famous Studios/Paramount characters, including the properties acquired by Harvey Comics like Casper the Friendly Ghost with their original ones like Richie Rich (excluding most of the Harvey superheroes, which are in the hands of their creators or their estates), the Entertainment Rights catalog including the intellectual property of Woodland Animations (Postman Pat and Charlie Chalk) and other British studios, the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials and most of their pre-1974 material (all the post-1974 R-B content, like ThunderCats, is held by Warner Bros., as they acquired R-B alongside Lorimar-Telepictures in 1989), and the distribution and marketing rights to Jay Ward's library, including Rocky and Bullwinkle, among many others.

On the business side, the company's distribution contract with Paramount was not renewed at the end of that same year as that company began getting back into feature animation production themselves after the success of Rango. DWA went to Twentieth Century Fox as its distributor from 2013 to 2017 (except Korea and China), which resulted in a balancing act with animated films from Fox subsidiary and rival Blue Sky Studios. Considering that DWA planned 12 films in four years, that had been quite a scheduling challenge. However, in that year they suffered their first serious box office sting in nearly a decade when Rise of the Guardians, their last film under the Paramount deal, underperformed financially despite warm critical reception, which caused the studio to lay off 25% of their worldwide staff at the end of the year.

In 2013, the studios' next film and their first at Fox, The Croods, proved a big sustained worldwide hit (with some decent critical reception), and the studio scored a great exclusive big time content deal with Netflix to help earn a steadier income so they didn't have primarily risk their solvency on feature films, though at the expense of their previous deal with HBO. Unfortunately, their next two films, Turbo and Mr. Peabody & Sherman, were box office disappointments despite having good critical reception (and both movies generating streaming-exclusive animated series).

In 2014, DWA acquired the distribution rights to all of its pre-2013 theatrical films from Paramount. The rights were consequently licensed to Fox in conjunction with their distribution deal. Paramount retained the theatrical rights to the Famous Studios cartoons that had been under DWA ownership since 2012, a stipulation of the original sale of the cartoons to Harvey Comics in 1958 and with it continued ownership of the original negatives (which Harvey and its successor companies had access to if they wanted to update the prints of these cartoons).

The studio's sole success in 2014 was the highly promising How to Train Your Dragon 2, which surpassed the total grosses of their four previous films (as well as its predecessor). Their follow-up Penguins of Madagascar once again underperformed (although it grossed more than Turbo and Mr. Peabody & Sherman); these combined disappointments led DreamWorks to announce in early 2015 that they would be laying off 500 employees and reevaluating their core animation business - this included a smaller film schedule as well as the shuttering of Pacific Data Images. Around this time, Katzenberg sought to find a better partner for the studio, having tried to negotiate with two companies in 2014 for a sale. The Japanese corporation SoftBank and later the toy company Hasbro were interested in taking control of the studio, but both companies pulled out of negotiations after Katzenberg demanded a higher-than-average asking price from both companies (SoftBank invested in Legendary Pictures instead, and Hasbro pulled out due to their successes in the entertainment industry, they later bought eOne, which they sold to Lionsgate in 2023).

Meanwhile, DreamWorks continued to search for new ways to expand its entertainment offerings. In September 2013, DWA acquired the archives of British animation studio Chapman Entertainment, giving it the rights to shows such as Fifi and the Flowertots and Roary the Racing Car. In June 2014, it acquired all of the trademarks, associated copyrights, and programming content of the Felix the Cat character from Felix the Cat Productions, run by the Oriolo family. These acquisitions, while profitable, failed to change the direction of the studio considerably.

Their sole release for 2015, Home, resulted a moderate success at the box office (it made back its budget domestically, which the studio's previous flops failed to do) and was fairly well-received by the public but received the lowest critical score for a DWA film since 2007. By this point, the studio entered a second Audience-Alienating Era, ironically characterized by having good critical and audience reception (although not on the same level as their 2008-2011 output) but below-average box office grosses, the complete opposite of their 2004-2007 output.

In August 2015, DWA launched a Western Animation network in Asia - The DreamWorks Channel, in partnership with CTH Thailand and HBO Asia. The channel broadcasts in HD and airs mostly content from their DreamWorks Classics library, along with several series that had not yet been licensed out to other networks in the region (i.e. The Adventures of Puss in Boots, which is a Netflix-original and thus not available in the region outside of Japan otherwise), and they soon liberated the airing rights to Dragons: Riders of Berk from the latter in the region so that they could have it on their own network, though they expressed no interest in liberating The Penguins of Madagascar from Nickelodeon.^note An understandable move. While Madagascar was a Cash-Cow Franchise for the company, and the Penguins Spin-Off initially was, the spinoff's movie tanked hard, plus Nick also has a share in the creative rights of the Penguins TV show. Initially only available in Thailand, the channel was made available to and was quickly picked up by other Pay TV providers in South-East Asia in September 2015 and later to other countries in Europe and Latin America after NBCU purchased DWA.

Incidentally, their decision to launch a western animation channel in Asia comes a year after NBCUniversal pulled out of the Joint Venture that is KidsCo in Asia. NBCU claimed it was due to "growing challenges in the international children's television industry", but most pin the blame on the company purchasing the US-based preschool network Sprout from PBS (and later renaming it Universal Kids), and wanting to shift their focus onto said network instead.

2015-present: Katzenberg's last stand, NBCUniversal takes over, beginning of new era

Unwilling to give up on his studio, Katzenberg appointed Bonnie Arnold, the producer of the How to Train Your Dragon series, and Mireille Soria, producer of the Madagascar series, as co-presidents of the studio's feature animation division. Hoping to get the studio out of its ongoing slump, the studio green-lit Kung Fu Panda 3, which was released in January 2016 and was the first film produced by their Chinese studio, Oriental DreamWorks. Despite being well-received and being a box office success, its financial impact was soon overshadowed by Disney's Zootopia two months later; it would prove to be the last effort by Katzenberg to keep the studio independent.

In April 2016, DreamWorks Animation finally succeeded in reaching an acquisition deal, this time with Comcast, the parent company of media conglomerate NBCUniversal.^note In a case of Hilarious in Hindsight, NBC Universal was a candidate to acquire the live-action DreamWorks studio when it was put up for sale in 2005, but was outbid by Paramount/Viacom. Under Comcast's acquisition plan that is worth $3.8 billion,^note A scale not previously seen in the mass media since Disney's purchase of Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm, which were both bought for $4 billion Katzenberg retired as CEO of DWA and became chairman of the new DWA division DreamWorks New Media, who oversees the studio's controlling interests in AwesomenessTV (until 2018, when it was sold to Viacom) and the NOVA joint venture. The deal was finalized a few months later. Katzenberg's successor as CEO, former Warner Bros. Animation president Christopher DeFaria, was appointed to the board five months after the completion. Almost two years later, DeFaria left, leaving television head Margie Cohn (best known for her tenure at Nickelodeon) to oversee all studio operations.

The acquisition also meant that Universal Pictures would have two animation studios under their belt, already owning Illumination Entertainment, the in-house feature animation wing of Universal headed by Chris Meledandri, who also happens to be a Disney veteran from the early '90s. This put them in a similar footing with Disney, which owns its in-house animation studio as well as Pixar since 2006. Universal Animation Studios, Universal's 2D animation arm that primarily operated during the 1990s (bringing us cult classics like Exosquad and Earthworm Jim), and still occasionally churns out a DTV sequel to Curious George (since the franchise is popular internationally), also operates independently (though as a husk of its former self). On February 1, 2018, CMC acquired the remaining shares of ODW and renamed it to Pearl Studio while Universal officially took over distribution a day later, beginning with reissuing the studio's libraries on DVD and Blu-ray.

As chance would have it, just a few months after DreamWorks finalized the process of leaving Fox, Fox was itself in the process of being acquired by none other than Disney (who proceeded to dissolve Blue Sky). Having narrowly avoided the fate of being acquired by its longtime rival, DreamWorks now had to settle into an odd position of second fiddle in Universal's heirarchy, as Illumination's Despicable Me franchise had risen to box office heights that filled the gap left by the dormant Shrek series. Universal wouldn't release a new DreamWorks title for over a year after the acquisition was finalized, and while How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was a success, its follow-up Abominable was less so. DreamWorks seemed to become more and more of an afterthought as Universal sought to find a way to revive some of its old franchises.

The COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 dealt a major blow to the global film industry, and DreamWorks found itself a guinea pig as Hollywood experimented with how to respond to the shutdown of theaters. Trolls World Tour was among the first films to be released on premium video on demand (in several regions, including the US), bypassing theaters and allowing people to rent it at home for full theatrical price. This model would be adopted by many studios in the proceeding years. DreamWorks properties also became a core part of Universal's new streaming service Peacock. However, DW would not abandon theaters completely; The Croods: A New Age would become one of the first films to have a successful turn at the box office in late 2020. In 2022, DW films like The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish began to experiment with a stylized 2D/3D blended art style (thanks to in the style of rival Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While this has not become the studio's "house style", it has contributed to distinguishing DW from Illumination while also reaping in a positive response from critics and audiences. However, in 2023, with NBCU facing cost-cutting measures amid a massive dual Hollywood strike and many other factors, the studio announced that by 2025, they would shift to a mixed-production model and would move feature animation production to outside studios (such as Sony Pictures Imageworks, which would handle animation services for an unannounced film that year). It is unknown if their Glendale campus would be shuttered or have its space leased as part of this move. By 2024, the move was imminent, and the studio was hit with downsizing as well as having its staff cut sometime after the release of Kung Fu Panda 4 and prior to the release of The Wild Robot.

See also DreamWorks SKG, who despite having the same name and being founded by the same group of people, has been a separate entity since 2004. With the buyout of the animation company, both sides of DreamWorks have once again been united under one roof, since the live-action DreamWorks is now part of the Amblin Partners group, which is in a deal with Comcast NBCUniversal (which later became a minority shareholder) that started after the release of Disney/Amblin's The BFG. It should be noted that, since they disassociated from each other in 2004, DreamWorks Animation holds the trademark to the name and logos, with the live-action studio borrowing the right to call itself as such, not the other way around.

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List of subsidiaries and acquired franchises owned by DreamWorks Animation:

• DreamWorks Classics
  • Chapman Entertainment
  • Felix The Cat
• The DreamWorks Channel (owned by NBCU International Networks)
• Portley Ltd
• Troll Dolls (except in Scandinavia)

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List of works by DreamWorks Animation:

Major franchises

• Shrek (2001-present)
• Madagascar (2005-present)
• Kung Fu Panda (2008-present)
• How to Train Your Dragon (2010-present)
• Trolls (2016-present)
• The Boss Baby (2017-present)

Filmography

Distributed by the original DreamWorks banner

As DreamWorks Pictures

• Antz (with Pacific Data Images; 1998)
• The Prince of Egypt (1998)
• The Road to El Dorado (2000)
• Chicken Run (with Aardman Animations and Pathé; 2000)
• Joseph: King of Dreams (2000)
• Shrek (with Pacific Data Images; 2001)
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

As DreamWorks Animation

• Shrek 2 (with Pacific Data Images; 2004)
• Shark Tale (2004)
• Madagascar (with Pacific Data Images; 2005)
• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (with Aardman Animations; 2005)

Distributed by Paramount

• Over the Hedge (2006)
• Flushed Away (with Aardman Animations; 2006)
• Shrek the Third (with Pacific Data Images; 2007)
• Bee Movie (2007)
• Kung Fu Panda (2008)
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (with Pacific Data Images; 2008)
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
• How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
• Shrek Forever After (2010)
• Megamind (with Pacific Data Images; 2010)
• Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
• Puss In Boots (2011)
• Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (with Pacific Data Images; 2012)
• Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox^note now known as 20th Century Studios

• The Croods (2013)
• Turbo (2013)
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman (with Bullwinkle Studios and Pacific Data Images; 2014)
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
• Penguins of Madagascar (with Pacific Data Images; 2014)
• Home (2015)
• Kung Fu Panda 3 (with Oriental DreamWorks; 2016)
• Trolls (2016)
• The Boss Baby (2017)
• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (with animation outsourced to Mikros Image; 2017)

Distributed by Universal

• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
• Abominable (with Pearl Studio; 2019)
• Trolls World Tour (2020)
• The Croods: A New Age (2020)
• Spirit Untamed (with animations outsourced to Jellyfish Pictures; 2021)
• The Boss Baby: Family Business (also released through Peacock; 2021)
• The Bad Guys (2022)
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
• Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)
• Trolls Band Together (2023)
• Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

Distributed by Netflix

• Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021, produced by DreamWorks Animation Television)
• Orion and the Dark (with animation outsourced to Mikros Image; 2024)

Distributed by Peacock

• Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate (2024, produced by DreamWorks Animation Television)

Films awaiting release or in development

• Unknown number of upcoming Trolls films (TBA)^note Trolls voice actor Justin Timberlake claimed that he would like for 5 more movies to be produced.
• The Wild Robot (based on the book by Peter Brown, 2024)
• Dog Man (based on the book series by Dav Pilkey, 2025)
• The Bad Guys 2 (2025)
• Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie (based on the DreamWorks Animation Television series of the same name, 2025)
• Madagascar 4 (TBA)
• The Boss Baby 3 (TBA)
• Shrek 5/Shrek reboot (TBA)
• Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth (adapted from a children' s book, TBA)
• The Wizards of Once (based on a book from How to Train Your Dragon's author Cressida Cowell, TBA)
• Mice and Mystics (based on a board game, TBA)
• Untitled live-action Voltron film (TBA)
• Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles (adapted from the book of the same name, TBA)

Short films and television specials

• Shrek 4D (2003; with Pacific Data Images)
• Far Far Away Idol (2004; with Pacific Data Images)
• Club Oscar (2005)
• The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005; with Pacific Data Images)
• First Flight (2006; first short released under Paramount)
• Over the Hedge: Hammy's Boomerang Adventure (direct-to-video; 2006)
• Shrek the Halls (2007; with Pacific Data Images)
• Secrets of the Furious Five (direct-to-video; 2008)
• B.O.B.'s Big Break (direct-to-video; 2009)
• Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (2009)
• Merry Madagascar (2009; with Pacific Data Images)
• Scared Shrekless (2010; with Pacific Data Images)
• The Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010)
• Kung Fu Panda Holiday (2010)
• Donkey's Caroling Christmas-tacular (2010)
• Megamind: The Button of Doom (2011)
• Gift of the Night Fury (2011)
• Book of Dragons (2011)
• Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (direct-to-video; 2011)
• Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos (direct-to-video; 2012)
• Madly Madagascar (direct to video; 2013; with Pacific Data Images)
• Team Turbo: Tricked Out (direct-to-video; 2013)
  • Champion's Corner (direct-to-video; 2013)
• Almost Home (2014; in front of Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Fox/Blue Sky's Rio 2 (outside of China and Korea))
• Rocky and Bullwinkle (direct-to-video; with Pacific Data Images; 2014)
  • A Tour of the W.A.B.A.C. Machine (direct-to-video; 2014)
• Dawn of the Dragon Racers (direct-to-video; 2014)
• Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (2015)
• The Boss Baby and Tim's Treasure Hunt Through Time (direct-to-video; 2017)
• Trolls Holiday (2017)
• Bird Karma (2018)^note The first in a series of short films as part of the DreamWorks Animation Shorts Program, (which is similar to that of Pixar's), and DWA's first traditionally animated project since Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas in 2003. It was initially shown in front of Japanese screenings of The Boss Baby in 2018, and was included (along with Bilby) on home media copies of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World the next year.
• Bilby (2018)^note The second of DreamWorks' short films, this one having been based on the cancelled film Larrikins.
• Kung Fu Panda Adventure (2018)
  • DreamWorks Theatre (2018)
• Marooned (2019)^note The third of DreamWorks's short films, this one premiering in the DreamWorks Animation Week - a special event where the studio's best-known films were screened for a week, one film per day between August 23-29, 2019 - before the screening of all the movies
• How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019)
• Tiny Diamond Goes Back To School (2020)
• To: Gerard (2020)
• Family Movie Night: Little Red Bronana Bread (2021)
• Dear Diary: World's First Pranks (2021)
• Precious Templeton: A Pony Tale (2021)
• Trolls: Holiday in Harmony (2021)
• The Bad Guys in Maraschino Ruby (2022)
• The Trident (2023)
• The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday (2023, produced by DreamWorks Animation Television)
• It Takes Three (2023)
• Dueling Dumplings (2024)

Television work

• Bumper work for ABC, CBS, Cinemax, HBO, NBC, Rede Globo, VH1 and others (1983-early 90s, PDI)^note All instances made before the partnership with DreamWorks
• Joust (1983; PDI, animated commercial with Colossal Pictures)
• The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror VI" segment "Homer³" (1995; PDI, with Rough Draft Studios)
• Cartoon Sushi (PDI; One segment: Gabola the Great)
• Toonsylvania (1998-1999)
• Invasion America (1998; with AKOM)
• It's Thinking (1999; PDI, advertising campaign for the Sega Dreamcast)
• Alienators: Evolution Continues (2001-2002; with DIC Entertainment, The Montecito Picture Company and Columbia TriStar Television)
• Father of the Pride (2004-2005)
• The Penguins of Madagascar (2008-2015; with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
• Neighbors from Hell (2010; with Wounded Poodle, Bento Box Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Television)^note credited as MoonBoy Animation
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2011-2016; with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
• Dragons: Riders of Berk (a.k.a. Dragons: Defenders of Berk for Season 2, and Dragons: Race to the Edge for Seasons 3 to 8; 2012-2018)^note The first two seasons were originally aired on Cartoon Network, and later the series was brought back for six more seasons, this time Channel Hopping to Netflix
  • Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021-)
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2013-2014; with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
• Turbo F.A.S.T. (2013-2016; with Titmouse)
• All Hail King Julien (2014-2017)
• The Adventures of Puss in Boots (2015-2018)
• Dinotrux (2015-2018)
• The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show (2015-2017; with Jay Ward Productions)
  • The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2018-2019; with Jay Ward Productions)
• Dawn of the Croods (2015-2017)
• Noddy, Toyland Detective (2016-2020; with Gaumont Animation)
• Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016-2018)
• Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh (2016-2018; with Titmouse)
• Tales of Arcadia (with Double Dare You Productions)
  • Trollhunters (2016-2018)
  • 3Below (2018-2019)
  • Wizards (2020)
• Spirit: Riding Free (2017-2020)
• Trolls: The Beat Goes On! (2018-2019)
• The Boss Baby: Back in Business (2018-2020)
  • The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib (2022-2023)
• Harvey Street Kids (a.k.a. Harvey Girls Forever!; 2018-2020)
• The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants (2018-2020; with Titmouse)
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020)
• Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny (2018-2019)
• Where's Waldo? (2019) (2019-present)
• Archibald's Next Big Thing (2019-2022; with Titmouse)
• Dragons: Rescue Riders (2019-2022)
• Cleopatra in Space (2019-2021)
• Fast & Furious: Spy Racers (2019-2021)
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (2020)
• Rhyme Time Town (2020-2021)
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020-2022; with Universal and Amblin Television)
  • Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (2024; with Universal and Amblin Television)
• Madagascar: A Little Wild (2020-2022; with Mainframe Studios)
• The Mighty Ones (2020-2022)
• Doug Unplugs (2020-2022)
• Trolls: TrollsTopia (2020-2022; with Atomic Cartoons)
• Gabby’s Dollhouse (2021-present)
• Go, Dog. Go! (2021-present)
• The Croods: Family Tree (2021-present)
• Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021-present)
• Pinecone And Pony (2022-present)
• Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022-2023)
• Abominable And The Invisible City (2022-present)
• Not Quite Narwhal (2023-present)
• Fright Krewe (2023-present)
• Curses (2023-present)
• Megamind Rules! (2024)
• Bearbrick (TBA)

Live-Action work (Through PDI; either prior or after the merger)

• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
• Angels in the Outfield
• The Arrival
• Batman Returns
• Batman Forever
• Batman & Robin
• Broken Arrow
• Bushwhacked (uncredited)
• Carlito's Way
• Cliffhanger
• Cool World (uncredited)
• Dennis the Menace
• Double Dragon (1994)
• Eraser
• Evolution
• Executive Decision
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (Dream Demon Animation)
• Ghost (uncredited)
• Heart and Souls
• The Jim Henson Hour
  • Muppet*Vision 3D
• The Last Boy Scout (uncredited)
• The Mexican
• The videos for Michael Jackson's Black or White, Remember the Time & Ghosts
• Minority Report
• Mission: Impossible II
• Natural Born Killers
• The Peacemaker
• The River Wild
• RoboCop 3
• Rookie of the Year
• Scrooged (IBC network graphics)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Superman III (indirectly- PDI founder Carl Rosendahl helped out Atari with the video game sequence)
• Supernova
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• True Lies
• Toys
• Various commercials for companies like Budweiser, Coca Cola and Exxon.

DreamWorks Classics properties

• Budgie the Little Helicopter
• Filmation properties:
  • Bravestarr
  • Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (under license from Bill Cosby)
  • Filmation's Ghostbusters
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) (under license from Mattel)
  • The Secrets of Isis
  • She-Ra: Princess of Power (under license from Mattel)
• Felix the Cat
  • Felix the Cat (Otto Messmer)
  • Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo)
  • The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (with Film Roman)
  • Baby Felix and Friends
• George of the Jungle (2007)
• Godzilla (select films are under license from Toho through UPA)
  • The Godzilla Power Hour (license acquired from Toho after Hanna-Barbera's rights expired in 2003)
• The 2002 He-Man series (under license from Mattel)
• Lamb Chop's Play-Along
• Lassie
• The Lone Ranger^note You read that right: Disney had to pay their rival a licensing fee here. The film was so long in development that the first payment happened before DWA purchased Classic Media; Any ideas of Disney and DWA needing to negotiate further development and licensing deals with each other regarding that series vanished when The Lone Ranger wound up becoming the biggest Box Office Bomb of 2013, which did producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer no favors.
• My Life Me
• Noddy
• Olivia
• Postman Pat
  • Guess with Jess (with Nelvana)
• Roger Ramjet
• Rupert Bear, Follow The Magic...
• Transformers: Animated (TV distribution (non-US), under license from Hasbro)
• Where's Wally? (a.k.a. Where's Waldo? in the U.S.)
• Underdog
• Chapman Entertainment properties:
  • Fifi And The Flower Tots
  • Roary the Racing Car (with HIT Entertainment)
  • Little Charley Bear (with Annix Studios)
  • Raa Raa The Noisy Lion (with Mackinnon & Saunders)
• Harvey Comics properties:
  • Baby Huey
  • Casper the Friendly Ghost
    • Casper's Scare School
  • Little Audrey
  • Richie Rich
  • At least 223 Noveltoons shorts produced by Paramount's Famous Studios from 1950 to 1962 (all other Noveltoons remain with Paramount, though DreamWorks retains all of the character rights and elements)
• Gold Key Comics/Dell Comics properties (merchandising and media assets only; publishing assets owned by Random House):
  • Doctor Solar
  • Little Lulu (only Gold Key property owned by DWC outright)
  • Magnus Robot Fighter
  • Turok
• United Productions of America (UPA) properties (excluding the UPA shorts produced for Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures, which are owned by Sony Pictures):
  • Mr. Magoo
  • Gerald McBoing-Boing
• Big Idea properties:
  • 3-2-1 Penguins!
  • VeggieTales
• Pre-1974 Rankin/Bass Productions properties (the post-1974 library is owned by Warner Bros.):
  • The Daydreamer (copyright only; currently licensed by StudioCanal)
  • Frosty the Snowman^note Merchandising rights to Frosty are co-owned by DWC and Warner Bros..
  • Here Comes Peter Cottontail
  • The Jackson 5ive (with Motown)
  • The Little Drummer Boy
  • Mad Monster Party? (copyright only; currently licensed by StudioCanal)
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (program rights only)^note Merchandising rights to Rudolph are owned by The Rudolph Company.
  • Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
  • Tales of the Wizard of Oz

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Tropes commonly used by DreamWorks Animation include:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • PDI contributed to one of the very earliest instances with the animated commercial for Joust, providing the CGI platforms based on the ones seen in the game itself.
  • All of DreamWorks's 2D efforts contain CGI in them to varying degrees of prominency.
• Advertising by Association: Their movies are often advertised this way, referencing previous DreamWorks All CGI Cartoons, Shrek being usually one of them.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude
• Arch-Competitor:
  • DreamWorks was created to be this to Disney, but in the 2000s it became much more famous for its rivalry with Pixar.
  • In the first half of the 2010s, they were briefly this to Illumination Entertainment, who shares very similar tropes to DreamWorks. When Universal snapped up DreamWorks, they became corporate siblings rather than rivals (à la Disney/Pixar).
• Artistic License – Space: The 2010-2017 logo features the full moon waning into a crescent revealing the boy. In order to maintain the original "D" shape of the moon, this happens the opposite of how it would in real life; the moon always waxes and wanes from the right, not the left.
• Balloonacy: How that kid in the logo gets to the moon in the 2004-2010 logo.
• Be Yourself: Often very important in pushing the main characters before the climax.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: Up until its acquisition by Comcast/NBCUniversal, DreamWorks had to develop every successful property into one of these since it was an independent company specializing in high-budget animated films and hounded by unsatisfied stockholders. For instance the Shrek series has made over $2 billion from the four movies alone (and that's not counting merchandising), while Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon are becoming the company's new bedrock ones. When an animated film under-performs then it's cause for major concern and it makes front page headlines, whereas if the same thing happens to Disney Animation, Pixar, or Blue Sky (who are all owned by larger companies... the exact same one, in fact) then it's not treated as nearly that big of a deal (justified, given Disney makes much more revenue and income than DreamWorks). Since said acquisition, Trolls and The Boss Baby have become incredibly successful for them.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • One of the most notorious perpetrators of this trope. Every last one of their movies has an All-Star Cast (save for How to Train Your Dragon, and even that had Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson, who might not be all that famous, but are well-known in most circles).
  • The Korean dub of the first Madagascar movie got local celebrity Song Kang-ho to voice Alex. However, Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted that he had never seen Song's movies but approved the casting when he got sent a voice reel of the actor's previous work.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Any of DreamWorks' major franchises will fall subject to either one or both of these tropes at one point:
  • While it has its hilarious moments, Kung Fu Panda is the film that started the more serious and emotional line of films that DreamWorks would go on to produce in the future, being an action comedy with some pretty serious drama going on, as well as the comedy being a bit darker and dropping the pop-culture jokes that DreamWorks is known for using. Kung Fu Panda 2 is significantly darker than the first film. Multiple characters are Killed Off for Real onscreen (though we don't get to see most of their bodies), and the Never Say "Die" rule from the first movie is broken a LOT, to the point where it seems like "death", "dead", and "kill" are used every other sentence. The Big Bad wants to take over all of China with giant cannons that are seemingly unstoppable and really are used to kill. And then there's the repressed memories of Po's traumatizing childhood, which involved the attempted genocide of his entire species.
  • Shrek got this with the release of Shrek Forever After, in which the titular protagonist ends up trapped in a alternate world tyranically ruled by the movie's Big Bad, which he has to escape from. The spin-off Puss in Boots is mostly a straightforward Zorro-esque action film with little parodic elements of the original series. Its sequel, The Last Wish, ups the cerebus factor even more since its plot revolves around Puss being faced with impending death, and has The Grim Reaper as an antagonist.
  • As the Madagascar movies went on (up until Penguins of Madagascar, which somewhat returned the original nature of the first movie), comedy was touched upon less frequently, being slowly replaced by a large number of dramatic and emotional scenes.
  • How to Train Your Dragon, being released shortly after Kung Fu Panda, wasn't that dark or edgy, but it was still more serious compared to most of DreamWorks' other films. The sequel, on the other hand, takes it further. Here, the Big Bad wants to enslave all dragons, there is a battle with a gigantic ice dragon and Stoick dies. To make matters worse, it was the titular dragon, who was Brainwashed and Crazy, that killed him. The third film is no better (in fact it's much darker than the previous films), with the Big Bad, Grimmel the Grisly, being an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight and a dragon hunter who's fixated in carrying out a mass genocide on all dragons (as well as the implications that he's the Greater-Scope Villain of the previous films) and will stop at nothing to carry out his incredibly heinous and horrific atrocities. Not only that, but there are much more serious themes that are presented in the film, and most importantly, there's a Bittersweet Ending that's a massive Tear Jerker.
  • Trolls has to hit this yet, but it seems that it's already on the way with the overall context and depths that Trolls World Tour had established. It gets even further in Trolls Band Together with the events of Trollstice still haunting some Pop Trolls, The Reveal that not all the Pop Trolls escaped Bergen Town, said Pop Trolls being violent towards Bridget and Gristle, even trying to kill them and Branch and his brothers only having a small amount of time to save Floyd before he's completely drained of his talent.
• Channel Hop: As explained above, after splitting with DreamWorks SKG, DWA's films were still distributed by their former parent, until 2006, when Viacom bought DreamWorks and Paramount took over distribution until the end of 2012. After that, DWA moved to Twentieth Century Fox, who has distributed all films released from 2013 to 2017, as well as gaining the rights to the library beforehand when DWA bought out those rights from Paramount. After Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (in the US and select regions) was released, DreamWorks Animation's future releases (as well as their back catalog) were exclusively distributed by new parent Universal from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World onward, with the company having officially taken over distribution of their back catalog in February 2018.
• Creator's Apathy:
  • CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg had been trying to sell the studio off since Rise of the Guardians failed to turn a profit for the studio and ended its nearly decade-long financial winning streak. Around that time, Katzenberg sought to expand the studio's success by making risky acquisitions, most notably the purchase of Classic Media, the Trolls toys and the YouTube service AwesomenessTV. Meanwhile, their next films, such as Turbo, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar ended up being financial failures despite recouping their budgets, leading to major write-downs. Coupled with failed takeover attempts by Hasbro and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, a massive reorganization at DreamWorks saw the closure of Pacific Data Images (which made up half the studio) and 500 jobs lost, ensuring that its glory days of being head-on competitors to Disney and Pixar had long passed. Nevertheless, Katzenberg continued his ventures in an attempt to have the company stay in the black, to mixed results, and oversaw two more films, Home (2015) and Kung Fu Panda 3, that somehow did turn a profit yet not enough to please shareholders. At that point he was about to say "screw it" and take the company private with the help of Chinese investment firm PAG Asia Capital, then Comcast's NBCUniversal unit came knocking on their door with $3.8 billion in their hands. Given the timing of the acquisition talks (a deal was reached after just thirteen days of negotiations), one has to wonder whether or not Katzenberg simply wanted to run the studio to the ground just so he could sell it to someone and silence the shareholders.
  • If analysts of the sale are to be believed, it seemed NBCU's parent Comcast wasn't even interested at all in DreamWorks' film library. The main motive for buying the studio? To gain access to DreamWorks' intellectual property to add to NBCU's content portfolio, meaning that all Comcast cared about was to milk their property in order to expand their revenue. In a way the priorities behind the deal are reminiscent of Comcast's failed $54 billion bid for Disney in 2004; after the buyout was rejected it was revealed that Comcast wasn't interested in Disney for its studio or theme parks or even its intellectual property - rather Comcast was only interested in Disney for ESPN, the company's biggest cash cow at the time.
• Dance Party Ending: Popularized it in animated films. They ended up bringing it up to eleven with Trolls.
• Denser and Wackier: DreamWorks began as Jeffery Katzenberg's serious attempt to compete with Disney, putting out some very edgy films like The Prince of Egypt, Antz and, in collaboration with Aardman, Chicken Run. As soon as the self-referential, potty-mouthed and pop-culture heavy Shrek became a mega Sleeper Hit, DreamWorks completely did away with the heavy stuff (as well as their traditional animation unit) and spent the better part of the Turn of the Millennium making the same movie over and over. After the Shrek saga declined, the studio attempted to remedy this with more sophisticated films like Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon (2013's Turbo being the only holdout). However, for well-reviewed these efforts were, audiences found many of these as too sentimental, heavily affecting its finances. The studio put humor at the front once again (although far less gag-based) with Home (2015), Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trolls.
• Disneyesque: All of their hand-drawn animated films.
• DreamWorks Face: Trope Namer and Codifier.
• Dueling Movies: A lot of their movies during the 2000s shared superficial similarities with Disney/Pixar movies that happened to be released roughly within a year of each other. (Antz to A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo to Shark Tale, etc.)
• DVD Commentary:
  • Antz: With directors Tim Johnson and Eric Darnell
  • The Prince of Egypt: With directors Brenda Chapman, Simon Wells and Steve Hickner
  • The Road to El Dorado: With directors Bibo Bergeron and Don Paul
  • Chicken Run: With directors Nick Park and Peter Lord
  • Shrek: With directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson and producer Aron Warner
  • Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: With directors Lorna Cook and Kelly Asbury and producer Mireille Soria
  • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: With directors Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore, producer Mireille Soria, production designer Raymond Zibach, head of story Jennifer Yuh Nelson, animation supervisor Kristof Serrand and layout supervisor Damon O'Bierne
  • Shrek 2:
    • First commentary with directors Kelly Asbruy and Conrand Vernon
    • Second commentary with producer Aron Warner and editor Mark Andrews
  • Shark Tale: With directors Bilbo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson and Rob Letterman
  • Madagascar: With directors/co-writers Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
  • The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: With directors/co-writers Nick Park and Steve Box
  • Over the Hedge: With directors Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick and producer Bonnie Arnold
  • Flushed Away: With directors Dave Bowers and Sam Fell
  • Bee Movie: With producer/voice of Barry Jerry Seinfeld, directors Simon Smith and Steven Hickner, co-writer Barry Marder, co-producer Christina Steinberg and editor Nick Fletcher
  • Kung Fu Panda: With directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: With directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and producers Mireille Soria and Mark Swift
  • Monsters vs. Aliens: With directors Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon and producer Lisa Stewart
  • How to Train Your Dragon: With co-writers and directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and producer Bonnie Arnold
  • Shrek Forever After: With director Mike Mitchell, head of story Walt Dorhn and producers Gina Shay and Teresa Chang
  • Megamind: With director Tom McGrath, producers Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino and writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons
  • Kung Fu Panda 2: With director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, producer Melissa Cobb, production designer Raymond Zibach, and supervising animator and Kung Fu choreographer and story artist Rodolphe Guenoden
  • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted: With directors directors Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon
  • Rise of the Guardians: With director Peter Ramsey and Producers Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2: With writer/director Dean DeBlois, head of character animation Simon Otto, producer Bonnie Arnold and production designer Pierre-Olivier Vincent
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: With writer/director Dean DeBlois, producer Brad Lewis and head of animation Simon Otto
  • Abominable: With writer/director Jill Culton, co-director Todd Wilderman, producer Suzanne Buirgy, producer/chief creative officer Peilin Chou, head of character animation John Hill, production designer Max Boas and visual effects supervisor Mark Edwards
  • Trolls World Tour: With director Walt Dohrn, co-director David Smith and producer Gina Shay
  • The Croods: A New Age: With director Joel Crawford, producer Mark Swift, head of story Januel Mercado and editor James Ryan
  • Spirit Untamed: With director Elaine Bogan, co-director Ennio Torresan and producer Karen Foster
  • The Boss Baby: Family Business: With director Tom McGrath, producer Jeff Hermann and Production Designer Raymond Zibach
  • The Bad Guys: With director Pierre Perifel, Producer Damon Ross, Head of Story Nelson Yokota, Head of Character Animation JP Sans and Production Designer Luc Desmarchelier
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: With director Joel Crawford, co-director Januel Mercado, producer Mark Swift, head of story Heidi Jo Gilbert and editor James Ryan
  • Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken: With director Kirk DeMicco, co-director Faryn Pearl, producer Kelly Cooney Cilella, head of character animation Carlos Fernandez Puertolas and head of layout cinematography Jon Gutman
  • Trolls Band Together: With producer Gina Shay, co-director Tim Heitz, head of story Colin Jack, production designer Ruben Perez Reynoso and visual effects supervisor Marc J. Scott
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, or Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron — if nothing else, for using 2D animation instead of the 3D renders that they'd become more commonly known for from Shrek onward. Both Egypt and Spirit also had a more personal involvement from Katzenberg himself (he wrote the story for Spirit), but after the latter's fall at the box office and him creating the infamous Father of the Pride (which was disowned by the end of the 2000's), he backed out of taking direct credits.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: One paired with a smirk is common in their promotional art, to the point where the combination is commonly dubbed "the DreamWorks Face" online.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Earlier on in their history, before they decided to go in a "light fantasy" direction to counter Pixar's more "epic" films, they were notorious for copying the template of whatever Pixar film was being developed at the same time.
  • While DreamWorks were copying Pixar, everyone else was copying DreamWorks (Disney even joined the fray for a few movies). Shrek in 2001 was followed by numerous imitators, and its template pretty much defined what "animated fairy tale" meant for the rest of the decade. And that's not to mention the number of copycat studios that were created after DreamWorks proved that non-Disney feature animation could be profitable, a few of which are still around today.
• Logo Joke: Has its own page featuring customized logos for some of their properties.
• The Man in the Moon: In the logo animation used from 2010 to 2017, that kid in the logo is part of the moon.
• No Export for You: During the mid-to-late-2010s, many of DWA's television productions were unavailable on Netflix in parts of Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, the CIS, Asia and Oceania. This was due to existing TV agreements made that Netflix only got exclusive rights in the US, Canada, LATAM countries, the UK, Ireland, France, Nordic countries and the Benelux region. However, Netflix later added the shows after their broadcast exclusivity rights expired.
• No-Respect Guy: A common theme in DreamWorks movies are main characters who are treated as Butt Monkeys for being different or for seeing things in an unorthodox way, despite being relatively pleasant or rational in comparison to the other characters.
• Off-the-Shelf FX: PDI was noted for being the very first computer graphics company to not go with the overly expensive supercomputers most CG studios were using at the time, instead opting to use regular computer systems and custom-made software to get comparable, if not slightly better, results. Even after getting acquired by DreamWorks, the studio proudly boasted working with consumer-grade HP computer systems modded to fit their needs.
• Old Shame: After Shrek became a hit, DreamWorks more or less apologized for their 2D films and have buried them in their history, though they've garnered a cult following for non-Disney enthusiasts since then. As for their CGI projects, their short-lived prime-time sitcom Father of the Pride has basically vanished from the face of the earth.
• Recycled: The Series: So, so many (just see the "Television Work" folder above), with a particularly strong expansion on the concept with the advent of streaming services. As of 2020, the Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and Trolls franchises have managed to achieve multiple series. Additionally, beginning in 2019, the studio's acquisition by Comcast saw them producing some of these for non-DreamWorks Universal properties as well, starting with Fast & Furious: Spy Racers.
• Shifted to CGI: The first several animated films were mainly traditionally animated Disneyesque works. Starting with Shrek, the studio switched to exclusively making All CGI Cartoons. They don't have an interest in going back to 2D films. DreamWorks is considered a (if not the) major reason why traditionally animated theatrical films stopped being popular in the early-to-mid 2000s. Even though, many of their television series are still fully 2D-animated to this day.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: A lot of the films with romance as a main plot or a sub-plot will often have one or more of the female characters falling for a decent guy.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: All of the studios films learn more towards the idealistic end, even if they start off on the cynical side.
• Spam Attack: As early as 2004, DreamWorks had built a reputation for releasing animated movies quickly and frequently, with a release schedule of about two films a year. In 2009 they announced a plan to release three or four animated theatrical movies a year, twice as many per year as Disney and Pixar combined. In 2015 they abandoned this plan, only releasing one film in that year, and scheduling two movies per year for 2016 and beyond.
• Start My Own: Jeffrey Katzenberg started up the studio after Disney repeatedly rejected his push for more adult-friendly content, specifically the infamous "Black Friday" version of Toy Story.^note This version of the film, which was a bit Darker and Edgier in what some have said was an alleged attempt to spite Katzenberg, nearly derailed the project as a whole. Katzenberg had attempted to get The Prince of Egypt going at Disney, but for obvious reasons (his falling out with Eisner, Disney never really being good with content from the Bible), it didn't go anywhere until DreamWorks was founded.
• Strictly Formula: They have been accused of enforcing this trope in most of their CGI-animated movies during the 2000s: in the beginning, the main character is a grumpy or antisocial outcast (or at the very least is "different"). Throughout the film he becomes a better person. In the end, he saves the day and everyone accepts him for who he is. Add bonus points for pop culture references, fart jokes, and the occasional DreamWorks Face, and you're good to go.
• Take That!: There is quite a bit towards main competitor Disney across DreamWorks's filmography. Shrek started out as a middle finger at the fairy tales Disney made a name off of, Winnie the Pooh gets shot with tranquilizers as a dark gag in Bee Movie, and, according to the trailers, the Big Bad of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a mermaid who strongly resembles Ariel.
• Throw It In!: A few of the background jokes (like the "Utah Teapot") in "Homer³" were added in by the company^note the left-handed "X, Y, Z" signpost actually corresponded with PDI's software at the time.
• Toilet Humour: DreamWorks has played with this trope very frequently, even dwarfing that of Pixar's use. They eventually started falling out of love with it by the late 2000s when audiences grew sick of it, though it still pops up occasionally, and even when it does it's often downplayed in some way.
• What Could Have Been: Has it's own page.

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