So a while back I did a blog for Disney cause they were at the nice round number of 60 theatrical films. Saw Dreamsworks was at 50 and was like "scarcely gets rounder then that, might as well do it." So here I am 25 days later, having watched 2 films a day ready to give you the ranking.
My experience with Dreamworks is interesting, I don't have as much nostalgia for it as most people, having not seen most of these films prior to this. I feel like my ranking for its movies is mostly conventional, but does involve a few spicy takes. If I had to guess why, broadly Dreamworks is known for irreverent comedies. That's not all it does obviously, but it is the genre I saw most in this marathon and it's a genre that I don't really get the appeal of. For me when it comes to art I am primarily interested in themes and symbolism, then plot, then characters, then visuals and audio. It's totally fine if this is not your order of importance but I am most interested in art not as escapism but as communication tool, a way of expressing thoughts and feelings and ideas in a way more intuitive then just saying them. I recognize this is an unconventional way of viewing art, and as such my tastes in fiction can be a bit unusual though I hope you'll find most of my tastes in this ranking understandable.
I will be giving brief plot descriptions and referencing moments in the films so be warned: potential spoilers for every film here. I won't go out of my way to spoil things and my descriptions for each film won't be that long but if you want to go into a movie absolutely blind, you may wish to skip my description for that film.
Bottom Tier: 50-41:
50: Shark Tale:
Shark Tale is a pseudo-parody of a gangster movie set underwater. I say pseudo parody cause only really the villain's group has that aesthetic. Oscar is a down on his luck fish that wants to be a celebrity. When a shark dies via anchor chasing him, he takes credit for killing it becoming the legendary "shark slayer" getting the money and fame for it but incurring the wrath of the shark mafia.
The weird thing is I really don't hate Shark Tale in any real way. A bunch of movies here have evoked a stronger negative reaction to me at some point. The problem isn't that any one thing about this movie evokes a strong negative reaction, it's that I have trouble thinking of a single positive thing to say about it. The two reasons people seem to like it are nostalgia and ironic "meme" enjoyment. I don't have nostalgia for it and I don't enjoy things ironically so I'm left with just what the movie is. And the movie is subpar in basically any category I can think of, maybe not the worst in anything, but just so consistently bad that it is the lowest rated for me.
The theme and the plot are are diametric odds. It is supposed to be a basic "tell the truth, accept who you are" type moral, except if Oscar reveals he's not the Shark Slayer he would realistically get outcasted, sued, lose his job and, lest we forget, sharks will come and eat the Southside Reef with no protector. The plot has other things that aren't plot holes but require people to act like idiots to function like Oscar having Lenny pretend to eat Angie to sell their escape even though he knows Lenny is a vegetarian that gags when he eats fish yet stays to taunt them. The characters are broadly unlikeable with the sharks being the best part. The main male lead Oscar is egoistical and stupid. The main female lead Angie has an unexplained crush on him and is jealous and resentful acting like Oscar betrayed him for being kissed by another fish on TV despite never indicating her interest. The visual design is considered one of Dreamworks' worst. The humor randomly involves racial stereotypes. The best things in this film are just sort of decent and the film lacks positive traits for me to recommended. The best thing I can say about the film is that it was very easy to watch, there was basically no part that evoked any strong negative feelings from me but in some ways that may be the worst fate. It might have been better if something about this film was awful and something was good just so that there was at least one thing about it that left a positive impression on me.
49: Turbo:
Turbo is a film about a snail named Theo who wants to go fast but because he's a snail cannot go fast. he gets a superpower from Nitro to go fast, joins the Indie 500 to prove himself.
Turbo is a pretty boring movie to the fact that I can't remember a lot of what happened in it without external aid. Both the theme and presentation of that theme are not just bog standard, they are outright cliche. Everything in this movie one will see coming a mile away including the "twist villain" which is not the worst twist villain I've ever seen but it is the most pointless. It's the big racer that Turbo idolized who turns out to be a jerk, just like everyone would have expected, even though it makes you wonder why he even supported Turbo being allowed to race and even though they'd be racing anyway. The characters are rather bland without any particularly memorable positive character moments. The jokes are tepid. It's a movie that lacks flavor or interest and which escapes memory as soon I finished it.
Comparing it to Shark Tale, I put Turbo over because for as very bland as Turbo is, its world is less grimy and negative. The animation is better, things are cleaner, and the character relationships more positive.
48: Monsters vs Aliens:
Monsters vs Aliens is an attempted homage to 50s and 60s B Movies. The plot is that on the day of her wedding Susan Murphy grows to the size of a building and is captured by the government and brought to a holding cell where other monsters are kept. There they are kept in captivity until an alien named Gallaxhar invades with the government offering the Monsters their freedom if they can stop Gallaxhar.
That sounds like it could be really good. There are really two problems with Monsters vs Aliens. One is the animation, especially on the humans, which causes many people to say that this is Dreamworks worst film visually. That's something I can look past pretty easily. The other is that it's a comedy that's not funny. Like I don't think every joke is bad, but on the scale of "no reaction" to "can't breath cause laughing too hard" Monsters vs Aliens' jokes range from "no reaction" to "a light smile." Like I like the joke of Ginormica hanging to the side of a building screaming only for it to pan out and reveal she was like barely off the ground cause she's also building sized. That said its humor isn't really strong enough to hold attention while watching it which means as a comedy it doesn't achieve its purpose. The characters and plot are pretty meh, the scene with Ginormica's jerk almost husband is unpleasant, not really much to say.
I put it above Turbo because it was at least slightly more memorable with like maybe 3 or 4 jokes I liked compared to Turbo's maybe 1 and even if the animation is worse in Monsters vs Aliens it at least has a slightly better art style homaging Monster Movies.
47: The Boss Baby:
I know some people really do like this one, but it's really not me for me. The plot is that there is a secret company of genius babies that sends babies to integrate into the lives of normal people pretending to be normal babies. The main character 7-year old Tim gets one of these babies as his new "younger" brother that being the Boss Baby, the two having sibling rivalry as they try to stop the CEO of PuppyCo from introducing puppies so cute nobody will care about babies anymore.
So remember how I said Shark Tale might have done a bit better if some parts of it were more awful in exchange for some parts being good. Well Boss Baby is that. The negatives of Boss Baby incited more negative feeling in me then anything prior on this list. There is a lot of humor about butts, it has one of the most pointless "best friend breakup scenes" in any of these movies, and early on Tim literally tries to kill his baby brother by launching him into traffic. Now there are some parts that are better. Like Monster vs Aliens there are a few jokes that I actually liked, like when the babies are holding a meeting and Boss Baby asks another one taking backs to read back the notes and she says "I can't read... what's it say?!" excitedly holding up scribbles. That was funny. Similarly the animation is creative and inventive a lot of the time and Hans Zimmer goes hard on the score. But it really doesn't make up for the rest of the film to me.
Comparing it to Monsters vs Aliens, both have roughly the same of amount of funny jokes even if Boss Baby's are probably a bit funnier. Boss Baby has things I dislike much more then Monsters vs Aliens but I guess I'd say it's a lot more memorable and has things I'd say are good, putting it above MvA.
46: Home:
Home involves an alien race called the Boov known for their cowardliness hiding on Earth to escape the Gorg. One Boov named Oh tries to throw a party but accidentally sends an invitation to the Gorg while a human girl named Tip tries to find her mom, the two attempting to help each other with their goals.
Home is a weird movie to talk about. Humorwise this is maybe the worst on the list. Not because it lacks any good jokes, there are a few I liked, but this is the only movie that had a few jokes so bad I felt an actual negative response to them, most famously when Oh mistakenly eats out of a toilet. The Boov in general talk like "I can haz cheeseburger" cats which I think was supposed to be a joke but was mostly meh. That said there were things I kinda liked about it. The first 10 minutes have the Boov invade Earth and send all the "primitive" humans to Australia so they can hide in their homes which was something I'll admit I've never seen before, a movie that just starts with a victorious alien invasion for no other reason then to hide on Earth. I did like some of the confusion and misunderstandings culturally between Oh and Tip, being fond of that confused alien tropes.
Comparing it to Boss Baby, it's a lot like Shark Tale vs Turbo where the two are overall kinda similar feeling to both being movies that have some bad negatives and some mild positives as well, but the higher up one just feels like it comes from a slightly more pleasant world with characters I can root for more.
45: Puss in Boots (2011):
I have to be honest, I originally had this movie even lower until I calmed myself and told myself I couldn't put it that low just for one thing. Puss in Boots is about the Titular Fugitive from the Law Swordscat Puss in Boots. He is contacted for a job from his old friend turned enemy Humpy Dumpy and Humpy's associated Kitty Softpaws to steal magic beans from the outlaws Jack and Jill and perform a heist on the giant's tower to get the golden eggs and restore his honor.
Unlike Shrek which likes to poke fun at Fairy Tale tropes, this movie plays them very straight, which is fine. I liked Puss and Kitty fine as characters. But I HATED Humpty, maybe my least favorite character in any of these movies. Humpty and Puss were outlaws but Puss became a hero while Humpty didn't. Humpty tricked Puss into a failed bank heist, ruining Puss' good name, turning everyone including his adopted mother against him, and forcing him to be on the run from his beloved San Ricardo since he was a teenager. Humpty pretends to work with him the entire heist being an entire ploy to get revenge on Puss for "betraying" him for "abandoning" him during the failed bank heist, the crime he was tricked into doing. Puss didn't "abandon" Humpty, Humpty tricked him into committing a crime that ruined his life and rightfully left him for prison. Then Puss talks to him for like 30 seconds and he instantly turns "good" and sacrifices himself to stop the Giant Chicken going to destroy the town that he caused. Oh and Puss is still on the run. Reputational Damage is one of my least favorite things in fiction, it makes my skin crawl and while it's slightly remedied by Puss being this local hero to the townsfolk of San Ricardo, they still think he's a criminal and he's still on the run from the law. This moved evoked more negative reaction from me then any other movie here. However it really is just Humpy that's the problem. Kitty's backstory of becoming Kitty Softpaws because she was declawed by her owners but uses it to move silently is cool and Puss is cool and the fairy tale stuff is fine. So much of this movie is fine or even pretty nice, though in fairness it is also pretty stock stuff. You're certainly not gonna get surprised a lot by the plot and no jokes from it really stick out in my mind.
Like I said I initially had it even lower but like, the bottom 5 including Home are films that even if they didn't invoke such a negative reaction from me as this one, it also has good points that are better then the good points in any of them and holds one's attention better.
44: The Croods: A New Age:
This film involves the Croods, a bunch of primitive cavemen, meeting up with the Bettermans who are slightly more advanced people and getting into a bunch of conflicts over their two lifestyles.
I feel like this movie and the other Croods should have inverse reputations. I hear people say this movie's a lot better then the first one and I genuinely have no idea what people are talking about, this movie is awful. The joke people complain about that really isn't in the Croods "caveman invents/references modern thing" happens all the time in this movie, even before they meet the Bettermans with the Croods arguing about the "Tablet" (literally a stone tablet they use like a modern Tablet.) The Bettermans are such annoying characters and it's full of pointless family drama from both sides that's so unpleasent. A lot of this movie I really didn't like. I couldn't stand like ANY of the family drama between the Croods and the Bettermans which is most of the characters, plot, and humor. I will say there were some bright spots. I really enjoyed the relationship between Eep, the teen daughter of the Croods and Dawn, teen daughter of the Bettermans. Despite their families conflicting and the ease with which it could be an annoying catty love triangle over Guy, the two have an entirely wholesome relationship that's really sweet. I also think the ending sequence is alright. It tries to be girl power-y and I mean it's kinda lamely done but I can appreciate the intent.
Comparing Puss in Boots 2011 with Croods: A New Age is an interesting one. Humpty is worse to me then any one particular thing then Croods: A New Age but Croods: A New Age has more bad things overall. I like Eep and and Dawn's relationship better then anything in Puss in Boots but Puss in Boots has a lot more alright things. I put Croods: A New Age higher though because... I don't know how to put this but the things that are bad in Puss in Boots, or rather the one thing is central to it, it's one thing but it's a thing that's central to the entire movie. It's what makes it so hard to think about the better parts of that movie, because they're so interwoven with that which got a stronger negative reaction from me anything in this list. In Croods: A New Age, the good and bad parts are surprisingly easy to separate off from each other, the terrible family drama can be separated off fairly easily for me from the few good parts of the film to me.
43: Spirit: Untamed:
Spirit: Untamed is confusingly not a sequel to Spirit, but instead a reboot...thing with nothing to do with the original Spirit. The film is about Lucy Prescott who's mom died from a failed horse trick and so her father sends her away from the Ranch because he doesn't want to endanger but she causes a lot of trouble and returns there befriending the horse "Spirit." A bunch of Wranglers come to steal away Spirit's herd and Lucy and friends go on a horse adventure to save the herd.
I feel SOOOOO bad for fans of the original Spirit. Whatever you thought of original Spirit, it was a film with vision and passion, only for it to be rebooted with literally nothing to do with the original except a horse named Spirit with the same design. And it's not like it was rebooted for something good, it's just a generic horse girl story meant for girls who like horses to squee at the horses. I can tolerate this kinda movie better then most I think and even I found it pretty boring. I will say I liked the dad character. Jim Prescott is a scatterbrain struggling single father who clearly has a lot of trouble dealing with the untimely death of his wife and trying so hard to keep his daughter to safe... however this is a double edged sword as it makes Lucy causing him problems to feel so much worse, and in the beginning of the film she's a real bother to everyone. I am not a fan of the rebellious kid archetype in general, nor the very cliche overprotective dad/rebellious daughter trope when the overprotective dad has a pretty good reason to be. I get Jim was overdoing it but at the same time, you can't really blame him.
This movie's a lot more dull then The Croods: A New Age but in this case that's kind of a good thing as it's because there's a lot less annoyances and I'll take kinda dull girl and her horse stuff over annoying family drama. I say that because this movie has annoying family drama and when it happened I wanted it to go back to the horses. It doesn't have anything as good as Eep and Dawn's relationship but eh, I'd take that trade.
42: Shrek the Third:
After the death of Harold, Shrek doesn't want the responsibility of being king so goes on a quest to find Arthur, the one other person with a claim to the throne of the Kingdom of Far Far Away. Meanwhile Prince Charming returns and takes over in his absence.
You know this movie is a little overhated in my opinion. Is it the worst Shrek? By a good margin. But I've seen people say it's the worst Dreamworks film and uhhhh IDK about that. Talking about the bad parts of this movie the comedy is... just gonna say it, cringe. Like there's a scene where Shrek is trying to relate to Arthur by talking hip. It is meant to be Cringe yet it is so much more Cringe then it intends to be. It's the least funny Shrek film by a good margin. The villains are pretty weak this film. Granted if I'm totally honest outside of 2 the villains in the Shrek Films are really not a selling point and Prince Charming's really not that much worse then Lord Farquaad. They are both egotistical princes with an overinflated sense of self. The problem is Prince Charming has to be intimidating for the plot of Shrek the Third to work in a way Farquaad didn't have to be threatening for Shrek 1 and Charming isn't threatening. The villains otherwise change their allegiances via dramatic speech twice in the film and especially the second time it is rather forced which is bad considering it's the climax of the film. Shrek is also grappling with the responsibility of being a father this film and has nightmare sequences of his children which are pretty gross. With all that said, this is far from the worst Dreamworks film to me. It is still a Shrek film and honestly I still like the main characters pretty well. There are occasionally funny lines (like Pinocchio using lots of negatives in his sentence to try and avoid telling Charming where Shrek is without lying) and there's the scene with Shrek talking to Arthur that is the requisite Shrek emotional scene and it works well, most people will tell you it's the good scene in the film. There's also an attempted girl power-y scene where the Princesses storm the castle Charming controls. I'm just gonna be honest, while I as an adult woman don't feel especially girl power-y watching this, I feel like if I watched this as a young girl I would have thought that was super cool and made me excited to see, all the fairy tail princesses being cool. So yeah worst Shrek Film definitely. Bottom 10 Dreamworks films probably. But it's far from the worst Dreamworks film for me.
I definitely like it more then Spirit: Untamed. It's a lot less boring for one, and the good guys are actually fairly likeable. It can get a lot more cringe then Spirit: Untamed but I'll take being cringey and having the Shrek and Arthur scene any day.
41: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie:
Two schoolchildren George and Harold who are often in trouble at school due to their overbearing professor hypnotize him into becoming the hero of the comic book they make together Captain Underpants, a Hero who fights crime in his underpants, and fights against the mad scientist Professor Poopypants.
I have not read the childrens' book series this is based off so I can't talk about accuracy to it. But I will say that if you can't tell by the title, basically everything about this film runs against my tastes in fiction. I don't wanna say "bad" because I know this style of content appeals to a lot of people and to what I can tell this movie appeals to that successfully. But I don't really get the appeal. Hypnotizing someone to basically expose themselves publicly was quite unpleasant to watch, more so coming from our supposed heroes and I almost put this lower. The only reason it wasn't is no one reacts to it in a demeaning or scandalized way suggesting stylistically it's not a big deal in this universe. It was tough to know how to rank this because I'm sure it appeals to people who like these things very well, it's just not me. I don't have a special love for childhood or childishness, I find the idea off-putting, the humor didn't strike a chord with me and the movie does one of my least favorite things which is pre-empting criticism from people who won't like it and then presenting them in an unflattering way. I will say the animation for this one was pretty good and the friendship between the main characters was sweet. Also I thought Edith was pretty cute, pining after Mr Krupp shyly.
Compared to Shrek the Third it's a movie I liked the intents but felt they were done poorly vs a movie where I don't get the appeal but it seems to have done well. Truthfully I am not confident I didn't put this one higher because I know it's so much more beloved. I guess I also feel though like this movie did the best one might expect with the premise and if you aren't as fond of it like me it's because the premise was never really gonna appeal to you while Shrek the Third kinda wastes its potential.
Low Tier: 40-31:
40: Chicken Run:
Chicken Run is a British Stop-Motion Film about a bunch of chickens on an egg farm try to escape before being turned into chicken pot pie. A Circus Rooster from the US crashes there and under the misimpression he can fly and that he can teach them to fly with it being a fairly conventional liar revealed story.
This film was pretty dull for me to be honest. It's fairly slow paced and while I liked the main character Ginger and her determination and pluck well, so much of it is just Rocky trying to teach them to fly when he knows they can't fly and waiting for the liar reveal plot. As such I found it pretty boring to get through. The characters were broadly fine and if you're into stop motion or a different kind of comedy then you might like this one more but it's definitely my taste.
Comparing to the Captain Underpants movie, both are movies that are not really my taste, but I liked the characters in this more broadly.
39: Kung Fu Panda 4:
Kung Fu Panda 4 features Po's time as the Dragon Warrior coming to an end as he must take on the role of Spiritual Leader and appoint a new successor to the role of Dragon Warrior. He doesn't want to however, being happy with his place and not wanting things to change. He travels with a wanted thief fox named Zhen to apprehend a villain who does nothing but change, the Chameleon, who uses her powers to assume the roles of other people.
I don't tend to like the complaint "why did this story need to be made" because I feel like need to be made is such a bizarre bar to ask series to clear. But if it applied to anything, it would be Kung Fu Panda 4. The story was set, it was over in 3. Everything about this film screams it was made by Dreamworks just because Kung Fu Panda was profitable and without any sense that the people working on it wanted to make Kung Fu Panda 4. It introduces the idea of Dragon Warrior having to pick a successor like a title which was not the case in the prior films, the Furious Five aren't in it, Master Shifu is barely in it. Its themes are barely connected to the prior films. Po's fine in it but this is his worst role as the theme doesn't feel natural to him because him choosing a successor doesn't feel natural. Now there are two good things about this movie. I liked the two biggest new characters in it Zhen and the Chameleon. They're not like the most amazing villains in the series, but Zhen I enjoyed as much as some of the Furious Five Members and I day say I think I liked the Chameleon more then I liked Kai from 3. The other thing is Tai Lung's return! He's my favorite villain in Dreamworks and even though it was basically just a cameo seeing him come to respect Po and return to the Spirit World willingly was great!
Comparing it to Chicken Run both were fairly dull for large portions of it to me, but I definitely liked the characters in KFP4 more then Chicken Run. Tai Lung along was better.
38: Bee Movie:
Bee Movie. It's just so... Bee Movie, ya know? Bee Movie is about Barry Benson who is a Bee that doesn't fit into the Hive. He ventures into the outside, has a romance with a human florist, sues the major Honey Industries for Bees to get their honey back, accidentally causes an environmental collapse because of it and then stops the environmental collapse the last two happening in the last 20-30 minutes of the movie.
A lot of people like this movie from an ironic standpoint. I don't really tend to like movies "ironically" so this is where I'd place it for actual genuine enjoyment. The theme of the movie is somehow both stocked and also confused seemingly being about individualism but then having whole chunks that have nothing to do with that. The plot is a mess that alternates between several plots haphazardly. However I actually like the humor a bit more then most of the prior movies. It's a rather particular type of humor, the kind of kinda silted forced humor that makes you feel like there should be a laugh track and knows it's cheesy. With that said I must have a greater tolerance for that then normal as while nothing in this movie was chuckle worthy per se, it was decently amusing, particularly near the start with the jokes about being a bee. That said if you want that kind of experience I would suggest Antz first.
As much as the best parts of Kung Fu Panda 4 are better then Bee Movie, I can't deny that there were more scenes in Bee Movie I liked then Kung Fu Panda 4. KFP4 is a film that I feel disappointed in given how good the first three were, while Bee Movie is a movie that baffled me.
37: Over the Hedge:
Over the Hedge involves a raccoon named RJ who accidentally destroys the food a bear named Vincent gathered for hibernation. Vincent gives RJ a week to replace all the food he lost of Vincent will eat him. RJ tricks a bunch of other animals into stealing food from the humans for him.
So in watching all these Dreamworks films I got really sick of the liar revealed plots and the end of second act friendship breakup scene. These scenes were always the same and they made every film they were in worse. The villains in this film are pretty well known with the Verminator an ultra-violent bloodthirsty animal exterminator, and the other characters are perfectly fine. It's the main character and the plot in general I didn't like It's basically watching an entire movie building up to a Liar Revealed Plot. I thought the food scene where he explains how everything humans do relates to food was very funny though.
Comparing it to the Bee Movie, this movie has a ton of absolutely underratedly insane things including a Quicksilver-style scene of Hammy the Squirrel hyped up on coffee running so fast everything is frozen but coming out before that While this film has the same insanity of the Bee Movie it also has much more coherence as an experience, and while that way might cohere in a plot that is a predictable and unpleasant cliche it does make it easier to understand what the viewer is supposed to take from it.
36: Madagascar 3:
Madagascar 3 is a film in which the Madagascar crew join a circus to escape from an absolutely insane animal control Captain Chanel Debois pursuing them, pretending to be American Circus Animals that can teach the struggling European Circus Animals new tricks.
It was not easily the best one yet. If anything I would say it's the weakest of the Madagascar trio of films. Not that I hate these films or anything, but all three of the films are thematically and atmospherically light, and everything about them is just sort of alright. Like the Three Madagascar films are roughly what I think of when I think "children's movie." This is the weakest to me because it's just a liars revealed plot again, something Dreamworks has done over and over and is never fun to watch. I will say the highlight of this movie is the villain who is an unstoppable force of willpower chasing after these animals. There's a scene where they think they've escaped her and she just tears through wall after wall to get them and it's really funny. The Circus Animals are fine, I like them to a similar degree as the main cast and I think the ending was good. That said I have to admit a lot of the movie I don't really remember.
Comparing it to Over the Hedge, both have a very good over the top villain and both a liar revealed plot though the liar revealed plot took up much less time in Madagascar 3 and was done with altogether better reasons. It's also just a more pleasant upbeat movie, with a vaguely positive vibe, especially with the ending.
35: Mr. Peabody and Sherman:
Mr. Peabody and Sherman follows the time traveling duo of the hypergenius dog Mr. Peabody and his adopted son Sherman. After Sherman bites a schoolmate named Penny during a fight, Child Protective Services threaten to take Sherman away and Mr. Peabody has to impress them. During the party Sherman and Penny use the time traveling machine forcing Mr. Peabody to help rescue them and develop a better bond with Sherman.
So it's funny because in a movie called Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the good part is Mr. Peabody and the bad part is Sherman. That's really not an exaggeration, Mr. Peabody is a really good character. He's kind and patient, smart and funny, hyper-competent yet realistically flawed in his overly formal and detached way of thinking and speaking. That said I could not stand Penny and Sherman. Sherman does nothing but cause problems for Mr. Peabody and then the movie acts like he needs to trust Sherman more. Penny bullies Sherman, gets them into even more trouble then Sherman does, and then the film has an out of nowhere forced romance between the two children because God forbid a boy and a girl just be friends. That duality fills this film. This is a film filled with history and history jokes, and I love history. But it's also not coincidentally a film about time travel and I'm not a fan of time travel. This is a film where there's stuff I do really like and things I really dislike that are glued together.
Compared to Madagascar 3, this is a film where the good and the bad are kinda even and spread across the entire time film, whereas in that film it was a little good, a little bad, and a lot of in the middle. This film doesn't really have an in the middle, it's basically just the good and the bad through the entire film. I put it here just cause I feel like this film was more unique but like a lot of these it's a very slight step up.
34: Penguins of Madagascar:
Is it odd to anyone else the villain's motive is basically the same as the Boss Baby's? This is a spinoff of Madagascar involving the four secret agent referencing penguins who gets themselves involved with an an actual animal secret organization North Wind intent on stopping an octopus that wants to kidnap all penguins from Zoos and turn them into monsters, angry that he was always passed up for the cute penguins.
This film is fine, The penguins are amusing enough characters and their bond is fairly heartfelt. The villain's also alright though the North Wind Agents are pretty eh. I remember thinking the jokes in this were better then average but the actual plot and what happens was kinda forgettable. The film's primarily about Private, the baby of the team and how they're overprotective of him and how he wants to be helpful. The bond between the penguins is very sweet and my favorite scene is probably the very start showing the three penguins saving the egg that Private hatches from. That said for as much as I did enjoy this movie while watching, I don't actually recall it much which leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Comparing to Mr. Peabody and Sherman, I remember a lot more what happened in that movie, but a good half of that was because I was angry at it. With this film I know that I should remember, but what I do remember was enjoying it.
33: Madagascar:
Madagascar is about four animal friends from the New York Zoo. When Marty the Zebra wants to experience the wild he escapes the Zoo pursued his friends who want to bring him back. Thinking it's for their own good, humans put the four are put in boxes back to the wild, ending up on the island of Madagascar
I said Madagascar as a film series is kinda what I think of when I think children's' films and Madagascar 1 is especially so being the middle in quality. It's got some good jokes like Melvin who's head is in a clock saying "guys, we're running out of time." It's got bad jokes focused around butts. It's got references, oh boy does it have references. It's got a simple but reasonable theme about friendship, a fairly simple lot with one particularly intense scene where Alex the lion, scared of eating his friends isolates himself to protect them. It lacks the liar revealed plot which is a nice surprise, though it does have the friendship breakup scene. It's fun for children and amusing enough time for an adult, even if it feels somewhat insubstantial.
Compared to Penguins of Madagascar, it's probably not quite as funny as that movie, but the bond between the four is as heartwarming, Alex's scene of trying to protect the others is a scene I enjoyed more, and I enjoyed the side characters in Madagascar more, though Penguins does have the better villain.
32: Shrek Forever After:
Shrek Forever After continues after Shrek 3. Shrek is a father but he gets fed up with his domestic life makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin giving up one day of his childhood in exchange for a day of freedom, getting tricked into giving up the day he was born sending him into a dark timeline where Fiona is the leader of the ogre resistance against Rumpelstiltskin.
So I've heard a lot of good things about this movie but to be the first two-thirds really didn't impress. It started with a really terrible scene showing how bad Shrek's life is as a father and him being really mean to Fiona. Then it spends a good amount of time showing the dark timeline without Shrek which is never something I find compelling in these kind of stories because we know it's gonna be reversed so it feels inconsequential. Similarly Shrek needs to convince Fiona that he's from another timeline yet she's perfectly willing to listen to him to a point so the entire time I was like "just tell her something you couldn't possibly know if you weren't from another timeline, something that takes him way too long to think of, and which the film not very convincingly addresses. I was ready to put this film honestly down just above Shrek the Third. However the last third of this movie is actually really cool. Shrek willingly gives himself up not trying to get his world back but just to help the other ogres and especially the woman he loves. This leads into a really lovely sequence where as Shrek starts to fade away in Fiona's arms, his one day ending, and thinking these will be his last words says "You know what the best part of today was? I got the chance to fall in love with you all over again." That was a beautiful brilliant section equal to the best scenes of the first two Shreks. The fact that the film takes so long to get going is a problem but that scene along puts it above most of the things prior in the ranking.
Compared to Madagascar Shrek Forever After is a far less even experience but Madagascar is to me is pretty much just an iconic children's film to me, and while what's good in Shrek Forever after is rarer, it's so much more substantial to me. It's going to be a bit before we get to a film with as good a scene as that, and this is roughly where I think having just that really good last third puts this film.
31: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron:
Spirit is a movie about the Titular Horse Spirit who is the leader of a wild horse herd, but is captured by the US Cavalry during the height of a war with the Indigenous tribes. He escapes and befriends a Native named Little Creek. The horses in the film do not speak though voiceover provides the thoughts of the protagonist.
This film is interesting for me. Like most people I feel like the voiceover was unnecessary and probably not intended to be there from the start as most of the time Spirit's feelings can be intuited by his actions and expressions and the voiceover is telling the audience what they can already see. The plot gets a little repetitive at one point with Spirit getting captured, escaping, then later getting captured again and escapind again and I also don't really vibe with "nature good man bad" type content. While Spirit isn't that, I do feel it tends towards that kinda vibe. With that said I liked the connection between Spirit and Little Creek and moreover this is the first movie where there's really an underlying theme to sink my teeth into on this list with the overall message of the movie which is that they could never tame Spirit, with Spirit representing the spirit of freedom and nature.
Comparing Spirit to Shrek Forever After both have one part I really enjoyed and a lot that was not as good but the parts of Spirit before Shrek Forever after felt more connected to the symbolism then the first two-things of Shrek Forever felt connected to me to the best scene in Shrek Forever After.
Mid Tiers: 30-21:
30: Abominable:
Abominable is a movie where a Yeti is retrieved from the Himalayas but escapes into Shanghai. Some local children endeavor to return it to its rightful home pursued by an angry businessman who wants to prove Yetis at real to the world.
Abominable reminds me a lot of Spirit in a lot of ways. It's a film that's really pro-nature. It has one great part, that being all the stuff with Yi and her relationship to her family struggling after her father passed on. The rest is a fairly typical children's movie about a Yeti with seemingly all powerful nature powers helping them escape a bunch of times. In terms of positives I liked Yi and Jin fairly well and Peng was fine. There's a twist villain in this movie that genuinely surprised me and it's nice to see movies set in different locations. That said the Yeti is kind of overpowered with its general control over nature making you wonder how there was conflict at points and it had a liar revealed type plot in it.
Comparing it to Spirit, they're fairly similar in that both are very nature-y film with one part I really liked and the rest being fairly conventional. That said while Spirit feels more adult, I feel like Abominable was more surprising in the plot with the twist villain and the different locale then typical, as well as the obvious benefit of 17 years of animation progression.
29: The Boss Baby: Family Business:
The Boss Baby 2 is a sequel in which both the Boss Baby and Tim are grown up but reverted into age to infiltrate Tim's daughter's school to investigate another incident, with the two growing closer together and Tim connecting with his daughter.
Everyone says this film is so much better then the prior and while it's true, I do think people may hype up this film's quality a bit too much. It is really sweet seeming Tim and his daughter Tabitha bond at the same age, Tim and Boss Baby's connection is good, and a lot of the worst elements of the last was execised. It still has a lot of the worse Dreamworks tropes. All movie long Tim is reminded that about Tabitha's part in the School Pageant, one she's super nervous for and wants him to be there for and he says he'll be there and it's not till the child age Tim is literally encouraging Tabitha to go out there at the pageant that he realizes the problem causing the stereotypical sad scene of her seeing her dad's not there and running off crying. Thankfully this misunderstanding scene is blessedly short but still. I also hear people describe it as really funny and eh, I mean its humor is fine for me but maybe I don't get it.
Comparing it to Abominable, they both feel like fairly conventional children's animated films with some cool parts to me, but while both have a liar revealed plot for instance, The Boss Baby 2's is very short. Both have these poignant moments but with Abominable it's almost all at the start while in Boss Baby 2 it's spread out over the film. It's another jump up to me.
28: Trolls:
Trolls is a movie about a species of a diminutive colored singing happy creatures called Trolls. They are hunted by large miserable and orcish creatures called Bergens. At a party the Trolls are throwing, several of them are abducted by a Bergen chef, who wants to prepare them to be eaten by the Bergen Prince as the Bergens believe eating a Troll is the only way they will feel happy. The Princess of the Trolls Poppy and an uncharacteristically serious cynical troll named Branch go to rescue them.
So the biggest complaint I see about this movie is that it's a movie for babies. And like yeah granted it's probably got one of the youngest audience expectations of the Dreamworks line up. But maybe I'm just particularly good at tolerating content for young children cause that never bothered me. I found Trolls to be very cutesy and enjoyable. Simple though it was I enjoyed the visual metaphor representing the theme of the movie with the Trolls colors representing their personality and hearts. I feel like I'm pretty bad at assessing musicals in general so I'll just say I thought the music was nice and the Trolls version of Sound of Silence was pretty funny I thought. If I was to talk about weaknesses, the villain seemed pretty weak to me as far as villains and it's obviously not the most nuanced interesting thing in the world but sometimes you just wanna watch cat videos and this scratches the same impulse.
Comparing Trolls to Boss Baby 2, both had moments of pretty genuine emotion I really like and while Boss Baby's 2 were probably more nuanced from an adult writing perspective, it's also got like more parts I wasn't as fond of. The biggest flaw of Trolls 1, it's antagonists is also kinda a problem with Boss Baby 2 for me as the villain of that me was one I felt meh about. Really the difference is I liked the visual and auditory language for Trolls 1 more.
27: How to Train Your Dragon
In a Viking village of Berk regularly attacked by and focusing on the hunting down and killing of Dragons, the son of Chieftan Stoick, named Hiccup is a soft sensitive boy. He manages to wound the tail of a legendary type of Dragon called the Night Fury. He goes to finish it off, but is unable to, the two forming a strange friendship that Hiccup keeps secret wanting to learn to understand and form connections with the dragons instead of killing them.
So I know that putting HTTYD is probably the most controversial opinion on this list. To be honest I don't super get the appeal of this one. When I looked up why people love this movie so much the two biggest reasons were sensory reasons: ie the visuals and sounds were beautiful which they are but as mentioned that's kinda the least important part for me. The second of the big reasons is that they really related to Hiccup. While I can totally appreciate that, I don't super relate to Hiccup. In terms of plot and symbolism and stuff, the film felt fairly stock to me. It's the story of big strong masculine man with a non-stereotypically masculine child who they don't understand, complete with the father misunderstanding them, thinking they have come around only to have "you're not my son" speech and a the child saves the day with whatever their talent was. Like this is a movie that excels at the things I don't care as much about and is fine at the things I do care about. Talking about the positives, the visuals and music are very good, great even. Toothless is very cute and I was not surprised he was patterned after a cat. I liked Astrid and Hiccup alright though most of the side characters don't really do much for me and I feel like the romance between Hiccup and Astrid feels a bit sudden in this movie. Also this is not really a complaint about the film about people's reaction to it. People act like Hiccup losing a leg and getting a mechanical one at the end makes it so different but like, that change doesn't effect the plot at all. A character losing a limb dramatically and having it replaced by an artificial one is something that happened in the Bee Movie. Adam stung the corrupt lawyer and almost died having his stinger replaced by a sword pick.
Comparing it to Trolls is a weird endeavor. I enjoyed the visual and audio elements of both but like it's kinda like comparing a Cute Cat Picture with like Museum Art. Just because I enjoy both doesn't mean one isn't more enriching to see. I actually probably like the characters in Trolls 1 more on average but I mean it's not a big gap and HTTYD does obviously have much more of a sense of maturity and atmosphere and thematic cohesion across the story.
26: Antz:
The very first Dreamworks movie, and honestly it's pretty fitting for them, being about halfway up the list and fitting their general thematic feel. Antz is a movie about a worker ant named Z who has an existential crisis about his general insignificance to the Hive. When the Princess of the Hive wanted to explore and slips into the common dance floor, the two form a special connection. At the same time a Soldier Ant named General Mandible seeks to destroy most of the Hive and create a Social Darwinist Hive for the fittest and strongest only.
Antz is like the Bee Movie but for real. Obviously the visuals are very outdated. That said thematically and characterwise it is essentially that movie but better with a far more logical cohesive plot. The theme of Antz is individuality, the importance of individuals and how they can't just be thrown aside for the collective like General Mandible wants to do. This is a theme I can really resonate with. The characters range from decent like Z and Princess Bala who do a pretty typical bickering into romantic relationship routine (both trying to break out from their role), to good like General Mandible who is an intimidating and cunning villain and Z's soldier ant friend Corporal Weaver who is entertaining but good natured and reasonable and has his own sweet romantic subplot I kinda preferred to the primary one.
Comparing Antz to HTTYD, HTTYD exceeds in more ways but in ways that are not specifically resonant to me. Antz's portrayal of individuals resonates with me. The visual gap between the two doesn't really mean much to me when I vibe with the meaning behind it. I also liked the characters more overall and found the plot slightly more surprising with Antz's surprising darkness and grimmer more adult atmosphere then one would expect.
25: The Bad Guys:
The film stars a group of anthromorphic animals commonly assumed to be the bad guys who act as a group of master thieves led by Mr. Wolf. The new governor, Governor Foxington expresses her boredom with their predictability, taunting the Bad Guys to try to steal the elusive Golden Dolphin award which no thieves have been able to. Because this movie has a bunch of plot twists, and that's part of the appeal I won't go any further, just know that this is all the basically the start of the movie.
This is a film that exceeds on the plot. This is a really fun plot with twists and turns, and a fun atmosphere. It's also got a really well regarded atmosphere and animation style. The atmosphere and genre isn't one that specifically appeals to me but it's also not that is adverse to me so it was just a matter of they did the genre and atmosphere well so I enjoyed it. I will say that thematically it's pretty basic, at its heart it's basically a redemption story and I don't vibe with it's meaning as much as the prior film but it's presentation was so slick and interesting I had to put it in the upper half. I think for a lot of people it will be still too low, though it does kinda have a liar revealed type thing in it, though with multiple layers so it's at least more interesting then normal.
Comparing it to Antz, I like what Antz was trying to say more then what the Bad Guys was trying to say but at the same time The Bad Guys' presents what it's trying to say with so much style and atmosphere I feel like I wanna put it higher. I like the characters and humor pretty similarly, but I don't think Antz's slight edge in themes makes up for the wide gap in aesthetic and the reasonable gap in plot.
24: Trolls Band Together:
In the third film of Trolls Band together, Poppy and Branch are enjoying their lives together when Branch's brother John Dory shows up and reveals that he and Branch were part of a boy band made of 5 brothers before the band broke part. One of their brothers, Floyd, is having his lifeforce sucked to power the musical abilities of two pop stars and they have to gather the brothers together again in order to save Floyd.
Trolls 3 is often considered the Best Trolls film and while I don't necessarily agree I do think it's better then the first. On the downside there is a friendship breakup scene between the brothers that everyone can see coming. But there are a lot of positives to the film. Poppy and Branch's relationship is really sweet and a girl who really likes romance it's so refreshing to actually have a romantic relationship that develops and isn't just "romantic tension" or "married." Poppy is at her best here and seeing her be a supportive girlfriend to Branch's familial problems is really sweet. The relationship between the brothers and the boy band references/jokes are funny. The villains are the most popular in the series, and while I am not quite as crazy for them as most, I do get it and they are very fun, a pair of pop idol divas who drain the lifeforce from trolls to power their singing.
I know not a lot of people probably prefer this film to the Bad Guys, but I don't know the Bad Guys is really stylish and cool but I feel like I can get that from a lot of films while Trolls 3 gives me something I get more rarely, especially a fun wholesome developing relationship.
23: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit:
This one is another British Stop Motion film starring a wacky eccentric inventor named Wallace and his sardonic silent dog Gromit. Their county is having a vegetable fair but an infestation of rabbits has been causing problems. Wallace tries to solve the problem by connecting his mind to the rabbits' in an attempt to give them his love of cheese instead of vegetables, however the experiment goes wrong and in the dead of night he turns into the fearsome were-rabbit.
Yes, "I" liked the movie with all the rabbits, I'll let you hold your surprise. But no I think this film is super charming. Wallace and Gromit make for a really dynamic combination with Wallace's eccentric open-minded contrasted with Gromit's sardonic down-to-earthiness presented wordlessly. I enjoyed Lady Tottington this high class lady who loves bunnies and the parody of monster movies is both atmospheric and funny depending on the scene. I will say the villain is kinda meh and it has one of the worst friendship breakup scenes in any Dreamworks film with Wallace changing into his rabbit form while Lady Tottington is trying to express her feelings with him trying to get away and transforming making it seem due to incredibly bad timing to be him mocking her feelings.
Compared to Trolls 3, I feel like both films have really good central pairs though I feel like this film balances Wallace and Gromit a bit better then Trolls 3 which places more emphasis on Branch. The villains are obviously better in Trolls 3, and its worst scene is worse then anything in Trolls 3, but I feel like this film has a much stronger sense of identity while also remaining as charming and cute if just due to the subject matter.
22: Dog Man:
The newest of the Dreamworks Films, Dog Man is a film set in a very wacky world where a policeman and his loyal police dog were in a terrible accident leaving only the dog's head and the man's body salvageable, being put together to make Dog Man, the dog-human police. His adversary is an evil cat scientist named Petey. Petey creates a clone of himself to be something of an assistant though it turns out to be a clone of him as a child named Lil Petey with no real desire to be evil, with a lot of the film being Dogman and Petey watching over Lil Petey as they engage in their usual dog and cat chase.
The Newest Dreamworks film, Dog Man is another adorable film with both Dog Man and Petey being really fun characters with a comedic cartoonish rivalry, Petey being one of those character who's technically a bad guy but is fun to watch and easy to understand, being the expression of dissatisfaction with the world compared to Dog Man's easygoing happy satisfaction with things as simple as a thrown ball. Their joint concern for Lil Petey and going to protect him together at the end of the film is not only heartwarming and fun, but could be understand symbolically as the joining together of both optimism and pessimism to create what children need: balance. I will say Lil Petey stopping Flippy via talking to him felt kinda sudden and forced for me but otherwise plot wise I think this one is pretty good seeing both Dog Man and Petey watching over Lil Petey. I'm not the best at animation but I also know it's got pretty good animation.
Comparing Wallace and Gromit vs Dog Man, both feature a major duality between the two major characters but Dog Man's are more tied to the symbolism and more complex in its changes over the story. It's not as cute, but it's just as charming a film and without the friendship breakup scene. They're both a little repetitive at times and both have somewhat of a meh villain so it really comes down to I think the main duo's relationship is more interesting and thematically connected in Dog Man.
21: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
The Third film in the How to Train Your Dragon series, this film takes place a year after Hiccup has become chieftain of Berk. They have continued to take in Dragons and tame them, though their island is having trouble holding everyone and attacks from Dragon Hunters have grown more frequent with Hiccup deciding this is unsustainable. He has Berk sail out to find "the hidden world", a mythical world Stoick told him about and where they can be safe. They are pursued by Grimmel, the legendary dragon hunter who wanted to exterminate all dragons.
A very divisive film. I enjoyed most of it except for the end, the most divisive part which I didn't enjoy. I understand the original books end with an explanation for why Dragons aren't around but the films aren't similar to the books and keeping this one part the same breaks the story that's been built for three films. That said for a lot of the film it's fine. Toothless and his Light Fury Girlfriend are cute and Hiccup and Astrid's relationship is very sweet to see. As mentioned I'm a real fan of developing romances and Hiccup and Astrid's have one of the clearest. The villain Grimmel is alright though the side characters are back to being kinda meh. Some of the movie tends towards being on the duller side for me though the good parts, are really good.
I can totally understand why others might not like this film, especially if they are big fans of the first two films but I found it enjoyable. Compared to Dog Man there's a lot of similar good but it's dispersed more evenly across the film, not so focused into the dynamic of Dog Man and Petey, with good things scattered across the film particularly in the development of Hiccup and Toothless into their own distinct people, the opposite impulse of Dog Man, of two people that acted one developing as individuals rather then two opposites coming together and has other positives beside like Hiccup/Astrid's relationship. The bad parts are the opposite, with Dog Man having a few weak parts scattered while HTTYD 3 having the one bad part at the end. I could go back and forth here but I guess I thought there was more reason for me to go back and rewatch this, that it had more subtley and layers I could unpack whereas I feel like I "got" most of what I was going to out of Dog Man the first time.
High Tiers: 20-11:
20: Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken:
This is a film about Ruby, who is a shy teenage girl who finds out she and her family are actually Krakens when she has to disobey her family rules to never go in the water to save her crush's life. From there she discovers that her grandmother is the Queen of the Kraken and and is a bit of a warrior queen who seeks to fight the monsters of the deep Krakens protect people from while her mother is a protective sort who brought her to dry land to try to protect her from fighting.
So this film is kinda the opposite of Shrek Forever After. Where that film was a film that took a while to get good, but did really good near the end, this is a film that I really enjoyed for the first long section, but which kinda feel apart at the end. Thus while I felt that film was was on the high end of low tier, this film is the low end of high tier. I enjoyed the main character a lot and found her fairly relatable with her feelings of social isolation at school and overprotective parents. While the conflict between her and her mom gets unpleasant at one point as per the unfortunate usual with this type of story, I overall found the plot of this movie pretty exciting as Ruby grapples with her true kraken nature. I was also REALLY enjoying the relationship between Ruby and Chelsea. It was my favorite part of the film seeing these two princesses from different kingdoms, opposite personality types and social positions at school being friends was actually really pleasant. I know this is a cold take but I don't think Chelsea should have been revealed to be Nerissa all along. In early drafts she wasn't and you can really tell as Chelsea is not set up initially as manipulating Ruby.
HTTYD 3 and Ruby Gillman are both films I enjoyed fairly well but really didn't like the ending which I felt went against the spirit of what had come before in their series. I put this one slightly higher as I related to it a bit more personally.
19: Joseph: King of Dreams:
This is literally an adaptation of the biblical Joseph story in Genesis. I am not sure if I really need to explain the plot but um... in ancient times Joseph is the youngest of 12 brothers, regarded with special favor by his mother for being something of a miracle as she was thought infertile as well as his strange predictive dreams which he can explain the meaning. His brothers grow jealous at his special treatment and the seeming superior he holds himself over them and sell him into slavery. The film follows Joseph in slavery, in prison, and eventually becoming right hand to Pharaoh.
I am very surprised this one tends to be ranked low. When I looked up why, it was sort of the inverse of HTTYD where people said things that I could see were true but just didn't matter that much to me. The visuals and music are kinda mediocre true, but I really appreciated the film from the other angles. The way I would describe this film is "humble." This is a film that is ultimately about humility and that spirit fills its production, knowing it's a direct to video movie with low budget, it focuses on what's most important, preserving the spirit of the Joseph story, depicting Joseph in his humility. A scene I really enjoyed was after Potiphar has Joseph has Joseph arrested and sentenced to execution for his wife's rape accusation. After Joseph's name is cleared, Potiphar has him released and is clearly very remorseful but Joseph holds no grudge against the man who almost killed him. That spirit of humility and forgiveness made Joseph a really pleasent protagonist and the scene of him testing and forgiving his brothers seeing they've changed and care for their new youngest brother Benjamin is very sweet.
Comparing it to Ruby Gillman, Joseph: King of Dreams is obviously a lot more dated and its story is more alien broadly, but I found the protagonist equally sympathetic if not more so from just how much stuff he goes through and the plot doesn't have any low points like the end of Ruby Gillman.
18: Trolls: World Tour:
I don't know what it is but in almost all cases, the second film in a Dreamworks film series tends to be really good. Trolls World Tour introduces us to the fact that the Troll Kingdom in the first movie was actually the Troll Kingdom of Pop Music and that five other kingdoms exist representing different genres of music. When the Rock Trolls want to convert all the other kingdoms to their style of music Poppy and Branch go on another adventure where they learn the secret origins of the trolls musical divide and their own kingdom, at the same time as growing their own relationship.
I don't know why but Dreamworks movies that are the second in a series are universally either really good and/or better then the original. Trolls: World Tour is my favorite of the Trolls movie. Another theme I really enjoy is diversity of thought, people of different interests or personalities coming together, and this is a film that's all about celebrating that, about the different kingdoms of trolls coming living in harmony. The twist about the kingdom of Pop is one I didn't see coming and felt quite mature for the kind of the film this is, reminding me of the ending of Frozen 2 which I also really liked. While I felt Branch was as his best in the first film, Poppy was at her best in the third, this was the film with the best balance of the two, as we see them start their relationship. The villain is also my favorite in the Trolls series, Barb being a really engaging and fun villain who's goal of engulfing the world in Hard Rock in order to protect it is surprisingly understandable as the logical end result of thinking that harmonious diversity of thought can't exist.
Comparing it to Joseph, I enjoy the themes and plots of both, but I liked the characters and aesthetics of this movie more.
17: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa:
After the events of Madagascar the main characters of Madagascar, the Penguins, and the Apes try to return to New York with them attempting to repair a plane between films. Unfortunately it doesn't go well and they crash land in Madgascar, finding out that this is where the main characters are from. They each try to rediscover themselves there, reconnecting to their roots, only to come to cherish their relationships with each other and their current selves more.
So the reason I like this film isn't anything deep or complex compared to the last two films, it's just really funny, like one of the funniest films in this entire list. I thought the Penguins were hilarious in this movie and the antagonist is the angry old woman from the last film leading a bunch of New Yorkers surviving in the wilds who was also really funny. A good example of both is when the penguins run he rover and Private asks in shock and horror "Is she dead?" with Skipper looking back, seeing she's alive and angrily proclaiming "No!" before reversing to run her over again. The Lemurs in the other films are fine, but they get some chuckles in this film. "Quickly, before we all come to our senses." And all the main characters have their own funny moments even if they're not as funny. The plot I admit is kinda whatever this film and it has the annoying friendship breakup scene. That said even with that part there were things I liked: I like Melman and Gloria starting their relationship and the wholesomeness of this nervous wreck of a guy accidentally admitting all the things he loves about this confident take-charge kinda girl and her deciding to reciprocate his feelings.
Comparing it to Trolls 2, or really any of the last few it's plot/themes are not as good but it focuses on a orthogonal dimension that being just being really funny which I suppose I viewed here as an equally valid alternative and kinda cancelling out. Both Trolls 2 and Madagascar 2 had a relationship that I thought was really sweet: a villain I really enjoyed for different reasons that fit their film (Barb and the Angry Old Woman) as well as another villain that was kinda meh. This one was pretty close. Honestly I could go back and forth and I put this one above I think I found the side characters more memorable at the moment like the monkeys who go on strike and negotiate with the penguins.
16: Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas:
The Pirate Sinbad and the Prince of Syracuse Proteus were friends from childhood grown distant from their diverging life paths. When Eris, the Goddess of Discord, steals the magical Book of Peace framing Sinbad, Proteus puts his life on the line defending Sinbad's innocence. Sinbad only has a week to sail to the edge of the world and retrieve the book of peace with Proteus' fiance Marina accompanying him and his pirate crew, all while Discord places traps and monsters in their way to try and stop their progress, playing with Sinbad.
So I will say this movie especially compared to the other high tier ones has a really big problem. I don't like the protagonist. Sinbad is an irresponsible sexist who was planning on straight up abandoning Proteus to his fate until Marina made him. He does develop in the film but it's definitely the biggest stain on the film for me. With that said, the villain Eris counteracts that. She MAKES this film. She is so cool and atmospheric doing things like bathing with galaxies and playing with the mortal world. She's threatening and entertaining at the same time and her temptation of Sinbad at the end is very cool. Beyond that while it can be a bit repetitive Sinbad's voyage is full of encounters with strange and imaginative creatures that's consistently engaging to watch. This film has a great atmosphere and has a maturity a lot of Dreamworks films are missing.
Comparing it to Madagascar 2, they are both kinda simple in why I enjoy both one is really fun and one is really cool and once again these are two films I could easily imagine going either way. Madagascar 2 is more varied in both the ways it is good and bad, while Sinbad is a lot more straightforward in both ways. At the moment I prefer that cohesion that Sinbad has and its more unique atmosphere.
15: Shrek:
Ah, Shrek. THE Dreamworks Film. The film that more then any other represents the company. The film that gave them their identity. I don't think I need to give the plot of Shrek but I suppose I will. Shrek is a big and frightening ogre who lives in content isolation. However when the egotistical Lord Farquaad seeks to enslave all the fairy tale creatures in his kingdom, they run and hide in the Ogre's swamp, much to Shrek's annoyance. He and a talking Donkey named... Donkey... go to confront Lord Farquaad about this who agrees to arrange to have his swamp to himself if he will retrieve Princess Fiona locked in the highest room of the tallest tower of a castle guarded by a dragon. On the quest Shrek has to come to terms with why he strives to be alone and whether companionship is worth it.
There are films I liked better then Shrek but there was none that was more Dreamworks-y. If you asked me what a "Dreamworks Film" is, I'd point to Shrek. Irreverent Cheeky Comedy? Check. "Crass" Humor? Check. Surprisingly poignant emotional moments? Check. A story about not judging things by appearance almost represented by the two prior points? Check. Story about an Outcast? Check. Pop Culture references? Check. Dance Party Ending? Absolutely Check. It's very clear that Shrek's success convinced Dreamworks that this was the path they should go. Shrek has a unique trait I don't know how to classify where the jokes became SO ubiquitous that you remember all them before they happen when watching the film. Is that a bad thing cause you know all the jokes before they're coming or a good thing because the jokes were so good they became so well known? Talking about its quality generally everything I both like and dislike Dreamworks as a company is here on some level. It's humor varies from iconic to gross out that's not very not my taste. The characters here are fun and lively. It's got a really great scene in Shrek admitting to Donkey the way everyone just assumes he's a big stupid ugly ogre and why he's always been alone, a scene that's really beautiful and resonant even if your type of isolation is very different like mine. It's got a terrible scene with the really bad misunderstanding scene where Shrek hears a very particularly worded snippet of conversation assuming Fiona dislikes him when she was talking about the curse put on her. Like many Dreamworks films it's got a villain who feels kinda overrated to me though Farquaad has some funny lines, and like a lot of Dreamworks films it's got a great duality between central characters, arguably two with both Shrek and Donkey and Shrek and Fiona. Like Dreamworks films as a whole, Shrek is a fun time, a mesh of disparate elements that you wouldn't think come together to make anything special but in the congealing of all the disparate elements resonant to everyone who felt like they didn't fit in. It's fitting the song most associated with Shrek and Dreamworks as a whole is All-Star by Smash Mouth, a song written to pump up kids who felt like they didn't fit in.
Comparing it to Sinbad, both have some great elements and some elements I really didn't like but while in Sinbad these things felt like they were always clashing for me until the end, everything about Shrek coheres in a strangely fitting experience. It's a film that for worse or better is always itself and there's something beautiful to that.
14: Flushed Away:
Roddy St. James is a pampered house rat who when his owners are away gets flushed down the toilet by an invasive rat stealing his space. There in the sewers he finds a thriving rat city of Ratropolis. Meeting up with the Scavenger Rat Rita Malone, he strives to get home accidentally running across a criminal operation run by the Toad who's master plan involves the destruction of Ratropolis.
Flushed Away is a lot like like Madagascar 2 for me in that it's a film I just found really entertaining, but a bit more personally and with a bit more legs underneath it. The first section of this film is a little slow but sets up Roddy, a rich but lonely rat who has anything he could want but companionship and sets up his sense of loneliness, something I found very compelling. From there it becomes a really fun and funny adventure with the same charm as something as Curse of the Were Rabbit with the same Aardman style, but this time with a speed and worldliness of Dreamworks' more typical style. There's a misunderstanding scene/friendship breakup but it happens earlier then normal and lasts a shorter amount of time with less emotional fallout, making it easier. In exchange the best scene of the film comes when Roddy has the chance to go home for a bit, but experiencing the opulent but cold isolation of his life alone chooses to go back into the gross and dangerous but ultimately fulfilling world of Ratropia to help save his friends which I loved as a scene. I also really liked the dynamic between him and Rita, who's a very fun bouncy character who complements him well.
While Shrek and Flushed Away are both films I found very charming and enjoyable, Shrek at times feels against my preferences while Flushed Away feels more tailored to me.
13: Kung Fu Panda 3:
After the events of the first two Kung Fu Panda films Master Shifu announces his retirement giving Po his position who fails in his attemps to train the Furious Five due to his lesser experience. In the spirit world Kai, a warrior angry that his legacy has been lost to the mortal world steals the chi of other spirit warriors and returns to the Physical world to wipe out Master Oogway's Legacy Po. Po finds the village of Pandas, his people by birth to try and learn the secrets of chi in order to defeat this chi-draining spirit warrior.
While definitely worse then the first two films I think this film is underrated. In terms of faults Po's two dads bickering over him was unpleasant and Kai is a real step down as a villain from Tai Lung and Lord Shen. The balance is also kind of off from a mix of emotion, comedy, and action towards mostly comedy with the action and heart being more sporadic. With that said, I do think the film has good elements of all three and remains a fairly enjoyable ride the entire way. Po failing to to train the Furious Five and later the Pandas of his village only to realize what he needed to do was reapply the lesson he learned about himself in the first movie, that it was not about training them to be like him, but training them to realize their own strengths was a great scene that felt incredibly resonant with the themes of the series. Po's defeat of Kai was actually a really cool way to do it, and I just really enjoy both Master Tigress and Master Shifu, who are both probably top 10 Dreamworks characters, if not Top 5. This film also has a really great ending, as Po takes up the role Master Oogway once had, training everyone in the ways of both martial arts and chi by encouraging them find themselves. Unfortunately they couldn't just leave it at that and not make more.
Comparing KFP3 to Flushed Away, I feel like they're both very enjoyable throughout and while Flushed away feels a bit more personal to me, KFP3 is more versatile in how it's good and I like the cast on average more then the cast of Flushed Away.
12: The Croods:
Taking place in prehistoric times, the Croods tells the story of the Croods, a set of cavepeople who live in a fierce and dangerous world. The father Grug is overly cautious wanting the Croods to keep strictly to the cave except when they absolutely must while the teenage daughter Eep is curious and excited to learn of the outside world. Outside Eep discovers a more advanced boy named Guy who warns of a coming apocalypse and that must travel out of the area. Obviously Grug hates this but the Croods must keep one step ahead of the apocalypse sweeping the land, trying to get to the place Guy calls "tomorrow" where they will be safe
Putting the Croods this high is definitely one of the more unpopular picks here. That said I really enjoyed this film. Genuinely one of my favorite things in the world is learning and I love seeing people gain new information and try to contextualize via the knowledge they already have. When the Croods see Fire for the first time and ask if it's a Baby Sun... it just sets off a little light in my brain. People criticize that this film is "lol cavemen invent modern things" but like... that's just not trust about this movie. It's true of the sequel but in this movie outside a 2 minute segment of Grug trying and failing to invent things played entirely as a joke, all the things the Croods invent are things that Cavemen realistically would be able to create such as shoes and primitive umbrellas. That feeling of learning and creating new things from it, I really enjoy that feeling. I really enjoy Grug and Eep and Guy. Grug is very understandable. The world is dangerous, both in our time and especially in the caveman times. But you can't just stay static, if the Croods refuse to move the apocalypse will catch up to them. It's a film about being open minded and flexible, about being willing to learn from the world and adapt and how that's necessary to live. The final bit of the film after Grug gets his family to safety at the cost of seeming like he's going to die alone unable to follow across the chasm before thinking and inventing a way to get across along with some pets is a scene I really enjoyed. I also enjoyed the romance between Eep and Guy. The side characters are not the best per se, but they're fine. Mostly they serve as in between points between Eep's openness and Grug's closedness.
Comparing The Croods to KFP3, while both are enjoyable films and I enjoy the themes and expression of the themes, I feel like the Croods provided me with a pleasure in fiction I don't get to enjoy as much, the simple joy of watching people learn.
11: Megamind:
Megamind tells the story of Megamind, a supervillain who is used to being the bad guy and losing to his superhero arch-nemesis Metro Man. Except to his surprise one of his traps for Metro Man... works and Megamind wins. With no Metro Man to stop him, Megamind takes over the city though finds it boring without any competition and begins to train up a new hero to stop him, having to learn that what was really stopping him was his belief that would always be the bad guy, the loser.
The film was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. The characters are all very likeable and entertaining save for Hal/Tighten but that's pretty intentional and Hal's brand of incel villainy is a lot more realistic feeling then some of the Dreamworks villains. It has a liar revealed plot but it's better integrated then most of the Dreamworks films, and the plot otherwise is well paced and has several scenes I really liked including the initial Metro Man vs Megamind fight, the Tighten vs Megamind confrontation, and the reveal of Metro Man's actual fate, all of which are really fun superhero styled scenarios. I love superheroes and enjoyed them.
I do have a bit of a complaint not with the film but with the film's perception where people will sometimes act like the film is saying something insightful about the superhero genre despite the fact that the moral paragon hero always winning against an evil for evil's sake supervillain hadn't been the norm in mainstream superhero comics for like 40 or 50 years. Comparing it to the Croods, The Croods does really well on the emotional/dramatic side for me with meh jokes while Megamind does really well on the humor/style side with a good emotional moment here and there. Their strengths are fairly equal to me but Megamind does better in the other area as well.
Top Tiers: 10-1:
10: The Road to El Dorado:
In the 1500s Spanish Con-Artists Miguel and Tulio escape from being sentenced to life in slavery washing up on the beach near where the legendary city of gold. They come across a Native Girl named Chel who is just as crafty as them, and when the three are brought back to the town, a chance volcanic eruption leads to the locals (or at least most of them) mistaking Mugiel and Tulio as two gods. The two live it up only to find that they may have gotten a bit over their head.
So The Road to El Dorado is one of those movies I had always heard as one of those underrated gems you should see and like... they're not wrong. Mugiel and Tulio make for a fun dynamic and are very fun to watch and I LOVE Chel, she's an absolute delight. Most of the characters are fairly fun from, Chief Tannabok is a kind wise voice of reason and Tzekel-kan is an underrated villain with a vicious desire to sacrifice to the "gods" and then later being angry that these two people are pretending to be gods and wanting to reveal them, a fairly reasonable motive that would almost make one want to root for him if he wasn't so bloodthirsty and sadistic. This movie's plot is surprising seeming like it's setting up for a liar revealed story but actually not having any annoying unnecessary liar revealed scene.
I went back and forth a lot between The Road to El Dorado and Megamind. I liked Megamind slightly more then Miguel and Tulio and I liked Tzekel-kan a little more then Tighten though neither by a huge degree. I think Megamind is slightly funnier but I liked Chel a lot more then Roxanne, not that I dislike Roxanne but I loved Chel. I also appreciated Tannabok more then Metro Man which is probably the closest equivalent and I felt like The Road to El Dorado felt a lot more timeless. Megamind while it does the tropes fairly well does still seem to be doing a lot of things that I've seen before even within Dreamworks catalogue while The Road to El Dorado felt a lot more interesting and non-trope-y. For instance Megamind has a sad liar revealed scene and it's better justified then usual but it's still sad to see. Compare that to the closest equivalent scene where Tannabok casually reveals he knows Miguel and Tulio are not gods but is just really happy about the positive change they brought to his community and I feel like the latter feels much more timeless.
9: The Wild Robot:
Set in the Future advanced robots called Rozzum aid humans with whatever they could need. However a shipping accident causes one going by Roz to wash up on an uninhabited island. Guided by her programming to help she begins attempting to aid the animals in their tasks, including learning their language. After an accident destroys a goose nest a lone goose without a mother, Brightbill hatches and imprints itself onto Roz, who attempts to essentially mother and help Brightbill.
I wanna start by saying that I LOVE Roz. She's maybe my favorite Dreamworks character to the point my least favorite thing about this film is that the first 15 minutes where we see this cute robot struggling and suffering trying to help the local fauna without understanding. Still most of this movie is seeing wholesome robot mommy help raising Brightbill. The other characters are fine, but that's the main draw of the movie for me. I will admit as a consequence the appeal of the movie is very simply but I do enjoy Roz's imprint on the plot and symbolism. The Wild Robot somehow takes Normal Robot tropes that normally make me eye roll like the robot "changing their programming" or "programming vs heart" and makes them feel compelling and new, I think because in this case Roz's changing her objectives is really her changing her secondary ones to fit her greater objective which is to help and fits the greater theme of love transcending boundaries like those of the robot, symbol of artifice, and the animals, symbols of nature, and how she leads the animals of the island into harmony with each other.
Comparing The Road to El Dorado and The Wild Robot both I think do a great job with their goal but I vibe more with the sweet sentimental familial theme of the Wild Robot then the more fast paced playful atmosphere of The Road to El Dorado. I also feel having the slower part be earlier on like in the Wild Robot is better then having it be later on like the end of El Dorado's second act.
8: Rise of the Guardians:
Taking place in a world where embodiments of holidays though highly stylized versions of them like the Russian Santa that includes elements of Father Christmas or the Australian jacked Easter Bunny with elements of Pooka protect the dreams of children and are empowered by their beliefs. Jack Frost, the embodiment of Winter cold is not one of the guardians just wanting to play with the children with the seeing and believing in him. Despite this he also has a lack of knowledge of who he is and where he came from. When Pitch, the Boogeyman, embodiment of darkness and fear attacks the guardians hoping to destroys children belief in them, Jack is made guardian to help with this threat, though Pitch tempts him with offers of his past.
This is another movie I hear is a major cult classic. I'm not even that interested in novelty but seeing these completely different interpretations of holiday icons is refreshing just from how incredibly stock most depictions. The thing I can say most about this film is it's evocative and atmospheric. It's got more flaws then prior films including a death fake-out and arguably a deus ex machina but everything feels justified on the basis of it making emotional/symbolic sense. I have a love for characters that are direct representations of things because the meaning becomes directly imbedded in their characters literal actions, really taking advantage of the benefits of fiction where meaning can be concentrated and made more intense. A great scene that's a good example of what I like in this movie and of that idea is when Pitch is suggesting to Jack that they should work together because "what goes together better then darkness and cold?" I do understand very much the flaws people have with this film, not liking the design of the humans or of Pitch, not liking the "the beliefs of children gives them power" stuff but I couldn't not love this fun creative story where concepts interact with each other, and the way the meaning is so expressed and all the cool mysterious atmosphere with the Man in the Moon and Jack seeking his memories.
This movie has a lot more flaws then The Wild Robot but they both me a lot less then seeing Roz struggling for the first extended section, it has a lot more positives full of creativity and meaning though none individually as great as the single big strength of The Wild Robot that being its amazing wholesome main character and her effect on the plot and symbolism. Neither films are particularly funny, though I feel the humor is a bit better in this movie, and I also feel it's a movie I can easily imagine rewatching, it's a film that almost begs beings a movie one rewatches on Holidays.
7: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish:
Taking place years after his adventures in the prior Puss in Boots movie or in Shrek, Puss in Boots is a renowned fearless hero who laughs in the face of death. But with the taking of his eighth life Puss realizes he's on his last life and the specter of death begins to haunt him. He is wounded for the first time by this force and is traumatized by the experience. However long ago a wishing star fell to Earth and the first person to reach it can get a wish with Puss thinking he can use it to get back his lost lives. He travels to the Wishing Star along with his allies Kitty Softpaws and Perrito the Chihuahua, though they are in heavy competition in the shifting and enigmatic dark forest the Star is in to get to the star first, and the specter of Doom looms over Puss.
I don't think I super need to extoll this film's virtues, considering the entire internet went on fire for how amazing it is. It's not so much I'm gonna have to justify how high this film is but it's definitely I'm gonna have to justify how "low" it is. To talk about the good parts though, this is the visually most impressive best film in Dreamwork's library and that is an impressive record. Visuals aren't even that important to me but even I was impressed by how great it was visually. What is important to me is symbolism and themes and Last Wish does amazing in that regard. The conflict between Puss in Death as representation of anxiety and trauma, the way it cripples and isolates Puss even among friends is brilliantly portrayed. I would have been worried it'd be overdone but it's very restrained and tasteful, and Puss' friends helping him through his panic attacks are subtly done and sweet. The film is both wholesome and fun, aesthetically dark and thematically bright, with an unpredictable plot. This isn't my favorite film here though mostly cause of the characters. I loved Puss and Death's dynamic though that's actually not that large a part of the film. I liked Puss' allies Kitty and Perrito pretty well though wasn't in love with it, and the other people chasing after the Star's wish which takes a fairly large amount of the runtime don't really do much for me. I now people love Jack Horner but I'm not very fond of villains who are both entirely human and pure evil. The film also has a lot do with fairy tales which a lot of them I don't have a lot of connection too. Obviously the film is still really great, it's just not my personal favorite Dreamworks film.
Comparing it to Rise of the Guardians shows this is definitely the jump from the B Tier Dreamworks Films to the A Tier ones. Rise of the Guardians is really evocative and atmospheric to watch but that is encompassed in just the Death scenes of Puss. Those are my favorites but Puss covers so much more ground artistically. It's a film who's faults are much more just things that aren't my preference as opposed to things I think are probably gaps in the films' logic and the animation of The Last Wish is obviously leagues beyond.
6: How to Train Your Dragon 2:
Five years after the people of Berk and the Dragons have made peace, Hiccup is still a bit of an outsider and a free spirit going exploring and mapping with Toothless even as his father Stoick tries to convince him to take up the role of Chieftan with Hiccup not sure he's ready. Out mapping the world he runs across Drago Bludvist, an old enemy of his father's who is enslaving Dragons to use as weapons, a major threat coming for Berk. He also runs into a mysterious Dragon Rider who... Major Spoilers incoming.... turns out to be Hiccup's mother who has lived in a Dragon Sanctuary and is revealed to be the source of Hiccup's kind disposition and heart willing to reconcile with them.
You know going from HTTYD1 to HTTYD2 was a really pleasant surprise. I was expecting that the other films in the series would similarly feel well made but not really appealing to me. That said this film immediately struck me well. The lines felt more memorable and more entertaining, the characters felt more distinctive and less stock, the plot was less predictable... the scene where Hiccup's mom is revealed I had no idea what was happening and I loved it. I also love the symbolism in this movie, the way Hiccup is the culmination of the best traits of his parents. I also love the scene where his father sees his mom for the first time and you expect it to be a sad angry emotional scene but instead it's a heartfelt beautiful reunion scene where the two show the emotional intelligence not just of adults but of people with wisdom and understanding. Speaking of romance I really like Hiccup and Astrid together this movie, the feel compelling as a couple and I enjoyed everytime they were on screen together. I even liked the side characters more the either of the other movies in the trilogy. There's a subplot about Ruffnut the dumb conceited viking girl lusting after a secondary villain and it's nice seeing girls being allowed to be the dumb horny ones when a lot of series, particularly at a younger audience always has the guys being the shallow ones in a relationship and the girls are expected to be reserved and interested in the fluffy elements of romance. The villain's kinda meh admittingly but overall this film was a really pleasant surprise for me and made me understand the love for this franchise much better.
Compared to Puss in Boots 2, I feel like Puss in Boots 2 is more overall memorable, like everything about it is colorful and interesting and eye-catching but I feel like with HTTYD2 it just sort of works together better for me, like this is a film where I feel like it comes together really nicely and all the elements form the same sort of atmosphere the whole way through.
5: Shrek 2:
After Shrek and Fiona's wedding at the end of Shrek 1, the two are summoned to meet her parents in Far Far Away. However while Fiona's parents, especially her father were expecting to be with Prince Charming, she instead shows up with... an ogre. There is familial strife, and it's revealed that King Harold had made arrangements with Fairy Godmother that Fiona would be saved and wed to her son Prince Charming and that Harold would have to help them get rid of Shrek, one way or another. Meanwhile Shrek feels (with reason) that he's hated as an ogre just like always and that they shouldn't have come, but is torn by his desire to see his wife happy, especially after coming to understand the sacrifices she's made for him, resolving himself to do whatever he can to do right by her.
Shrek 2 is very well regarded and much like The Last Wish, I think most people will question it being "only" 5 rather then suggesting it should be lower. So I will say that for me the film does take a little bit to get going. The dinner scene of Shrek and King Harold is meant to be tense and unpleasant but it's tense and unpleasant more then funny, I think because we see the negative reactions throughout the whole thing of Fiona and Queen Lilian and want things to go well for them. Also there's a joke where Donkey keeps asking we are there yet and annoying Shrek that is genuinely annoying. However the film is one that builds and builds. By the midpoint where Shrek is trying to impress Harold it's a good mixture of funny and heartfelt, with a fun scene of him trying to get a potion to fix the situation from the Fairy Godmother with intrigue about her connection to King Harold. I also like that while Fiona is mad at Shrek for the fight, she does defend him to her dad and gets mad at him as well for not even trying to accept Shrek. By late Shrek 2 it is something absolutely fantastic with Harold sacrificing himself for his daughter, Shrek's friends breaking Shrek out of prison, culminating in probably the most beloved scene in Dreamwork's history, the "I Need a Hero" scene, a bombastic expression of Shrek's devotion to save Fiona, a race against time aided by Fiona's own recognition that the man she's wish is not the Ogre she came to love. This sequence and the following show Shrek and Fiona's willingness to accept a life not like they thought they wanted for each other, the expression of their love as Fiona chooses Shrek over the Prince Charming she thought she wanted as a girl twice and Shrek willing to accept the human princely love if it's what Fiona wanted. All the side characters help, the music is is a triumphant accompaniment mixing perfectly, it builds to a perfect crescendo. Shrek 2 is a film that builds and builds and the ending is one of the most well earned endings in Dreamworks history. There's plenty of other good things about this movie, the villain is well regarded yet still somehow feels underrated. The world building is a good expansion of the original sequel. It builds on the original in a natural way while still feel distinct.
It is not as solid in general as How to Train Your Dragon 2, but it has all the same level of overall quality while feeling much more colorful and distinctive and iconic, having that Shrek type strange cohesion of a bunch of disparate elements from poignant emotional moments to burp jokes and from pop culture references to timeless familial/class issues backed up by the talent of some legendary names in the industry in their prime.
4: Kung Fu Panda 2:
Lord Shen, a dangerous peacock warlord sought to take over China but was warned by the soothsayer that he would be stopped by a warrior of black and white. Lord Shen committed a genocide of the pandas with Po's mother sacrificing herself to save Po's life. Horrified by his actions his parents exiled him though years later he returned with cannons, a weapon that could nullify the power of martial arts. Unknowing of this backstory Po and the Furious Five are sent to stop Lord Shen right after Po is told he is adopted shaking his worldview and sense of self. It is said the only weapon capable of fighting Lord Shen's cannons is inner peace, a power that takes some masters lifetime to learn and Po must grapple with his own past to be able to stop the monster from it.
We're starting to get to the films that I don't think I have the ability to talk in brief manner about what's good about them because it's simply too much. But I will try. Lord Shen is an amazing villain, one who exceeds in all three categories of villain for me: Threatening, Entertaining, and Compelling. I don't think I like him quite as much as Tai Lung but the fact that it's even questionable says a lot. He is the most personal villain for Po and the two represent a beautiful dichotomy of one who let go of the past and one who can't. This is also probably my favorite movie for Po specifically. Po and Shen are alike in that they both struggle with the trauma of the past but Po's progression is the heart of this movie, especially in the movie's greatest scene, the best in all four movies, finding inner peace, as the Soothsayer tells him he can move past his trauma if he is willing to face it and that even though his story didn't have a happy start, what matters is who he decides to be in this moment. Seeing him move past his trauma is thematically rich in its roots in Daoist philosophy while still be an emotional personal scene. I find it so heartwarming that Po makes such peace with it that he even offers compassion to Shen without a second thought. This is the man responsible for murdering his people and his family and it doesn't even occur to Po to hate him. I also really like Master Tigress, as mentioned she's one of my favorite Dreamworks characters in general and this is probably her best role in the series, going from the Furious Five most critical of Po in the first movie to his closest confidant in this one and how she demands he not get involved at first not because he seriously messed up his mission, but in attempt to protect him. This movie on an action level and a comedic level is not quite as good as the first movie, though still quite good, but what it exceeds in best is plot and atmosphere presented through characters and visuals.
Comparing this to Shrek 2, Shrek 2 was a slowly building crescendo of quality, Kung Fu Panda 2 in contrast is a film of dichotomies, the first part of the story seeming mostly to be another comedic fun journey for Po before flipping at the midpoint to be a dramatic and relatively dark emotional journey, the tension released as Po achieves peace with himself. The journey of KFP2 requires both sections and uses the change for dramatic effect whereas for Shrek 2 I feel like the building up while necessary technically for the plot leaves the first part a bit unpleasant at times.
3: Orion and the Dark:
This is a film I really recommended going in blind. I literally knew nothing about this film but the title going in and I think that's the optimal way to view it. I will give a few basic plot details from the start of the film but if you want to go in totally blind now's the time to stop. Orion is a kid who's afraid of anything, everything sends him into a panic attack, but especially the Dark. The Dark shows up to Orion and offers to show him the dark and the night are not to be afraid of, they can be beautiful too offering to take him on a journey.
Early into watching the film I thought it would be a cool film about a kid communicating with the concept of darkness and learning to not be afraid. And I would have probably liked that movie a bunch. If that was the movie and it was well made it probably would have ended up somewhat similar to Rise of the Guardians. Then the film actively mocks that notion with a line barely paraphrased "did you think it would be as simple as kid learns to not be afraid of the dark, dance party ending" and I was like "oh... this isn't that kind of movie." This film has what I really want from a film in droves, that being a plot where I don't know what's going to happen at all but a theme that feels cohesive and further defined as the story progresses. This film goes off the rails with a big change somewhere between two and four times depending on how you count and I can understand if any of those changes lose you as they're all kinda big changes. But for me the film becomes this wonderful metatextual narrative about how we use storytelling to share our feelings and fears and come to understand each other and the world better in a collaborative effort. I feel like the poetry scene really expresses what the film is about and was enchanted by it. The film's script was written by Charlie Kaufman, writer of Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it has his fingerprints all over it: anxious main character, existentialism, surrealism, and metafictional elements. Doing all that and having abstract concepts as primary characters was a real treat for me.
Comparing it to Kung Fu Panda 2, I feel like KFP2 should be higher, it's got so much more it offers per se, but to me it feels like very much a conventional film just done really well while Orion and the Dark felt surprising and its plot kept me guessing even as the theme felt like it was consistent throughout just getting more clear and defined. What I like in fiction is something that's hard to describe and is somewhat niche, it's the feeling of a story further and further defining a theme it's trying to express, expanding the mind of the viewer by expressing in words or in this case images and sound something ethereal and hard to express and Orion and the Dark does that for me, it expresses something I hadn't seen expressed prior.
2: Kung Fu Panda:
Po is a rotund Panda who idolizes the Furious Five, the most legendary martial artists in all of China. When going to witness the Five in action Master Oogway, the spiritual leader above them and their Master Shifu declares him the Dragon Warrior, much to everyone's shock. Shifu and the Five try to break his spirit through training but he persists. At the same time as this is happening Master Shifu's former student Tai Lung escapes from the prison meant to confine him and goes on a rampage. Po has to realize his potential in order to stop Tai Lung.
Shrek was Dreamworks at its most Dreamworkiest but Kung Fu Panda is the Dreamworks formula at its best. While the film below it and above it on this ranking don't feel very Dreamworks-y, Kung Fu Panda feels like it's the best expression of what Dreamworks as a company is trying to express. I love Wuxia content and Kung Fu Panda is very clearly a loving tribute to the genre even as it is a fantastic example. There's so much to love in this movie. Themes wise this movie has a theme that is common to Dreamworks but expresses it more perfectly then any other film in this roster: there is nothing special that divides the great and the normal. For something to be special, you just have to believe in it. I love the plot in it, it's more predictable then some of the films before it but it easily rivals any other films in Dreamworks in heart, humor, and pace. It is a movie without any lackluster scenes or scenes that don't move the plot, and while the inner peace scene from KFP2 might be the best in the franchise, if you were looking top tier Dreamworks scenes this movie has like 5. This movie has Tai Lung's escape from Prison maybe Dreamwork's best action scene, it has the amazing Shifu and Oogway Scene where the two discuss the nature of potential and control in a wise and compelling way, it has Po confronting Shifu about why he stayed despite everyone there trying to get rid of him finally expressing his his insecurities aloud and how every day being him is worse then any training they could put him through, it has Shifu learning to train Po via food actually finding what's special in him rather then trying to train him to be something he's not concluding with Po giving the food back because he's not hungry showing he's gained control of himself as earlier it was shown when he's upset and it has the amazing Shifu vs Tai Lung scene followed by the final battle of Tai Lung vs Po. All five of these scenes are among some of my favorites when watching through all of the Dreamworks movies. In terms of characters I love Master Tigress and Po, both of whom are opposed in this movie but extremely understandable and entertaining to watch even if they are slightly better in 2. This is also Shifu and Oogway's best roles, the ones where they still have much to teach Po and are involved in the plot more. It also has Tai Lung who is maybe my favorite villain in the entire Dreamworks cannon, a seemingly unstoppable force of martial arts with a painfully compelling backstory. This is also the best role for the Furious Five outside Tigress who don't do much in any of the later films.
Comparing it to Orion and the Dark is weird because in some ways Kung Fu Panda is another movie like the second where it's a conventional movie done really well as opposed to Orion's more unique appeal to me, but I think the difference is I feel like Kung Fu Panda actually replicates some of that feeling that Orion and the Dark had but with the theme that Dreamworks has focused on through its entire series of films: the idea that you can't judge something by its appearence, that everyone has something special to them and believing in them and what makes them special will always be better then trying to turn them into something they're not. This film's themes and symbols are quite as good to me as Orion and the Dark but it succeeded on so many level to a similar degree I had to put it higher. I care about themes and meaning most, but Kung Fu Panda succeeds clearly on the highest average of all levels and expresses what Dreamworks wants to be better then any other film it's produced. But there is one film I think was even better
1: The Prince of Egypt:
The Prince of Egypt is a film adapting the Biblical Story of Exodus. More then any other here, I kinda doubt I need to explain the plot of this one but I shall. Moses is the second born prince of Egypt, light-hearted and happy go lucky compared to his older more burden-heavy brother Ramses. However Moses learns that he was found as a baby and his true people are the Jews, slaves of Egypt. After accidentally killing an Egyptian guard to protect a slave, Moses runs away into the desert, where he builds his life among the Midians until God himself speaks to Moses in the form of a Burning Bush telling him he will have to return to Egypt to confront his brother Ramses, working God's miracles and freeing the Jews from slavery.
I can very well understand if the Prince of Egypt is not someone's favorite Dreamworks movie. It's dark and serious and probably not what someone would pick for a fun time. But I defy anyone to tell me it's not Dreamwork's masterpiece in terms of artistic expertise. Other Dreamworks movies come up in discussions of the best animated films. The Prince of Egypt comes up in discussions of the best films. It was actually fairly easy for me to pick it as my favorite, it's in its own tier, an S Tier above the A Tiers. I love history and to properly understand what makes the Prince of Egypt so magical requires a bit of it: Thousands of years ago was a clash of two cultures preserved in one of their literature. On one side the Egyptians, one of the great empires of the day, who among their beliefs held their Pharaoh as the embodiment of the god Horus. On the other a small nomadic tribe who among their beliefs held that all people were made equally in the image of the sole God, lord of all. Despite their smallness and fragility, this idea, the birthplace of the notion of equal rights for all people proved invincible and with it their intellectual ancestors conquered the world. The story of this clash, the Exodus has been the historical rallying call for all people enslaved and exiled from their homes. Mighty Egypt is outlived by its pyramids that have lasted millenia, but more invincible still is the idea the Hebrews gave to us, for as long as people still live enslaved, the Exodus shall retain its narrative power, an idea stronger then any tomb or monument.
With such archetypal power, many versions of the Exodus story exist which makes it so magical that the Prince of Egypt stands as a definitive adaptation of it. The Prince of Egypt represents the two cultures in the warring brothers of Ramses and Moses, humanizing it and in the pain of betrayal and alienation from ones family. I said Tai Lung was maybe my favorite Dreamworks villain and that's only because Ramses is amazing. He and Moses are the single best duality in Dreamworks long line of them, representing the battle of the two worldviews yet humanizing it at the same time. They have such power and presence in every scene they're in within the second half of the film, are dynamic characters that change their roles in entertaining ways yet never relinquish that compelling connection that makes them so fleshed out. They are the best characters in the film and that's saying a lot as this film is filled with good characters. From maternal compassion of figures like Yocheved and Tuya to paternal guidance from Jethro, slimy over the top subservience from Hotep and Huy to the understated understandable horrific evil of Pharaoh Seti to Miriam, Aaron and Tzipporah who were the ones who broke Moses from his complacency, every character in this film plays a resonant stimulating role. The animation is from 1998 so it's not as visually stimulating as more recent contributions but where it excels is in art style and music aesthetically. I am not even an aesthetics person but every single song in the film hit me in some way, and individual images stuck in my mind as superior to whole films earlier in this list. Like there's a beautiful image during the Plagues song where Ramses and Moses faces are superimposed together before being seperated with Moses looking from above in sadness and Ramses in anger turns and walks into the darkness, showing Moses "higher" moral position and Ramses unwilling to listen and choosing to enter into an anger and resentment. The plot is fast paced and gripping while still subtle and nuanced. And of course the themes expressed in it are themes resonant across millennia expressed beautifully in the visual and auditory language of film. There are just as many scenes that would be top tier scenes as any other movie in the series, usually the song ones: Deliver Us, Through Heaven's Eyes, The Plagues, The Angel of Death, When You Believe. In conclusion, What makes The Prince of Egypt so great is that it sets such a high ambition, to express the Exodus Story, and does so beautifully. You don't need to be a specific faith to enjoy this film. I have very eclectic beliefs spiritually, but as someone who loves history, what I see and love in this film is seeing this ancient cultural conflict, the birthplace of the notion of universal human rights and dignities given new humanity, life, and emotion through the medium of film, expressed beautifully in the emotional conflict of two brothers.
Comparing it to any other film before, I love things like Orion and the Dark and Kung Fu Panda, but they are movies that I feel digging into them to get to the juicy themes and meaning. Kung Fu Panda may be the greatest expression of Dreamworks as a company and what they seek to achieve, but what Prince of Egypt was is an expression of something beautiful and timeless, something that effortlessly draws emotion and meaning from me.
Conclusions:
I loved some Dreamworks movies and very much didn't like others, but there's a common framing of Dreamworks: that it is secretly two companies, a binary of bad low culture reference-filled toilet humor-filled films for children and then a smart company that makes emotionally poignant artistic films that can be appreciated by anybody. Respectfully, this notion is nothing at all what I saw. From the worst to the greatest there was one thing that Dreamworks consistently expressed: the outcast, the borders of society.
There at the fringes of society and human experience is the outcast figure, sometimes ugly, and sometimes wonderous, but always reflecting something about the human experience outside the bounds of what the mainstream sees. When I see Dreamworks I see a company that is born of two paradoxical drives like the two protagonists of one of their films: a desire to express a spirit of self-acceptance, and a drive to see acceptance from the mainstream, two drives paradoxically together in the heart of the outcast.
If there's something the best Dreamworks films taught me it's that you can't change for the better if you don't see the things you'd rather not and those great films of Dreamworks, the wonderous, made seeing the worst films, the ugly worth the experience. Maybe I'd wish Dreamworks was always the former and never the latter but if there's something every film on this list taught me it's that trying to force something to be what it's not is never a good idea.
See ya when I inevitably rank the 30 Pixar Films next year after they release their 30th film.
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