Dreamworks is pretty hit and miss for me. I think their traditional stuff was pretty good, though I haven't seen it in awhile. I really need to watch The Road to El Dorado again. I remember liking Antz and the first two Shreks are entertaining. I think at the third installment they had reached a point in the story where they had no idea where to take the story so they reach for concepts that were much less entertaining and really weaken the third and fourth movies. Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon are probably my favorites and some of the best of their more recent works.
I'm looking forward to Megamind.
edited 28th Oct '10 10:04:01 AM by Jumpingzombie
Antz was good, as was El Dorado, Shrek 2 (which was brilliantly hilarious), and Kung Fu Panda, I guess.
I've never thought Sindbad Sinbad was that great - it was good, not great - partially because it was the point where I started to get tired of the "Anti-Villain Sinbad" characterization, partially because of the truly unnecessary Race Lift, and partially because the most likeable characters in the movie were the ones that weren't main characters.
Usually those kinds of things don't bother me so much (for example, Adaptation Decay doesn't really stop me from enjoying Hercules), but for some reason they add up for me here...
The way they animated the movie was awesome, however.
Hey, the mouse in Mouse Hunt was animated... can I count that? Nah, just kiddin'.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
I think the thing that bugs me most about Dreamworks' animated movies is that — not all the time, mind you — they feel like they're developed by a committee, not by artists. When I watch one, there's often the nagging sense that the plot, scenes and characters are there primarily to help tick off a marketeer's checklist.
"Okay, now cut to a scene spotlighting the cute and edgy sidekick."
"Hey, this is getting too emotional, have the Deadpan Snarker break the mood already."
"Can we make this scene more edgy? Kids love edgy."
Contrast that with most/all of Pixar's stuff, where each film feels like the vision of an individual artist, marketability be damned. How do you sell kids' toys for an emotional tearkjerker starring a grieving widower mourning his wife? Who cares?
—R.J.
edited 28th Oct '10 12:20:53 PM by rjung
It's super effective.
No...I never got that, not even with the ones I disliked like Shark Tale and the first Madagascar. I understand that Dreamworks is more eager to turn films into franchises than Pixar, and they're a LOT more pop culture focused (well, not so much the recent output), but I never saw any "committee thinking" with the writing of the films themselves.
Plus, most of the Pixar movies that aren't Up (which I haven't seen) have a ton of merchandise for them, with a few having a premise that's inherently marketable.
edited 28th Oct '10 1:08:15 PM by OldManHoOh
Oh yes, and Kung Fu Panda is a pretty good movie.
Mr. Dr.
I enjoyed Prince of Egypt, Joseph: Kinf og Dreams (which was oddly closer to the account than Prince), the first (and only the first) Shrek, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Over the Hedge. That's about it. The rest are all suckfests thanks to the vile Jeffrey Katzenberg who dedicated his life to revenge against Disney and even dragged Pixar, who had nothing to do with his rightful firing, into it.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
It's super effective.
(rant about Cars being not all that bad deleted, as I haven't actually seen Bee Movie)
Umm, even if Katzenberg has no direct ties to Pixar, the two companies are still rivals due to both making CG films.
edited 28th Oct '10 3:20:22 PM by OldManHoOh
I know Katzenberg has nothing to do with Pixar, but the fact remains that he was making projects to deliberately rip them off just to spite Eisner and he was using Dreamwork's rivalry with Pixar to do it. A Bug's Life=Antz, Monsters, Inc.=Shrek, Finding Nemo=A Shark's Tale, and so on and so forth. Pixar eventually had to stop discussing their projects publically because Katzenberg was such a prick about this. Man, I'm glad Eisner fired his ass.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
It's super effective.
Please, tell me the "and so on and so forth". I count two (I am not counting Shrek as a ripoff of Monsters Inc; I think Shrek started production first) copycats.
Ninja'd
edited 28th Oct '10 3:39:35 PM by OldManHoOh
In a related vein, Madagascar was seen at the time as a me-too for Disney's The Wild, IIRC.
—R.J.
Its all on the Follow the Leader article, dude. Katzenberg is a prick. Period.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
It's super effective.
It also mentions Flushed Away, which like Shrek, also spent a very long time in development. Plus, didn't Flushed Away come out first?
Um, yeah, the Pixar films were in production longer, though. Hello, the Dreamworks releases were very similarly themed films to all of Pixar's without exception until Pixar stopped talking about their films publically. If you can't see that you're willing youself not to. Katzenberg was trying to wage a war against Disney and he dragged Pixar into it. Oh, and like Flushed Away, Antz was rushed to beat its competition.
edited 28th Oct '10 4:20:28 PM by WeirdRaptor
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
It's super effective.
(Thumped. Screw the whole thing.)
edited 28th Oct '10 4:29:51 PM by OldManHoOh
Misunderstood monsters, enough said. Now how will you vouch for Antz or A Shark's Tale or Flushed Away? Look, I don't why you are defending Katzenberg, slime that he is, but honestly the answer is very clear.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
I Am The Walrus
I liked Flushed Away. Dream Works basically screwed that movie in the marketing stage though.
Maybe it would have done better had they kept the pirate premise (Katzenberg rejected it because he thought pirate movies were box office poison).
edited 28th Oct '10 7:58:03 PM by Buscemi
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/
Pirates movies are box office poison? Hilarious in Hindsight, hmm?
edited 28th Oct '10 8:00:13 PM by WeirdRaptor
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
Mr. Dr.
I think the problem people seem to have with Dream Works films is that they keep comparing them to PIXAR rather than evaluating them on their own terms. YES, Jeffrey Katzenberg was largely responsible for the Black Friday Toy Story, YES he also copied A Bug's Life with Antz and YES Shrek was very much a Take That! at Disney *. But not everyone in the studio is Katzenberg, and I have to give a lot of respect to their animation crew and story artists. Not all of them are great, but when they do make a good movie, they make a good movie (case in point: HTTD is 98% Fresh).
The only reason I compared Bee Movie to Cars is because, to me, they're both the Most Triumphant Example of So Okay, It's Average (well those two and Monster House).
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.
Responsible adult
Man, I like Monster House. A lot, even.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada
Mr. Dr.
I liked it a lot when it came out. But it's just sort of Meh to me now.
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.
I try to objectively evaluate Dreamworks' animated movies on their own, but a lot of times I still feel like it's market-driven rather than story- or creator-driven. I managed to sit through Shrek 4 only by mentally predicting and ticking off all the cliches, and I still felt ripped off by the ending.
There are Dreamworks animated movies that I love enthusiastically, but they tend to be few and far between.
—R.J.
I have no idea how Shrek could be considered a rip-off or Monsters Inc. The only thing they have in common is having monster as the main characters, and Shrek only has one.
edited 29th Oct '10 3:25:47 PM by TommyX
The Prince Of Egypt was a beautiful movie, and Road To El Dorado was both tons of fun and a great concept.
I liked Shrek and Madagascar, and want to see HTTYD and Megamind.