If there's one film genre that has timeless appeal and is loved by all ages, it's animation. As the years have rolled by, animation companies have come and gone, but two have stood the test of time. And their rivalry has been one of the most interesting developments in the film industry. It's Disney and Dreamworks, everyone!
We're not going to look at these two to determine which one is better, because no one is going to agree on the outcome of that argument. Instead, we're going to look at what makes each of them great and figure out their pros and cons from there.
Funny thing I should point out first is that Dreamworks was started by an animator from Disney. Jeffrey Katzenberg - who worked on such hits as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King - had a falling out with the executives at Disney and left, with the intent of creating a new studio. With Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, he created Dreamworks Studios and the rest is animation history.
Ever since, Dreamworks has been Disney's biggest rival in the animation world. With Dreamworks, you can tell they're very competitive. Their first big animated feature Shrek is loaded with digs at fairy tale tropes that are obviously aimed at Disney with their lineage of fairy tale and princess movies. Heck, even some of their movies seem like knock-offs made out of spite (*ahem* Antz and Shark Tale!).
Not to mention, Dreamworks has the eyebrow thing going on.
Seriously, look at the eyebrows in their movie posters! There's this snarky curve that gives all their characters a very smug, self-assured appearance in contrast to Disney's wide-eyed whimsical characters. Even I've got the Dreamworks eyebrow thing going on in the art above!
That doesn't mean I care more for Dreamworks, though (more on that later).
Now going along the line of breaking tropes and conventions, that's one thing that Dreamworks likes to do. They made it their shtick in the Shrek franchise and it's become part of their legacy. On some levels, it's pretty refreshing in a world where you can walk into a movie theatre and pretty much predict what's going to happen or what the characters will be like. Whether this is done by turning a princess in a tower into an ogre in disguise or by making the lemurs of Madagascar literal "party animals", you know you're going to get something different and entertaining. In fact, this very quality has made Disney do the same thing in an attempt to win over new and more analytical audiences (with Tangled and Frozen constantly pointing out fairy tale movie tropes and flaws).
But there is a problem with being the king of subversion: you have to keep it fresh every time. And for all they've done, Dreamworks does have a tendency to fall flat. I feel that this is due to their huge reliance on pop culture references and jokes.
One way of subverting a stereotypical story is by referencing things outside of the world of the story - like Deadpool. Except the problem with this is you have to use pop culture references carefully and cleverly, otherwise they become annoying and distracting real fast.Unfortunately, Dreamworks has used it to death in the past.When I watched Madagascar, the scene where Marty the zebra is walking through New York to the sound of the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive" made me groan in annoyance. What did that add to the scene? How was it supposed to make the scene funny?
Strike one for Dreamworks.
Now let's take a look at Disney.
While Dreamworks might be the king of subversion, Disney is the undeniable master of the fairy tale/musical movie formula. No one else that I'm aware of does quite what they do. They bring fairy tales to life with beautiful visuals, charming characters, and catchy music. Whether through their classic traditional animated films or through their work in 3D animation with Pixar, they've managed to make hit after hit. Even when they don't do fairy tales, they manage to make heartwarming and entertaining films, like with Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, and Inside Out. Through the decades, they've proved time and again that they're at the top in animated films.
What could possibly be wrong with Disney? Well...
Let's face it - Disney is a monster...a really big monster that keeps on growing. Monsters will do anything to stay big and sometimes, that means doing a lot of the same thing.
It's like with the Dreamworks subversion problem, except this time, it's with pretty much everything that makes Disney Disney. The songs, the princesses, the emphasis on clean family entertainment, the new trend of empowering princesses...once they've done one thing that worked, they often come back to it again and again. Sure, their movies aren't exact repeats of previous works, but boy, don't they just love using "tried and true" methods. On one hand, it makes sense. At the end of the day, your film needs to make money in order for the whole production to be worth it. So if audiences loved seeing Rapunzel in Tangled be strong and empowered and Merida in Brave be independent, then by all means, do it again in Frozen (with two female leads this time!).
The only problem is that you might get flack for this. People do grumble about how "another Disney princess" or "another Disney musical" is coming out in theatres. And just like with Dreamworks, Disney has the problem of keeping things fresh. They either have to top previous successes or reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Basically, it's not just a matter of Disney and Dreamworks trying to outdo each other, but it's also a matter of outdoing themselves to stay popular.
Now you're probably wondering who does it better.
Well, I'm not going to speak on behalf of the millions of fans of both studios, but personally speaking, I think Disney does a better job. Why? Well, after watching their classic movies on VHS as a youngster and growing up with their Pixar-related films, I've noticed that Disney feels like it has more love in its films. Because Dreamworks was created in a spark of retaliation, you don't really feel like the stories and characters (at least, in earlier works) were made out of love. They feel more like creations of spite. With Disney, you can tell the animators poured themselves into the movies because they loved them. They love these characters, stories, and worlds they're bringing to life and that love translates easily from the screen.
Also from an animation point of view, Disney looks prettier, as well. When I watched Shrek as a kid, I found the animation style and design uninteresting and very ugly compared to Monsters Inc. (which coincidentally came out in the same year - 2001). In Monsters Inc., you had a wide variety of color in the monsters, different textures, and interesting environments. With Shrek, there's just a lot of bland green forest backdrops that seem to blend into each other. As for the character design and movement, Monsters Inc. is definitely more fleshed out. The characters look more three dimensional than the choppy-looking characters of Shrek. This same choppiness bothered me in Madagascar, too. Ever taken a good look at Alex the lion's mane? It looks more like a box someone shoved around his head.
So, I probably know what you're thinking: I hate Dreamworks.
Well, that's not true.
Dreamworks interests me because they don't have the same reputation that Disney has holding them back from creating absolutely anything. Disney has become the poster child for family friendly entertainment, so they can't always be as daring with stories and characters as they could be. With Dreamworks, they have that option. They can be dark and gritty when they need to be. They also have the courage to break stereotypes in whatever way they want. Their animation style can also be beautiful every once in a while. In my opinion, Dreamworks at its best can be seen in Megamind and Rise of the Guardians (my favorite Dreamworks films). With both movies, each presents a story that the audience can easily connect with, and all the characters are very expressive and well designed. The animation quality in Rise of the Guardians is pure gold - every time I see the opening sequence of Jack Frost breaking through the ice, I get chills because it looks so real. This film also does a great job at creating a villain who not only looks good, but is also menacing and creepy - something I've never really experienced (yet) in a Disney film. Megamind plays around with the stereotypes of heroes and villains in a hilarious way while telling a story (popularly used by Disney) that you can be great no matter what your background is. To top it off, both films have amazing voice casts and soundtracks.
If you haven't seen either of them, you should...as soon as possible!
So while my childhood bias and older perspective do put me more in favor of Disney, I do keep my eyes open for Dreamworks, because they can create good movies. And now that NBCUniversal Comcast has bought the studio, perhaps Dreamworks will have more financial freedom to help them explore newer, bolder projects.
In any case, I'm interested to see what more will come from this rivalry!
~Maud,
Official Night Owl
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