Dreamworks CGI Features are Simply Funnier Than Pixar CGI Features

The majority of Dreamworks movies are comedies and most Pixar movies are...I don't know what you would call them but they are not pure comedy. This is not to say I like Dreamworks better than Pixar. I usually like a good story with heart and with a little bit of comedy thrown in here and there.
 
Just so you know, this isn't the first time Dreamworks has been.compared to Looney Tunes against Pixar. There have been a couple of well-known critics who have compared the two in the same way.

Personally the problems I have with both studios I will list:

Pixar (much like Looney Tunes and any good childrens entertainment) has always straddled the line between kid stuff and adult content. As of late, since Incredibles, they have leaned more toward adults.

Dreamworks is hit or miss a little too much for me. They seem to be geared to kids more, but many of the jokes and references are often clearly for adults. Some of the jokes Monsters vs Aliens had adults laughing hard, and kids going HUH. Pixar kinda needs to work on it more. Ken had the best bits in Toy Story 3, but this may have been residue his appearance in the script back in 2001.

Pixar has geared their films more and more as Oscar bait. Stuff like Up, Ratatouille, and Wall E, seemed to push this award winning aestethic. There has been less and less children oriented premises like Monster's Inc., Cars, or Finding Nemo.

Dreamworks seems to run with premises without any real thought into it. They make stellar first film efforts like Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, or Shrek, but do not seem to have story or character development down.

Pixar seems to effortlessly push the envelope on technology, while Dreamworks seems lazy but defends it behind odd character designs. A Bugs Life captured how to do near photo realistic environments. Compare the stiff texture and character designs of Antz and Bugs Life. Compare the hair in Monster's Inc. to the hair of the animals in Madagascar.
 
Dreamworks vs. Pixar as far as humor goes? Well, the first Shrek was very funny and the constant references actually helped the movie rather than hurt it. Antz and How to Train Your Dragon had a good amount of humor though they're more story-driven and not really Looney Tunes-y. Shrek 2 had a lot of chuckle-worthy bits but only a few laugh-out-loud moments. Kung Fu Panda had one really funny bit (his dad's "I've got something I've been meaning to tell you..." monologue) but overall I didn't think it was that funny; it succeeds more as an action film than as a comedy. The rest of their movies might have had one or two decent gags but just weren't that funny overall.

Out of Pixar's movies, The Incredibles is in my mind the funniest and above any of the Dreamworks movies in my opinion. Monsters Inc. and Up come close. The first Toy Story is mildly funny, the sequels are consistently laugh-out-loud (when they're not making you cry, anyway). Wall-E's darker and less outright comedic but even then I laughed more than I did in the average Dreamworks movie. Finding Nemo's a bit more hit-or-miss in humor but Dory's always funny. Ratatouille and A Bugs Life are closer to your Disney comfortable but not particularly funny description, while Cars is probably the most like the average gag-filled but not fully working Dreamworks film.

I'd say Pixar comes out on top overall for humor. Aardman has both studios beat, though.
 
Make that absolutely no pop culture. Seriously, I can't remember a single thing in HTTYD that could really count as that - the only thing that vaguely seemed like a reference was the boy shouting off Dungeons and Dragon's-esque statistics, and that was more of a general poke at the role-playing and video-gaming culture than a direct reference to another work. It's certainly not as blatantly pop-culture as half of the jokes in Madagascar, and since the character only really did it in one scene, it was funny without being obtrusive.

Also, I will add that there are at least two other Dreamworks fims besides Dragon that did seem to have a much higher amount of character-related jokes than average. The first was Shrek, which sticks in my mind mainly because of the great interaction between the tituliar charater and Donkey. The "Ogre's are like Onions" scene is still absolutely hysterical to this day, and in general most of the best comedy bits in the movie revolve around their "friendship." The second film would be Kung Fu Panda, which eschewed both pop-culture references and potty humor in favor of a lot of cute scenes with the loveable Po.

So, I wouldn't say Dreamworks is totally hopeless when it comes to humor. They just need to realize that the formula for their best films revolved more around what Shawn Hopkins mentioned - which manages to be different from Pixar without being inferior. The problem is that they don't always realize that, as films like Madagascar and Shark Tale show.
 
Note: I have still not seen Kung Fu Panda.



Exactly opposite in my opinion. The reason How to Train Your Dragon was great was that it wasn't a comedy like other DreamWorks movies. Sure, it had some jokes, but it was mostly an action-adventure, which made it amazing.

I also agree with the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Despicable Me being closer to Looney Tunes than DreamWorks movies. Even though both those movies do rely on references at points, a majority of the comedy is slapstick or wordplay.

So yes, I think Pixar is funnier than DreamWorks, for two reasons. The first would be that I laugh at multiple different viewings at jokes in Pixar movies (i.e. Toy Story 3,) while, with DreamWorks, if I laugh at it once, which is rare, the next time I see it, I will either smile or not even notice it. The second reason is that I can laugh at Pixar movies right after emotional scenes, (i.e. Toy Story 2/3, Up.) After Ellie dies in Up and I'm crying, I start laughing at the Carmen montage. Heck, during the now famous "Goodbye, Andy" scene, I laughed at one of the lines through sobbing. It's just amazing their movies literally follow the famous quote, "For every laugh, there should be a tear." And, moreover, vice versa.
 
Am I the only one who has enjoyed movies from both studios? To me, it doesn't matter the studio that makes, it's how the movie itself is and how much I enjoy it. I try not be biased. :)

To be fair, though, I don't think it's just the writers at Dreamworks being too freaking lazy to write any actual jokes or character-based gags and randomly throw in pop culture references and expecting them to be funny on their own.

I think it's the way Jeffrey Katzenberg wants them to write their movies. Anybody ever notice his "WE NEED TO HAVE MOAR $~MONEY~$" mantra for the studio? I remember the Shrek 2 DVD Commentary flat-out stating that they only made the sequel for the money. Also, didn't Katzenberg nearly screw Toy Story 1 over simply because he wanted it to be more "edgy"? (re: more pop culture jokes)
 
I have to say I enjoy movies from both studios, I wouldn't compare Looney Tunes to Dreamworks. From my perspective the few cartoons that I can recall were the ones that didn't really rely on too many pop culture references. And the few that did I think were so funny that it didn't matter.

To use an example from Animaniacs, Hercule Yakko "Finger Prince" line. I think that's a bit obscure and when my siblings saw it they asked me who Prince even way. Yet whenever Dot talked about being in love with Mel Gibson they understood he was some handsome actor and they enjoy the joke. Another great episode to illustrate this point is Taming of the Screwy. Plenty of celebrity jokes, but not many that really require you to know who they are/were.

I think that was the problem with A Sharks Tale and Shrek 2 is they were too..on the nose. They relied directly on celebrity parody/satire instead of leaning slightly while finding overall humor.
 
I fail to see how either of these are in any way negatives.

Are you saying Pixar should intentionally dumb its stories down to appeal more to kids? And are you saying that Pixar's current movies are somehow inappropriate or unenjoyable for kids? Because I'd disagree with both of those notions wholeheartedly.


Unless I misinterpreted you. In that case, I apologize.
 
I do. The only ones from DreamWorks I didn't like were Shrek The Third, Shark Tale, and Antz. I haven't seen Bee Movie and need to rewatch Over The Hedge (haven't seen it since I saw it in theaters). Other than that, I've pretty much enjoyed everything from DreamWorks.



Yep. In The Pixar Story, John Lassater said during Toy Story's production the Disney people said they wanted it to be edgy, and when they gave them just that, they were unhappy with what they saw.
 
you did make it certainly sound like you were... as you did say "Personally the problems I have with both studios I will list"... which implies your list was all the negatives you had with each studio...
 
Much as I enjoy some good old Pixar criticism, I can't say I find many animated films a "laugh-riot" in general. So I would have to disagree about Dreamworks being funnier than Pixar. On the other hand, I don't find Pixar funnier than Dreamworks either.

But then, my humour is neither "sophisticated" nor gently playful. So that may explain it. Not that I'm saying Dreamworks humour is sophisticated, but you get the picture about what I'm saying about tastes.
 
Did the title of this thread have to sound like it was an absolute fact of life? Like it couldn't have been called "My opinion on humor in Pixar and DW" or "I think Dreamworks' CGI features are funnier than Pixar's" or even simply, "My thoughts on DW CGI features in their humor." You know, something that doesn't sound unbelievably pretentious.

Also, to the few posts above, I too enjoy movies from both Pixar and Dreamworks, in terms of humor...well, I've honestly laughed quite a bit at stuff from both studios so I can't really comment. I just watch their movies that I like.
 
I'm a little confused by what you're saying, honestly. If you don't find either funny, what do you find funny? Do you find anything funny?



No, not every statement has to be preceded by bowing and scraping and "inmyhumbleopinionpresentedfoyoconsiderationthankyewverymuchsir" just so the very most timid don't feel threatened. It's clearly an opinion and an opening for debate and if you disagree I expect you to disagree with vigor.
 
I'm actually a humourless bore.;)

But are you meaning to say that Pixar and Dreamworks represent the only ends of the humour spectrum? I find that to be a curious implication.

I don't have to find films funny to enjoy them. I like Finding Nemo, enjoy the Incredibles, and I liked Aliens vs Monsters. None of them were knee-slappingly funny to me, but they were pleasing entertainment (to me, anyway) all the same.
 
Other than the Penguins I don't think anything about the Madagascar movies was actually funny. The Shrek sequels are very bland and pretty hit and miss comedically. Shrek 3 was horrendous.

Overall I generally just don't see what is "funnier" about Dreamworks animated features. Monsters vs. Aliens was not that funny.
 
I like dirty jokes. I like innuendo. I like campy humour, preferably unintentional. So I can enjoy something as dumb and brain dead as an Adam Sandler factory prodution to something as unintentionally campy as the modern romantic comedy (Granted, most of them are objectively really bad as films, but I find many of them strangely hilarious for some reason). I realize that Dreamworks and Pixar do contain some of the elements I listed above, but they're more distilled and, perhaps, more cleverly crafted and calculated than the type I prefer. They are also more self aware than I like.


So I really wasn't lying when I said my humour wasn't very sophisticated! Pop culture jokes don't appeal to me. I "get" what the jokes are, it's just not my speed. Jokes laden with sarcasm and irony have a 50/50 chance of repelling me depending on how it's delivered. Clever visual gags can impress me, but usually only strictly from a technical standpoint unless it's, well, a really dirty visual gag. :D

Family-friendly animated films are generally a little bit classier and subtle than the dumb classless stuff I prefer.
 
I did. That was before I actually made the list, so that much I take back. I don't dislike one or the other studios. I will say I favor more Pixar films on average than Dreamworks films.
 
For me while I enjoy the Dreamworks while I am watching them, they leave no lasting impressions on me. As soon as I walk out of the theater or stop the movie they are immediately forgotten.

Pixar on the the other hand leaves me with a quality movie experience, even their weakest entries make a lasting impression and are not easily forgotten.

To reiterate,

Perhaps Dreamworks is indeed "funnier", but Pixar delivers a lasting experience.
 
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