Animated motion pictures aren’t a foreign concept to us, with them existing curtsy to Disney and its various predecessors for the longest of times. Until a couple of decades ago, Walt Disney’s iconic studio mass produced ninety percent of the content on our shelves (or our Netflix library, if we are to stay up to date). But as technological changes have advanced the cinematic world, they tagged along animated motions too. Which is why, today, Disney isn’t the only major animation producing studio out there. For some of us, it might be challenging to tell apart all the names that have emerged in the past several years: Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, who knows the difference, right? Well, you definitely should, as some of the biggest hits in the movie industry have DreamWorks behind them, and I say that credit must be given where credit’s due. In order to determine which animations had the biggest impact in the world of cinematography, we’ve put together a list of Top 10 Greatest DreamWorks Animated Movies.
10. Chicken Run
This movie is the result between a partnership that DreamWorks tied with Aardman Animation, a studio that managed to shine a spotlight on its name through their excellently produced stop motion pictures. The plot gives us Rocky (Mel Gibson), who is a boastful American rooster that other chickens part of an English colony believe could be the key to them finally being able to fly.
9. Flushed Away
The partnership with Aardman didn’t end at that one chicken movie, and Flushed Away is the proof of that. This, time we are being told the story of Rodney, a polar opposite from what you might expect Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman to play. He ends up getting flushed all the way into the sewers of England, and gets caught in the affairs of Rita (Kate Winslet), who is being chased the villainous frog anomaly played by Ian McKellen.
8. Mr. Peabody And Sherman
Not many people paid attention to this 2014 animated motion, and this is because it hit the big screens during a period when DreamWorks was struggling with an inner tempest. This doesn’t mean that we didn’t get an endearingly good movie. On the contrary, the story about a genius dog and his adopted son traveling to patch up a rift in time they accidentally tore open, is as creative as it is a fantastic lesson about family.
7. Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
During the DreamWorks and Aardman team up, we were also given the movie that the fans of the short film series have been waiting for. While keeping the same fast pace and quirky, typically British humor, the full length picture continue Wallace and Gromit’s adventures as they jump to the aid of a village that’s being oppressed by a mutant were-rabbit. The stop-motion film was a critical success, having even been honored with an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, an achievement that only Shrek can claim it managed to reach.
6. Road To El Dorado
The only hand drown animated feature on this list, this is perhaps one of the lesser known DreamWorks creations, though doesn’t make it any less memorable. We are being introduced to two characters played by Kenneth Branagh and, respectively, Kevin Kline, who arrive to a tribe and Mexico and somehow manage to convince them that they’re, in fact, two gods. The film excels in combining an adventurous tone, lots of wittily funny moments and iconic musical pieces Elton John and Tim Rice.
5. Shrek
A movie that needs no introduction, Shrek wrote history in the timeline of DreamWorks by achieving a colossal success the moment of its release. The tale of a grouchy ogre who travels to rescue Princess Fiona from the tower she’s locked in, spawned three sequels and one of the wildest merchandise explosions before Frozen and Minions were even a concept.
4. Kung Fu Panda
There were many skeptics who said that an irritating, fat panda (who is also voiced by no other than Jack Black) was basically a guaranteed movie flop. Good thing that Kung Fu Panda managed to once again prove that a book shouldn’t be judged by its cover. We hopped aboard on a journey of self discovery with panda Po, intertwined with Asian influenced cinematography and lore, and we enjoyed every minute of it.
3. Rise Of The Guardians
Remember that period of “inner tempest” we mentioned earlier? Rise of the Guardians is possibly the most unfortunate victim of this imbalance that costed DreamWorks so much. It didn’t have the audience it could have had, despite telling an engaging story of how a boy named Jack Frost teamed with those of the likes of Santa and the Tooth Fairy to save the world. The thing about this film, though, is that it’s much more than that: the movie is told in a slightly darker and more mature tone than other animation movies. Fortunately, people eventually realized what a great movie it was, and it grew in popularity several months after its initial flop.
2. Shrek 2
Okay, sorry for the cheeky Shrek spam, but in a world where ninety nine percent of sequels are destined to failure, we can’t ignore the one movie that managed to outshine its prequel. By bringing in a better, in depth development of the characters we know and love, as well as by slightly increasing the pace of the action and humor, Shrek 2 became the best movie in the franchise. Oh, and let’s not forget that this is the film when we were introduced with the iconic Puss in Boots.
1. How To Train Your Dragon
DreamWorks definitely met a boom in popularity thanks to Shrek, but they needed another movie to avoid suddenly fading into the background, and to solidify their place in the animation world. How To Train Your Dragon was this movie, which explores the engaging story of how a Viking boy came to befriend a dragon in a world where he was actually meant to hunt him down. Hiccup and Toothless became the heart of this production, making it what it is today.
These were the Top 10 Greatest DreamWorks Animated Movies. And simply going by the big titles on this list, it’s safe to say that Disney no longer can claim supremacy over the animated movie industry, and that DreamWorks makes for a powerful competitor.
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