Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen people talk about how Dreamworks seems to be getting their act together when it comes to story in their films. Now here’s what I’ve always found strange. How is it that Jeffery was able to help turn Disney Animation into a critical and commercial powerhouse, but then goes to Dreamworks, and help create a lot of average, to just downright awful films? Wasn’t he able to lure a lot of the Disney people away during the animation boom during the 90’s? If so, I wonder what went wrong. Were they a victim of their own success with Shrek (their first major hit) and was trying to recreate the “magic” of that film to many times? I wonder why is it that they are starting to get more consistant with releasing better movies.
I think all directors and studios have their ups and downs, with Disney being a prime example. Jeffrey Katzenberg went and formed a studio in a rather new field, and arguably at least, with the priority to beat Disney. There were a lot of things that made the Renaissance so great; Katzenberg was only a part of it, and I’m not quick to put the blame on him for the downfall of Disney either, which was again a lot of things.
I do believe that they became a victim of their own sucess, and a victim of competing with Pixar and Disney, but now it seems that they’ve grown up, found their feet as a company, and are bringing out some pretty good films. DreamWork’s films seem pretty hit and miss as far as I’m concerned anyway; think it’s down to the strength of the story and screenplay more than anything.
I am just guessing all of this here, because I have no idea.
But what it appears to me is that when J Katz left Disney, he wanted to distance himself form Disney. He didn’t want to make a new studio that was basically ‘Disney 2’. He wanted to be his own person, and I don’t blame him!
In any type of business, you have to do something different from the competition, something that sets you apart.
He just tried something new, which was films that focused a lot on comedy and pop culture references, as opposted to Disney’s story driven films that are set in different worlds where pop culture references don’t usually work.
I think they made to many Shreks. And I m worriede that might happen with TS. I doubt and hope it doesnt happen but really who knows.
It’s about quality, not quantity. 
I’ll second that!
Funny thing is I always liked it when The Genie in Aladdin did that stuff, but maybe it was because it was within that same Disney context of story driven films you mentioned (and there’s logic to the character that he can get away with things like turning into other Disney characters).
^ and the references were actually tasteful…
Well, maybe Katzenberg did focus more on comedy and pop culture references, just as e-j-e mentioned. However, by opting for such uninspired context devices, especially in the dialogue, those films run the risk of not lasting the test of time. What may light synapses in a child’s mind of what s/he deems to be funny and meaningful may not necessarily hold true for their parents, and vice versa.
Sure, the Shrek franchise may have some genuinely humorous moments, but after a while, the jokes wear thin and the humor stretches the continuity of the story’s world further and further away from consistency. Pretty soon, the jokes are there just to get a cheap laugh. If comedy is truly derived from the characters and their situations, then something went terribly wrong during development, because the finished product of an animated Dreamworks film (to me, at least) is not as funny as I would’ve expected from a Disney animated film, or even a Pixar film.
Let me put it this way: if the movie is going to be made solely on its commercial possibility, then the story and characters will naturally be sub par at their fullest essence. In short, it will stink worse than the criticism designating it so.
There’s been a history with Dreamworks Animation where they are willing to sacrifice character and emotion to produce a half-baked film out of sheer tenacity. I use the word “tenacity” because Dreamworks will produce a film every year whether they need to or not. Sadly enough, Pixar is slowly starting to adopt the same routine (based on what I’ve researched, anyway) just to remain competitive with Dreamworks. It’s disheartening, but it’s the truth.
As long as Katzenberg is the head of Dreamworks and produces the movies that he sees fit to produce (whether such stories are fit or not in the first place), the quality of such films are to be invariably what viewers expect them to be; i.e. the trend shall continue.
Agreed. That’s obviously something Katzenberg needs to learn.
I guess thats true but you still dont want to over do it.
I read in a book about the history of Dreakworks about how the original Skrek was shown at a film festivel and people loved it. I watched it when it first came out, and I didn’t finish it. I watched it again recently, and it wasn’t until forty minutes into did I start to like it. The scene where Skrek and Donkey were looking at the stars and Shrek was telling Donkey that things are more than they appear was when I started to enjoy it. I think the movie relied a lot less on pop culture references and told a story with heart after that. I can only see people loving the original Shrek so much at the time because it was something that wasn’t trying to be like a Disney film. Which is what just about everybody was trying to do back then. Oh, and the opening with the mud was awful.
DW has had some really good movies and somw equally bad ones but think about it the animation film indusutry is this
The Walt Disney Company which owns what is perhaps the best studio in Hollywood Right now…
Pixar (owned by the most powerful company in hollywood)
DreamWorks
Sony
I don’t really see a ton of animated movies made by WB lately
They are going to look bad by default though I believe they are better then Sony.
Well Paramount has just decided to open a animation studio. So we’re going to be seeing more animated films soon.
Sony Animation hasn’t made many films, the only one I liked was Surf’s Up. But they are releasing The Smurf’s later this year.
Hmm, interesting. I know that they presented South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut, but over course, it wasn’t animated by them. It’s neat they’re getting their own studio, more evidence of this growing industry.
Yeah I guess WB is too hiped up about Harry pOTTER That they forgot animation. But what movies has Sony even made?
The Open Season series, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and The Smurfs are Sony, i think
Oh I liked that movie… Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. the book was good too…
It one of those movies you just turn on ya know! 
Cloudy was a fun movie. Sony is working on an animated movie called Hotel Transylvania. It’s staring Adam Sandler and is directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. I wish Genndy was working on the third season of Sym-Bionic Titan right now. 
I read something somewhere yesterday that talked about how Jeffery had started letting the artist do their thing over the past few years instead of micro managing things like he use to during the Disney days. I said that has to be one of the reasons why Dreamworks films have improved.
DReamworks nah…