It seems that poor ol’ Katzenberg doesn’t know the meaning of overkill or quitting while you’re ahead.
In this recent article by famed entertainment magazine Empire, Katzenberg makes reference to building up current franchises. He mentions a possible five sequels to Kung Fu Panda and at least two sequels to How to Train Your Dragon.
I thoroughly enjoyed both films, but this seems to go beyond excessive.
What do you think?
Yikes.
I wouldn’t mind the HTTYD sequels, but FIVE Kung Fu Panda sequels is just too much. I wouldn’t want it to suffer the same fate Shrek did.
So, two HTTYD sequels is okay?
The Kung Fu Panda sequels will probably be a mistake. Like a second one could be good, even better. And third has potential to be nice. But really, that many?
They should take it one KFP movie at a time, before deciding, “Hey, we’ll do half a dozen”.
faints
5?! Are they insane?
Sorry, but that is way too many, considering the first ended fine for me.
What the heck is Katz on?? 5 KFP sequels??? 3 HTTYD sequels??? WHY??? What is the point?? Just stop, please, before you start making sequels to Pixar movies!!
Um, did someone delete my post, or something? I swear I just posted here. 
A sequel for each movie would be fine, maybe more for HtTYD. But 5 for KFP is just dumb.
“Oh noes! Pixar’s making sequels! C’mon gang! Let’s make more sequels than them!”
I died when I heard this announcement. It’s just depressing to see how money minded Katzenberg is. Bloody hell. He is one bloody moron. I hope he was drunk when he said it.
I seem to be having that problem as well, Virginia.
Mods?
Meh, I’m fine with two sequels to Dragon as a trilogy is usually a nice way to quit something but FIVE SEQUELS to KFP? Jeez. If anything’s considered overkill, then that is.
One, moment. Actually, according to the declarations, there could be seven HTTYD sequels:
And people complain about Pixar for releasing a couple of sequels 
I saw this as well and jumped right on here to complain about it. Greed, much? Now, with Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois as directors of the HTTYD sequels, they could be quality films. Madagascar never interested me to begin with, and KFP I’m just not sure about. I’ll give DWKs enough credit that they can make a quality second movie (Shrek 2 was pretty good, and Madagascar 2 wasn’t atrocious–though it doesn’t have much to live up to). That said, if I go by the Shrek franchise, there is a clear downfall after the second film, and that’s what I’m expecting from hearing that KFP will have a total of six movies. I’d rather see them spend their time, money, and effort on newer stories.
Wow, just wow. Five sequels. Talk about being money-hungry.
Hey, just because one company is setting a worse example than another doesn’t mean they’re allowed to go willy nilly with the sequels themselves or slack off dude. 
I mean sure even if they went to TS5 or 6 they’re tehnically ‘behaving’ more in comparison but it would still be pushing it. More than pushing it actually. And they’re still getting questions regarding sequels because people expect different things from each company.
Of course Pixar is still a company and all anyhow regardless.
But even if Dreamworks starts spewing bad movie after bad movie, and if Pixar pulls a medicore one with less effort put in, sure in comparison they look okay, but a mediocre movie is a mediocre movie in the end and they still deserve criticism in such cases.
Plus, sequels mean they have to try extra hard to prove their originality for good reason. It’s the same world and the same characters and they have to show the new directions and stories they can tell with them in keeping with what has already been shown on some level- there are more limitations to begin with and things can more easily go wrong or become more obviously repetitive.
In other words- be fresh and different, but not completely different. It has to fit with the predecessor in some way. Be an extension of that story, sometimes a completion of the threads left hanging etc.
And while Pixar hasn’t ruined TS (despite TS3 I feel not being as good as the others), that’s really the only movie we’ve seen with sequels so far, and it remains to be said about the others we’ve been promised.
Still all the same… SEVEN HTTYD sequels? FIVE KFP sequels?
Sure maybe they can get by on one, maybe two sequels without the whole thing tanking but in terms of statistical chance they’re BOUND to throw out quite a few stinkers with that many movies if they do decide to go ahead with the idea. And yes if Pixar said the same thing about one of their movies, they also have the chance of pulling quite a few stinkers too with that number of sequels. Which company it is is almost a moot point- it would be almost impossible for not at least one of those sequels to be at least mediocre if not absolutely terrible even if Pixar did it.
-Holds head-. I sometimes think there should be a basic rule that there should be no sequels past two of them or something…maybe giving superhero movies a loophole here and there depending…
Yes, but they’re NOT following the bad example, that’s my point.
Pixar has released two sequels to date (and both are increasingly better, but that’s not the main topic right now), and they’re planning just two more. Willy nilly with sequels? Don’t think so.
On the other hand, Dreamworks has released four horrible sequels, If I remember well, and they’re planning fourteen more!
Definitely, Pixar is not following that way.
I’d prefer after Pixar makes Cars 2 and MI 2, they just did originals(save for maybe a Ti sequel). I feel the same way about DreamWorks: one KFP sequel, one HtTYD sequel at a time. There can be as many movies as books, but only if they’re GOOD.
True enough SoA and fair point, though I’d hesitate to say all four of their sequels totally sucked.
Let’s see:
Shrek 2: Good. Really good. Lauded as better than the original in fact. (Though personally I prefer the former, but this is rather like me and TS3- lots of people seem to think its better than the predecessors but I personally disagree despite liking it overall- ah well)
Madagascar 2: Not exactly horrifying, but really mediocre and felt like a parody of The Lion King. The antagonist was terrible. Though I guess it’s okaaay if you just want to vegetate on the sofa or something if you’ve no other choice. But not something I’d go out of my way to choose it. (Plus I’d rather watch a book/write probably).
Shrek 3: -recoils in utter horror-
Shrek 4: Certainly better than the abysmal Shrek 3, though it may have been helped by the fact I hadn’t high expectations due to said horrifying sequel- and has good touching moments at points etc. But would have probably worked better as a premise for an ORIGINAL movie than say a shrek sequel (someone not appreciating what they have etc before its gone- Kind of like the Incredibles but not etc since Bob also got his hero work back. Could still even be fantasy based in a way if they’d wanted it.)
So… if we’re being nice maybe 2 out of 4?
(Though wait, weren’t there other Shrek sequels? Wasn’t there some terrible Christmas one or something? And something else? Hopefully the 4th will be the last)
I kind of want Pixar, once M.I.2 is done (…and hopefully it’s good too) however to go after Brave, produce more original movies for a little while. Like the next 5 or so movies. It’s just a fact however that sequels are more likely to -go- wrong or be more harshly criticised because they have to be both different and not simply a repeat of the original source… but still make sense in the context of the original in terms of both characters and world- in an original movie, something doesn’t work? You can reject it completely and start again even if you want to! You can pull 180s on a characters originally designed personality and scrap the original if you want the plot to go a certain way too. (As long as you’re not too far along I guess). You have more choice in originals to go in various directions- even if you still have some constraints of course.
With this many sequels, Dreamworks is going to perhaps commit ‘suicide’ in a way. Because if that’s all they’ll produce, why will anyone want to go back or watch them until they stop? After the 5th sequel (and that’s being optimistic), hardly anyone will care. It isn’t Harry Potter after all.
Shame. They were beginning to do things so well too in some respects.
They weren’t copying Pixar- but they were managing to gain a foothold in emotional films, while still maintaining their own flavour at the same time even if things weren’t always entirely smooth. (KFP, HTTYD and MM- the latter of which I’ve yet to see but hear good things about. .).
^ I agree, Shrek 2 is not bad at all, sorry.
And yes, after MI2, I want Pixar to do an all original row.
nods I think out of all of these, HtTYD has the best chance of success. Not saying they SHOULD still make all of those sequels, but at least they’re drawing from books, and will therefore have stronger stories. I’ve not yet read the books, but even a mediocre book is better than whatever sequel material DW might dream up on their own.
“Jumping the shark” is too mild a term for what they’re doing to KFP. No film characters deserve that kind of treatment.