Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Dreaming A Future...

Dream a big, little dream...

The Mouse's main competition announced their animated film slate through 2014 today...

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who happened to have ran WDAS during the Second Golden Age has created a very formidable rival in DreamWorks Animation; something that many thought was impossible. Year after year, he's been able to create another hit. While the story and tone of DWA films sometimes draws snarks and name calling, the thing that stands out is how much Katz is a survivor, and a successful one at that. It's not easy to make it in Hollywood, it's not something that everyone can do, even though many try; most fail. I have to commend Jeffrey and his Suits for putting together a large collection of very talented animators (that may or may not include Keane, whenever he decides on that offer) and the collection of hits they've had in a very competitive industry.

So as I mentioned, today the Moon gave everyone a peek at what to expect between now and the next three years. It's a very crowded schedule.

Here's the official announcement:
















Busy company, hmmm? While it's been noted that WDAS slate was thin (it was), things have started to pick up as we've reported here. Slowly they're putting together a list of films, steadily building a collection of stories that can work their way through the production line. Eventually a film should/could come out ever year to a year and a half depending on how smoothly things go over the next year as plans become more defined.

But I'm sure it's not coming together as fast as some would like to hold the talent there though...


Doopey said...

Two observations: 1) DWA's announced slate has more original films than it does sequels. This surprised me (in a good way). It's also something that Pixar cannot claim. It's announced slate is Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters 2.

2) Nine movies! No wonder people want to go work there. They actually make stuff!

Anonymous said...

The 4 films in the middle (Rise of Guardians, Croods, Turbo and Me And My Shadow) all sound interesting and is exciting. Madagascar 3 and Puss in Boots do NOTHING for me. Kung Fu Panda would leave me flat as well, except I just saw the new preview and the animation is truly amazing looking. Hope the story does as well. I still think DWA is a bit second-fiddle to Pixar, but it's obvious that Pixar has raised the bar for Dreamworks and ALL animation, and the benefactor will be us fans (Rango was a very impressive film and Rio looks promising). Personally, I have a hunch that Cars 2 is gonna kick a**, Monster Inc. 2 will be HUGE, and Brave will be a beautiful film. It's exciting to know so many possibly great movies are heading are way.

Anonymous said...

Go DreamWorks Go!! Can't wait for these movies, some of the drawings sneak peak looks super fantastic already!

Capt. Tomorrow said...

It would seem everyone has sequelitis, including Pixar. But hey, why try anything new when there's money to be milked from exisitng characters. Walt tried doing sequels once with the Three Little Pigs characters and realized "you can't top pigs with pigs" and never did sequels again. I think it would be wise of the animation studios to keep that in mind before we have Kung Fu Panda 6 and Cars: V-8.

Anonymous said...

"Turbo"? "The world's fastest snail"? Hoo boy.

And why is the Dragon movie pushed back to 2014? That sucks.

Darrell said...

Where the heck are the other Kung Fu Panda movies?
Anyway, the Croods looks good. Rise of the Guardians might be good but I'm a little bit skeptical... maybe it'll surprise me. Same thing about Turbo. That should be a title for a NASCAR movie, and I can't say I'm excited for that. It's pretty stupid that they're making a "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" movie but maybe it'll be funny.

I'm not sure what they could do with HtTYD 2, but hey, they come up with a darn lot of stuff. It could be good.

Cory Gross said...

Pixar "raised the bar"? I thought everyone was just trying to copy what Pixar does. Talk to me about raising the bar when someone makes a CGI animated film that can't even be compared to Pixar.

That said, the only one in the list I'm moderately interested in is Peabody and Sherman. Unfortunately there is not a good track record for films made from Rocky and Bullwinkle characters, so I'll hold out until I see some previews.

Anonymous said...

Most of the films have interesting premises, so let's hope they turn out to be good.