DreamWorks stuff

I'm not even gonna touch that with a ten foot pole. Although I will say that Anna and Joy are really not that much alike when it comes down to it..

I did get the impression that Branch and Poppy are effectively Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope, if you took away Vanellope's snarkiness and gave it to Ralph.

Hey, guys?

Why is the fact that Antz takes place in New York City considered a spoiler?

I'm puzzled by that too.

• You can claerly see the NYC cityscape in the beginning. ...Hell it's the FIRST SHOT in the movie.
• It barely had any relevance to the story anyway1

The next Shrek film is scheduled for 2019.

(*screams internally*)

I take it it's a "Oh, God why?!?" scream and not a fangirl scream.

edited 20th Jul '16 6:30:28 PM by DS9guy

Yes.

All I want to know is why. Nobody's asking for another Shrek movie (not after the awful third one and the meh fourth one), there doesn't seem to be much more story to be told, and, uh...

> The last Shrek movie grossed over 700 million worldwide

Okay, I guess that would be a reason.

Either that or they want to compete with Ice Age for the title of the more milked out Franchise Zombie.

Ugh.

Dreamworks.

DRAGONS.

DRAAAAGONS

What part of Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons is so hard to understand?

Fun fact: with the exception of the first Shrek & Puss in Boots, all Shrek films made more money than either HTTYD film.

I'm going to go cry in the corner if this actually becomes a real thing. We have an emoji movie coming up, A Tetris trilogy in the future, now this crap?! Nobody in Hollywood is even trying anymore! It's just memes!

Dreamworks has their slate established in the coming years with their new Comcast overlords. They will return to making two films a year starting in 2018, and the line-up seems near-identical to the one in their heyday in tone and variety.

Welp, now that DreamWorks is now just a shell of its former self under its new Universal structure, time to speculate what this means to DreamWorks' franchises/properties under their new ownership.

We all know that Shrek 5 is inevitable, the sequel to The Croods and the third How to Train Your Dragon movie might get delayed (in fact, the Croods sequel has just gotten new writers as of late), and the classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special's (something DreamWorks just so happened to own) return to NBC from CBS is inevitable.

But what about everything else? Let's theorize.

edited 23rd Aug '16 4:29:49 PM by Mario1995

Aren't they taking another stab at their Shadow film? And if Trolls is successful enough, expect a sequel to be made.

China is putting the DreamWorks/NBCUniversal merger under anti-trust review. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/comcasts-dreamworks-animation-acquisition-face-925331

Anyone who knows how restrictive China is when it comes to protecting their businesses should know this won't go well. The only probable scenarios are A) they block the merger, causing DreamWorks and NBCUniversal to scramble to figure out a backup plan for their future, or B) they approve the merger, but with conditions (i.e. reducing the number of films Universal/DreamWorks can release in China, spin off certain Chinese assets or other businesses, and so on and so forth).

On a positive note, though, this could finally slow down media consolidation since China will get involved in many other multinational acquisitions.

edited 2nd Sep '16 6:42:43 AM by Mario1995

???

On whose authority? I wasn't aware that China has jurisdiction over either company

Both companies have a presence in China, because they're multinational corporations. Universal is building a theme park in Beijing while DreamWorks has a joint venture studio in Shanghai. Chances are they needed to file reports there about the merger, but the two probably didn't know that.

If they had filed reports about this merger in China, and took their time getting the necessary overseas regulatory approvals (I don't think the European countries gave approval of or were notified of this either), chances are they wouldn't have had to deal with this.

edited 3rd Sep '16 10:06:27 AM by Mario1995

I'm in the dark about this as much as the next guy, but weren't you guys going ballistic over this Dream Works and NBCUniversal merger plan from the get-go?

If China is going to bring the merger to a screeching halt (possibly), shouldn't we consider this butting-in a good thing?

EDIT: Oh wait, reading the article made me realize the merger already happened. My mistake. Still, given the initial reactions towards the DreamWorks and NBCUniversal merger, how should we consider China's actions here?

edited 3rd Sep '16 7:14:58 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Katzenberg did provide some of the best benefits that animators in LA could ger like free lunches. Now that he is gone, you know those are going to be the first things the new management is going to cut.

edited 3rd Sep '16 1:16:39 PM by DS9guy

We probably just need to assume that the worst will happen, that they either force Universal or DreamWorks to spin-off their Chinese assets (which would mean bye-bye for Oriental DreamWorks), fine NBCU for failing to file reports about the merger in China (which would probably be the best-case scenario here), or, in a very rare situation, unwind and reverse the transaction (I really doubt that the deal has actually been completed; I don't think you can finalize a deal that was drafted in a few weeks in several months without dealing with international regulatory bodies).

Bear in mind, though, that China rarely stops global mergers from happening in spite of probing them. The last time I recall China halting global deals despite US and EU approval was a couple years back when a global joint venture between several shipping companies got shot down because Chinese authorities were convinced it would make a monopoly. While the three companies aren't Chinese by any any stretch, they do some business in that country.

I'm not sure if China actually sees the NBCUniversal-DreamWorks deal in a similar manner, but it may go that route if China really feels threatened by it (and they may as well be: China is very protective of its media there, and both companies have separate theme park projects that could give NBCU an unfair advantage in the Chinese park market. Why Universal won't convince DreamWorks to scrap its proposed "DreamWorld" project there is beyond me).

And to be fair, I was more mixed about the whole thing. On one hand, the IP would reach a much bigger audience and have access to more mediums. On the other hand, it would probably lead to a decline in quality in future works.

Now, I wouldn't mind if China decided to slow down the rapid media consolidation that's been going on lately, and that could help the mass media rebuild its reputation rather than be viewed as predatory beasts gobbling up smaller players left and right. But if the company in question is in big trouble and simply needs a bigger partner that can afford losses (like DreamWorks), then that could be a problem for that studio. It would effectively give them the option to either fix things themselves (which would probably take years) or just shut down entirely, because selling the studio that could expand their influence to a global audience wouldn't be an option.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how this debacle goes.

edited 3rd Sep '16 5:45:41 PM by Mario1995

In a surprise to virtually no one, NBCUniversal has begun post-merger layoffs to DWA. About 200 people in the Glendale campus, particularly in the corporate, consumer products and distribution units are being let go.

I expected a lot more, believe it or not, but still, that's a lot of cuts for a small studio.

The good news? The production teams (i.e. animators and such) don't seem to be affected...for now.

edited 15th Sep '16 10:16:37 AM by Mario1995

Good animators who are already familiar with your studio's style and procedures are hard to come by. I'm not surprised they survived. Sucks about everyone else though.

I hope those people who were let go can find another job.

So am I to assume that the Dreamworks we know and love will be nothing but a distant memory?

I do wonder about what is going to happen to their franchises, especially HTTYD. I know there was the third movie planned to be the conclusion, but I do wonder with new management if they're going to continue with it or even worse, Executive Meddling occurs and we get a lackluster 3rd HTTYD movie. As for KFP, the third movie works as a conclusion but there's always that 6 movie rumor...

I mean honestly, I love both franchises but if the quality of these movies are going to be pogged down because of the merger I'd rather they not be touched.