DreamWorks Animation

*This article is about the animation studio, for the original live action studio the animation studio was named after as well as the original distributor of its first eleven films, see DreamWorks Pictures.*

**DreamWorks Animation** (or simply **DreamWorks**) is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast though its wholly owned subsidiary of NBCUniversal. It is based in Glendale, California and produces animated films, television programs and online virtual games. The studio has currently released a total of 44 feature films.

## Movies

### Direct-to-video/streaming

1. *Joseph: King of Dreams* (2000)
2. *Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans* (2021)

## Why They Brought A Whole New Meaning to "Man on the Moon"

**NOTE: This will only focus on the Animation Studio, the original live action studio will be covered in a separate page.**

1. They're probably best known for creating computer animated films that have become franchises such as *The Prince of Egypt*, *Shrek*, *Madagascar*, *Kung Fu Panda*, *How to Train Your Dragon*, *The Croods*, and *Trolls*.
2. Great animation and voice acting in most of their films.
3. Their films have some hilarious, groundbreaking and/or heartwarming moments.
4. They did a great job creating *Antz*, which was DreamWorks' first feature film, as well as the third fully-CGI animated film ever made (after *Toy Story and Cassiopeia*). It was then followed by *The Prince of Egypt.*
5. Not only have they created computer animated films, they've also created traditionally animated films and stop-motion co-productions with Aardman Animations.
6. While their first logo was the same as their parent company DreamWorks Pictures SKG, it later gained their first official logo in *Shrek 2* featuring a boy holding some balloons and being lifted to the moon, which was beautiful.
7. They've spawned many television shows based on their films as well as some fantastic original shows such as *Dinotrux*, *Harvey Street Kids*/*Harvey Girls Forever!*, the *Tales of Arcadia* franchise, *Voltron: Legendary Defender*, *She-Ra and The Princesses of Power*, and *Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts*.
8. It has terrifically awesome music scores from great composers such as Hans Zimmer.
9. They have many easter eggs for every movies.
10. Just like Pixar, they are have plenty of cool and unexpected premises for all of their movies. They are also known for their unique, interesting and creative concepts, such as making each films based on the perspective of such as: ants (*Antz*), Moses (*The Prince of Egypt*), Mesoamerican deities (*The Road to El Dorado*), ogres (*Shrek*), horses (*Spirit*), zoo animals (*Madagascar*), pandas (*Kung Fu Panda*), dragons (*How to Train Your Dragon*), trolls (*Trolls*), babies (*The Boss Baby*), caveman (*The Croods*), snails (*Turbo*), aliens (*Home*), yetis (*Abominable*) & others.
11. Most of the heroes are beloved, entertaining and memorable, such as Shrek, Alex the Lion, Po, Hiccup, Moses, Grug Crood, and Princess Poppy.
12. Most of the villains are really awesome, entertaining and fun.
13. Many of them spawned video games based on their films that are really good, if not decent (such as *Chicken Run* on PS1, *Shrek 2*, *Madagascar*, *Over the Hedge*, *Kung Fu Panda*, *Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa*, *Monsters vs. Aliens*).

## Bad Qualities

1. While most of their films are very good, only far of them are either mediocre or hit-or-miss, with only just being *Shark Tale*, *:Shrek the Third*, *Bee Movie*, *Home*, *The Boss Baby*, *Spirit Untamed*, and *The Boss Baby: Family Business*.
2. Some of their films have bombed at the box office especially throughout most of the 2010s.
	* The box-office bomb of *Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas*, as well as other various films around 2003-04, nearly bankrupted not only the animation studio, but the entire company as a whole. As a result, they abandoned traditional animation (which is a bad choice) but would come back to it in 2018 with the short film *Bird Karma*.
	* The box-office Bomb of *Flushed Away* caused the partnership/relationship of Dreamworks and Aardman Studios to go downhill even more. As a result, Dreamworks and Aardman Studios have parted ways and ended their partnership on working on medias together in 2007. due to the following reasons:
		+ Creative differences (Such as the Godawful and Lazy decisions of Sam Fell and David Bowers making Flushed Away a "Computer Animated" film because of them overrelying on their thoughts by thinking that Plasticine can be damaged by actual water despite the Film being an Aardman Project).
		+ The pressurization by Jeffrey Katzenburg.
	* The box-office bombs of *Mr. Peabody and Sherman* and *Penguins of Madagascar* lead to a restructuring plan that closed PDI, causing 500 layoffs.
3. They nowadays completely rely on the Non-Traditional Cartoon Animation/Artstyle (Aka "Computer" Cartoon ArtStyle/Animation) for their Medias.

## Trivia

* The animation studio was distributed by the main studio, DreamWorks Pictures (its namesake) from 1998 to 2005, Paramount Pictures from 2006 to 2012, 20th Century Fox from 2013 to 2017, and Universal Pictures since 2017, the latter of which would make the studio a permanent subsidiary going forward.
* Jeffrey Katzenberg worked for Walt Disney Studios as a chairman before he became the co-founder and CEO of DreamWorks.
* Most of DreamWorks' films tend to cost between $125-165 million, but *Monsters vs. Aliens* is the studio's most expensive film to date, with a budget of $175 million.
* Time Warner Inc. considered acquiring DreamWorks Animation but it went nowhere. Besides, Warner Brothers had huge concerns that many of DreamWorks' movies would do poorly in the box office, which would cause a horrible disaster for DreamWorks to shut down, and that several DreamWorks employees would have had to go on to join either Paramount Animation or Warner Animation Group.
* Famed YouTuber Schaffrillas Productions has rehabilitated people's views on DreamWorks, as Schaff really cares for DreamWorks, as well many of its films such as *Shrek 2*, *The Prince of Egypt*, *Megamind*, *Shark Tale* (In a "So Bad, it's Good" kind of way), *and so on and so forth.*