Dreamworks animation news

[yendi]

Dreamworks in 2004 is apparently hitting Disney hard. They're actually going to produce two animated movies that year (first time ever), and both are hitting typical Disney release dates. Shrek 2 will be released in late June (instead of May). We sorta knew about that.

But the other film sounds nifty: "Sharkslayer," a CGI mafia tale, with all the main characters as fish. And with the voices of Will Smith, James Gandolfini and Martin Scorsese. And it's opening around Thanksgiving of that year. I know it's two years away, but I can't wait. DW has consistently impressed me with the animated films.

Comments

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I believe I am the last person on earth to think that Shrek was not all that great. (I think a large part of it was Myers' Scottish accent that came and went. Mostly went).

Dreamworks' animation, however, is stellar, and is giving Disney/Pixar a run for their money. The shark film you mentioned sounds cool and I'll be looking forward to that one.

cheers,
Phil

[yendi]

There's actually a pretty sizable backlash against Shrek. I'm not a part of it, mind you, but I've certainly seen plenty of criticism, including a rant or two from Nick over at Chud.

[melintur.livejournal.com]

As a fan of animation, the only thing that impressed my about Shrek was the facial animation. That was very nifty. The motion of the characters and the world, however was extremely amateurish. It is as if they spent no resources on the character's movement beyond facial expressions - It reminded me of a half-rate computergame cut-scene animation.

They story was also a dissapointment - quite funny as an in-joke and perhaps to animation fans, but the overall plot was poor, IMNSHO -- compare this, for instance to the brilliant plot, animation and overall quality of PIXAR (just distributed by disney, no real mouse involvement) animation in "Monsters, Inc."

Not that I wasn't glad to see some competition from other houses! It will make the genre all the better.

Let's hope they put more work and talent into Shrek II (as well as Sharkslayer), and hope that it won't be another "Antz."

-=C

[yendi]

I am the one person who actually enjoyed Antz. Part of that is because I believe that all films with Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone in the same flick must be funny, of course. But part if it was that it was just a damned fun movie. Not a work of genius or anything, but really enjoyable. *shrug*

[melintur.livejournal.com]

I didn't dislike it per se, I thought it was "cute." I was rather commenting on the quality of animation and such -- It would have been sooooo much better as an "adult" movie, (though that wouldn't have been marketable) as I thought it struggled with "dumbing down" to youger audiences and that made it thin. I certainly didn't "hate" it, but definitely think it "failed" as a movie.

Though, I think "Unbreakable" failed as a movie, and I absolutely love it, so ....?

[yendi]

Antz definitely had trouble toeing the line. But I like some of the puerile humor ("who ordered the poopoo platter?" still cracks me up, for some reasons). I think it aimed squarely at immature men who were just mature enough to hate Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler.

I consider Unbreakable to be one of my favorites of 2000. It may have failed for some folks, but not for me.