Am I that big of a Pixar fanboy? Yes, yes I am. Don't get me entirely wrong. Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon are excellent films. Too bad Dreamworks will find every way to pound it into a pulp of crummy sequels. Dreamworks has a formula, and this formula will keep pumping out things like three too many Shreks, Sharktale, and Madagascar until they stop making money. And money should never be the reason to do something like making films. Yes, I know movies are a business before anything, but there can be something beautiful in this method of storytelling. Animated films can become timeless and reach generation after generation when they have heart and soul and mean something. The Disney library of films has garbage, yes, but it also has The Sword and the Stone, Lion King, Cinderella, Aladdin, Pinocchio. These films hold up, and will continue to hold up because they were made with more than money as the goal. Walt Disney wanted to share beautiful tales with the world. Some of his most classic films were utter failures (Alice in Wonderland, Bambi), but he kept making them because it wasn't about the financial success. It was about getting the stories out there.
Pixar proves with it's own library that the tender storytelling of classic animated films still exists. They do not waste time with cheap jokes (well, maybe the dressing montage in Toy Story 3), or frivolous sequels (we'll see about that Cars 2). No, they tell poignant stories with characters of depth. They gave us Wall*E and the Toy Story Trilogy. They are the pinnacle of animation currently providing us with films. Dreamworks would need to change its style if it wanted to be something more. Do I watch Dreamworks' films? Of course. Do I enjoy them? Sometimes. Will I show my own children any of their films someday? Nope. Not any they've made so far.
And that's my two cents.
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