Thursday, February 03, 2011

Eclectic

Walking around DreamWorks Animation, you pick up how different the various features in development are ...

While there on Tuesday, I watched production being done on Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda II. Up in the story department, work continues on The Croods which is also in the midst of production, Me and My Shadow, Rise of the Guardians and a host of others.

And in the last couple of days the studio has rolled out yet another.

Dreamworks Animation announced it will bring the 1970s television series Lidsville, featuring the Sid & Marty Krofft characters.

What I admire about DWA is that, as time has gone on, they've added depth to their development slate. Putting aside the tent-poles (Mad 3, Shrek 4 etc.) they really and truly have a diverse set of properties. Added to which, the company's story crews are talented, experienced, and Jeffrey pushes them, so the spins they give various features seldom fail to entertain. (A year ago, who expected the studio to serve up a sparkler like How to Train Your Dragon? Sure as hell wasn't me.)

DreamWorks Animation's roster of features is nothing if not eclectic.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

They're doing Mr. Peabody and Sherman too, right?

Steve Hulett said...

Yup.

Roger Enrico said...

I can't wait to see that dog fart and make pop culture references.

Those DWA guys are brilliant, and original.

Anonymous said...

From where I sit, they're better at movie-making than you are at trolling.

Anonymous said...

I wished the could break away from so-so adaptations and dig deeper to tell original stories. I know Jeffery can't really do this, but bet some of his directors moght be able to.

Steve Hulett said...

Jeffrey's done this.

Ever heard of "Lion King?"

Anonymous said...

Road to El Dorado, Spirit, Madagascar, Antz, Shark Tale, Chicken Run, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Megamind and Kung Fu Panda were all original stories. Some big hits, some big misses. Maybe the idea that there's no original stories coming from DW is in your head?

Anonymous said...

Don't hate on dreamworks, if it wasn't for them the southern California feature animation job landscape would be extremely different looking.

Anonymous said...

If Tai Lung ain't in Kung Fu Panda II, I ain't watchin'.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey's done this. Ever heard of "Lion King?"

True, but everyone knows Jeffery hated Lion King during production and supported Pocahontas

Anonymous said...

Oh, baloney. "Hated". if he'd "hated" it that much guess what? It wouldn't have been made.

Everyone I know who worked on it credits him with pushing them in a lot of good directions and getting it done-and done differently. He fully supported it and was super proud of it at its release, there's no doubt about that. He wasn't rooting for it to fail for crissakes.

If you just plain hate the guy, whatever-but don't rewrite history or skew every historical event to suggest all the successes were accidental. He believed in that Dept when few others of the Eisner regime did.

Anonymous said...

Watch "Waking Sleeping Beauty."

I dont hate Jeffery. He's my boss. I like working here. But facts are facts.

Anonymous said...

If Tai Lung ain't in Kung Fu Panda II, I ain't watchin'.


So funny how the mouth breathers demand originality and retreading old ground at the same time.

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