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It was the Shrek franchise that helped define DreamWorks Animation as the preeminent "zany talking animal" studio. It made PG the go-to rating, emphasized celebrity casting, made boy-friendly narratives fashionable, and made obnoxious pop-culture references almost a requirement, but Shrek's artistic flaws (and not its strengths) came to represent everything wrong with DreamWorks and most non-Pixar toons by virtue of its inferior copycats. Shrek was indeed a game-changer Katzenberg was hoping for, but arguably not in the way he had originally envisioned. But today they are now remembered mostly for their lesser elements, namely the Disney in-jokes, the pop-culture references, and celebrity voice casting, versus their relative quality (the first two are still terrific). I can defend all four Shrek films to varying degrees for both their general quality and in how they realistically deal with the various stages of adult relationships (courtship, marriage, kids, etc.). But the financial success came at great artistic cost. Shrek 2 still holds the record for the highest-grossing animated film in America ($441m) while Shrek the Third still holds the record for the biggest animated opening weekend ($122m). Shrek became the fledgling studio's flagship franchise. It also won the first Best Animated Feature Oscar over Pixar's Monster's Inc. Part-Disney satire, part fairy-tale deconstruction, and part romantic comedy, Shrek parlayed strong reviews, Mike Myers' rousing vocals, and various trailer-friendly pop culture references and swipes at the Mouse House to a $42 million debut while the film's crowd-pleasing quality kept it packing theaters all summer long to the tune of $262m. Meanwhile Katzenberg and company dropped a bomb on the industry with Shrek. In the summer of 2001, $120m Atlantis: The LostĮmpire(a PG-rated action tale, natch) stalled at $84m whileįox crashed and burned with its expensive PG-rated sci-fi action tale Titan A.E. But the next DreamWorks film would cement itself as a major leaguer while also stereotyping it for life. The Road To El Doradoflopped in the spring of 2000 ($50m) but Aardman Studios' quirky Chicken Run was a leggy hit, racing to $100m on a $45m budget while Disney's ambitious $130m CGI-animated Dinosaur barely made back its budget in the states. A Bug's Life out-grossed Antz $162 million to $90m and the very expensive The Prince Of Egypt slowly crawled to $100m domestic, but the first shot was fired.
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Antz was of course the "edgier" bug cartoon of 1998, preceding Pixar's G-rated A Bug's Life by about six weeks.
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Both had PG ratings (back when you had to really earn your PG for an animated film), full of violence and adult subject matter, and both were markedly more adult than general audiences were used to. The irony of the last fifteen years is how DWA slowly transformed from the representative of "edgy", more adult animated product to (perhaps unfairly) what defines what is most safe and conformist about mainstream theatrical animated films.Īntz and The Prince Of Egyptwere both intended to be marked contrasts to the conventional Disney cartoon. DreamWorks SKG was co-founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994 after Katzenberg bolted from Disney following power struggles with Michael Eisner (see Waking Sleeping Beauty, read Disney Wars, or watch The Lion King). What makes that somewhat important is that it is the 15th anniversary ofĭreamWorks Animation, as the Woody Allen bug comedy heralded the arrival of what was intended to be a major competitor to Disney. Today marks the 15th anniversary of the theatrical release of Antz.