Toon Zone Talkback - TheWrap on DreamWorks Animation's Woes

This is distressing news. Post Shrek I really started to take an interest in DWA. Kung Fu Panda is my favorite series right now period. I loved HTTYD and Megamind wasn't bad. I feel like DWA was just starting to get the right idea.

But I'm not very familiar with the particulars of the industry. I don't think I like Katzenberg as a person, but his passion for the craft seems genuine. I gather that DWA has put out some of the best 3-D offerings around and Katzenberg seemed pretty gung-ho about it. Maybe I'm nieve but I feel bad for him and I don't want to see my favorite series go down the tubes.

Well I've seen KFP 2 three times in theaters so I'm doing my part :p
 
This is a very interesting news article.
I always heard that DWA made more money than Pixar. But I see that doesn't do DWA any good, since their films don't have the same merchandise appeal as Pixar, and out of all the films they made, only three films (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, HTTYD) are big hits, while everything else did good enough. And since their independent, each film they make has to be a huge hit, just like what Pixar had to be before being bought by Disney. All it takes is one bad movie to ruin everything, and since they're making more movies than any other animation studio, the risks are really high.
It seems that Katzenberg's ambition has run him into a wall without a proper Plan B. All the big film companies have an animation studio they rely on (except for Viacom) so not many will be interested in purchasing them (especially if DWA's price for a buyout is high). I'd suggest downsizing production, but that would mean a lot of people will lose their jobs.

I think what would be best is try to tap more into the production television animation series (with animation done overseas to keep costs down, of course), and they should develop more intellectual properties for television instead of turning their movies into TV series.
 
Well Disney was like this at one point, and then expanded into the realm of live-action movies as well. Dreamworks Animation can't really do that though, cuz Animation is part of their name, and it would get really confusing if there were live action movies coming out from Dreamworks and Dreamworks Animation, since they're separate companies. They could always change their name, but then they lose their brand name recognition. Or maybe they could merge with Dreamworks and be one big company again? (Though then Disney would be their distributor... weird....)
 
Your opinion. People here may not like the Shrek series very much, but it has been proven to be pretty popular at the box office. Penguins of Madagscar is doing very well on Nickelodeon, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda did very well, the only things that have not been doing so great as of lately are Dreamworks' latest two films: Megamind and Kung Fu Panda 2.

I won't doubt Kung Fu Panda will be successful as a series on Nickelodeon, kids will be able to tune in at will rather than relying on their parents to take them to the movies, and with more people getting annoyed by the 3D gimmick and pricing, it isn't a wonder why parents would rather rent them a movie for much cheaper. How to Train Your Dragon has the potential to be very successful as a series, it has a well sized following and lots of appeal for different audiences. If Megamind had did better, I would have loved to see that as a series because Megamind is a very entertaining and eccentric character; he almost seems built for a TV series.
 
I hope you're right because from the sound of it DWA will be relying on these series and the two to three movies a year they manage to put out. I'll be tuning the heck into KFP and most likely HTTYD as well.

The part of the article talking about the flooding of the animation market was pretty interesting and true. I can think of so many mediocre to awful animated movies that I don't care about. Do they crowd the market and hurt the more legitimate releases?
 
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