I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
The movie rights to Transformers are locked up with Paramount, who will cling to them for dear life.
As for myself, I'm worried about the DreamWorks Classics characters (the good/decent ones anyway). I also think if this happens this will end up on the definitive list of worst corporate mergers ever.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
There is one possible thing that could scuttle the creation of DreamWorks-Hasbro (not sure why their name is coming first): Penguins of Madagascar might flop. Every time DWA competes with another major animated feature (in this case, Big Hero 6), they lose.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
really, though, if this DreamWorks-Hasbro thing turns out to be a trainwreck, I hope the Ward estate can find a way to dissolve Bullwinkle Studios and take back full ownership of their characters...
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
Confession: As far back as 2012, I gave thought to Hasbro acquiring DWA
It's just that I didn't know how top-down DWA was in terms of management, and how behind the times Katzenberg seemed to be
I just thought it would have been a way for Hasbro to demonstrate that they were serious about growing The Hub (though it was a painful joint venture with Discovery Communications)...
A marriage between a toy company and a Hollywood studio doesn't seem ideal anyway.
No, I'm curious as to what kind of films they would have made. DWA has been astonishingly mediocre for a while now, and I am legitimately curious as to what they would do if they were forced to shape up from on high... or, alternately, just straight up turned into a massive marketing vehicle instead of a massive self-marketing vehicle, which would honestly be just a smidgen less embarrassing.
But I doubt that they will ever get back to Prince of Egypt-level quality. Would that they would, but the world is not fair and you take what you can get.
Speaking of great animation and animators, Hayao Miyazaki has gone back to manga and short films in his retirement and I find that a potentially exciting prospect. Also, his son is directing a TV show, and apparently it's in 2D CG and actually looks fantastic.
Oh, and I still need to catch up on Adventure Time, but it keeps getting better.
So at least some people in animation are doing well.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
The entire DreamWorks endeavor - dating back to the days when DWA was a cog in the original DreamWorks's machine - seems to have been doomed from the start. Too much ego at the top, too little concern for budget (I've read that Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was such a fiasco that it almost bankrupted the entire company)...
You're right, DWA's focus on trying too hard to be a brand manager is really not good. They're a company that built their name on being like Disney and/or Pixar, but not as good. Why would anyone want to buy that? (Though personally, if I were running a Hollywood studio, I'd buy them simply to eliminate a competitor in the field of animated movies, even if it meant dealing with Katzenberg's prima donna self for a few years)
Early on, at least, they had ambition and talent, with a distinct style and a willingness to take on stories that were, to be blunt, a little too adult or dark for Disney at that time. Disney would not make a film about ambiguously bisexual failed conquistadors becoming the false messiahs of a legendary Amazonian civilisation, or an animated musical based on the first portion of Exodus with all the snake-staves and dead children intact, at least not then. Not enough room for an uncomplicated happy ending.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
It's really sad if you read The Men Who Would Be King - it's apparent through descriptions of Disney- and early DreamWorks-era Katzenberg that he had come to legitimately appreciate animation. Then that went out the window the second Shrek started bringing in the green and he based the whole DreamWorks brand around his misunderstanding of what made it work.
Honestly, I think DWA should sell Shrek and Classic to Iconix, and then get back to actually doing something important. If it means firing everyone, do that
Honestly, I think DWA should sell Shrek and Classic to Iconix, and then get back to actually doing something important. If it means firing everyone, do that
Shrek and DreamWorks Classics really need to get out of the shit vortex that is DWA
I always worry that DWA will end up going bankrupt and their assets will be bought at auction by DHX Media or some other second/third-rate concern
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
I do kind of think sometimes that, in some desperate attempt to stay afloat, Katz will put DreamWorks Classics on the block at some point. It's been bought and sold so many times already...
It's kinda sad that Disney only seems to try to be experimental when they're in trouble, and hence, don't have the resources to properly pull it off. Granted, a few films they've done this way, like Alice in Wonderland and The Emperor's New Groove, still turn out pretty good anyway, but it's still pretty frustrating.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
L&S is why it was disheartening to me that the only character who looked non-white - and was played by a non-white person (Djimon Hounsou) - in How to Train Your Dragon 2 was its antagonist. L&S succeeded in portraying its non-white characters with respect...
To be fair, I think that character was supposed to be pretty explicitly Nordic, and the choice of voice actor was using roughly the same logic as casting Keith David as Goliath—good actor with a low, commanding voice that can pull off a certain mood well. That the character ended up looking vaguely non-white (and that's relative) in an overwhelmingly pale cast is more unfortunate than anything.
I'm guessing it was given the people involved. They were going for a grizzled, sea-battered Viking warrior type, and... well, he does look like one. He's period-appropriate. It just so happens that having a deep tan and wearing black hair in locks does not say "Scandinavian" to a lot of people for fairly obvious reasons. Eh.
(Funnily enough, Hiccup's father and several of the other male islanders can be seen wearing that style of tightly woven braid in the first film. But most of them are redheaded or the like and on the pale side, soooo...)
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
You know, I thought about how Jeffrey Katzenberg has no succession plan, and no apparent desire to retire
He's a famous workaholic - I'm convinced he wants to keep running DWA, or maybe even something bigger, until the day he dies. Maybe he even wants DWA to die with him if he can't sell it.
Comments
It sounds like a situation similar to Warner Bros., the owner of DC, owning Hanna-Barbera's Fantastic Four show...