Dreamworks Animation

(In French, Video On-Demand, July 2017) Another month, another animated film … and lest anything think I’m complaining about quality, I’m not—most animated movies these days are consistently enjoyable. I’m actually complaining about the sameness of most animated movies. Once you’ve thrown in the anthropomorphized characters, chase sequences, montages and pop song, many animated movies all follow more or less a consistent tone. The Boss Baby is no exception, although its own internal mythology is wilder (and less credible) than most. It does play effectively with some of the current baby and parenting clichés (although, having watched it in French, I had to back-translate some material to make sense of the jokes) and makes up for innocuous family viewing. As a pre-school buddy comedy, it’s not too bad … but it does feel generic most of the time. You can file this one solidly in the average middle for Dreamworks Animation’s releases.

(Netflix Streaming, July 2017) An unfortunate collision occurred in the making of The Road to El Dorado, as an adventure film for all audiences crashed into a Disney kid’s movie. What could have been a rousing adventure tale became watered down in a series of musical numbers, kid-level plotting, easy answers and less-than-distinguished characters. At a basic level, this Dreamworks Animation production still works: There’s some fun in seeing two con artists make their way to El Dorado, being hailed as gods (albeit from someone with a Machiavellian intention) and dealing with the situation. Never mind the unbelievable coincidences required to get there: as a comedy, it works. But the musical numbers stop the movie in its tracks, the characters aren’t as distinct as they should be, much of the complexity of the story seems watered down for accessibility and kids friendliness—another rewrite could have worked wonders. As it is, it suffers from comparisons with the similarly themed contemporary The Emperor’s New Groove, which worked at a superior level in integrating Central-American imagery with rapid-fire comedy. I’m not saying that The Road to El Dorado is a waste of time—Chel’s character and her resolutely practical approach redeem much of the film—but it’s not quite what it could have been.

(In French, Netflix Streaming, June 2016) While largely forgotten today, there’s a lot to like in DreamWorks Animation’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It goes beyond the basic story-of-an-animal level to deliver a somewhat harsh take on western colonization, domestication and the relationships between Natives and Whites. The animation is beautiful, with imperfect but audacious integration of CGI and cell animation. It may be a bit too intense for very young kids (some of the action sequences are relentless, and the degree of cruelty experienced both by the horse protagonist and the native characters can be hard to bear) but it’s perfectly adequate for older kids and interesting to adults. Unusually enough, Spirit doesn’t anthropomorphize its horse characters too much (aside from some inner monologue, the animals don’t speak). It also avoids comic sidekicks and atonal comedy, making it feel somewhat more respectable than many other similar animal-centric movies for kids. Well worth discovering, Spirit is a film that almost measures up to much of what Disney had to offer at the time—and that does mean Brother Bear. Interestingly enough, Ryan Adams sings a translation of his own songs on the French-dubbed version.

(On TV, February 2016) Given my advancing age and perennial lack of coolness, I’m not really allowed to grumble and complain about the entertainment served to kids these days. But I can’t help it: While I approached Rise of the Guardians with the best intentions, something annoyed me about its Jack Frost protagonist and his portrayal as a super-kewl rebellious character (who, admittedly, learns better). It feels straight from the Big Corporate Book of Pre-teen Cultural Appropriation, and cheapens what was otherwise an interesting premise for a movie. The basic idea that various mythical figures (Santa Claus, Easter Rabbit, The Sandman, The Tooth Fairy) band together to protect kids from evil forces is interesting in its own public-domain-mash-up fashion. Elements of the characterization (Claus as a battle-hardened lumberjack figure, Sandman as old and mute) are interesting, and while the character design is a bit off-putting, there’s some invention to the film. But then walks in Jack Frost, all attitude and myopic narcissism, and he’s presented as an insufferable hero well before he gets to understand the limits of his initial personality. It doesn’t help that the film itself has the rote quality of 2010s animated film: loud action sequences (maybe a bit too scary for kids) set alongside too-busy world building. There’s probably a song or two in there as well, but Rise of the Guardians slips a bit too quickly out of mind to be sure. While not a bad film per se (even limiting ourselves to kids’ animated movies, there’s a lot worse out there), it’s a disappointment: the lead character is an irritant, and the result doesn’t seem to come close to the potential suggested by the premise.

(Netflix Streaming, July 2015)  The story of Moses isn’t exactly unknown, so seeing an animate film take it on seems a bit superfluous.  But in the hands of Dreamworks Animation (then a brand-new studio with something to prove), The Prince of Egypt ends up being a lively, even exciting presentation of a familiar story.  The integration of traditional animation with computer-generated imagery is a bit dodgy (as is the case for most animated films of that time), but the animation itself is usually solid.  The songs are fine, the characters make an epic story somewhat approachable and the expected high points (the plagues and the parting of the red sea, obviously) are indeed highlights of the film.  The prince of Egypt, even more than fifteen years later, compares favorably to the far more technically polished Exodus: Gods and Kings. 

(In theaters, December 2010) Comic-book culture is so pervasive by now that films such as Megamind can just file the numbers off the subgenre’s most familiar archetypes and run with the concept.  The derivative nature of such premises is obvious –but given that derivation is Dreamworks Animation’s specialty, it’s perhaps better to be happy at the end result than to expect fresh premises and concepts from them.  Surprisingly enough, Megamind actually has one or two things to say about super-villainy and its need for super-heroism: Our protagonist isn’t evil as much as he’s misunderstood and bored: by the time he’s had a few weeks to rule over Metro City, his lack of challenges is such that he sets out to reinvent a superhero… with hilarious results.  The action set-pieces have a welcome kinship with Monsters Versus Aliens; unfortunately, the angular character designs owe more to the Madagascar films in that they are distinctive but not particularly appealing.  Fortunately, most of the film feels bright, bold, clean and contemporary: The action sequences have a fondness for large-scale destruction, and the film moves at a pleasantly rapid pace.  There are a few twists and turns: nothing shocking, but a pleasant reconfiguration of dramatic situations every twenty minutes or so.  In doing so, Megamind manages to be the best think-piece about superheroes since The Incredibles and The Dark Knight, and it’s partly that vivaciousness of ideas that makes it so much fun to watch.  In this context, the derivative nature of its premise isn’t as much a problem as it is scene-setting for second-order questions… and that’s not bad, especially for a film supposedly aimed at kids.