DreamWorks Animation SKG

[Johnny Boy]

Ooh, I'm loving the look of that logo. Now all I need is a teaser.

[Milo]

Do find it a bit weird they changed from a regular number for the first sequel (Kung Fu Panda 2) to a Roman number for the second sequel (Kung Fu Panda III). I'm kinda hoping they change it back to a regular number before the film releases, but it's nothing too major.

[Mogtaki]

That is a scary looking logo, definitely love it.

This film is about spirits if I remember?

[Big Panda]

That is a scary looking logo, definitely love it.This film is about spirits if I remember?

I don't think in the literal sense?

[Johnny Boy]

That is a scary looking logo, definitely love it.

This film is about spirits if I remember?

Well according to the premise, the villain for this movie is a supernatural one. So it may be about spirits.

[...]

A few days late on this, but better late than never!

 

Saw How To Train Your Dragon 2 on Saturday... good lord. Just... good lord. What an absolutely outstanding film. I found the first to be great save for a few gripes I had with it, and my expectations for this were rather high as a result. I can safely say this not only lived up to them, but blew them out of the water. This is how you make a sequel. Not only did it improve upon the first in every regard, it did a great job expanding upon the universe of the films and exploring Hiccup's character arc. Most have already said what I've been wanting to say but what the hell, the animation and visuals are absolutely fantastic. The four-year jump after the first is clearly evident, especially in the flight scenes and the action scenes in general. It's absolutely visceral, exciting, and a feast for the eyes. John Powell's score is as good, if not better than the first IMO, and the fact he uses so many cues and motifs from the original occasionally sent chills down my spine at times, and complements the music rather well.

 

Spoiler stuff about the characters:

 

The chemistry between Hiccup's family, as short as it was, was absolutely beautiful to see. When Stoick saw his wife for the first time in years, you could feel the raw emotion in that scene, and when they hugged and kissed, that just sold it for me. When they later danced to an old tune, my spirits were lifted so high.. like seriously, so darn uplifting. Drago was a truly menacing villain, but in a way one you couldn't help but feel sorry for. All he wants is power over others, and no matter how hard Hiccup tried, he couldn't see dragons for the magnificent creatures they are. Speaking of Hiccup, he not only matured physically, but as a character. He's strong, well-spoken, brave.. and him and Toothless. Their relationship here is just adorable to watch, you can really tell they're the best of friends. As with others here, I was really not expecting Stoick to die.. especially at the hands of Toothless (it wasn't really he fault, he was mind-controlled but still), I literally almost screamed "oh shit" in the theater when that happened. The funeral scene was also quite a tear-jerker, I was trying to hard to not cry at it.

 

The supporting cast was even more enjoyable to have around than the first one, and provide for some of the funniest moments in the film. Astrid at least did more here than in the first, but I agree with pppp, she is kinda pointless and serves as nothing rather than a love interest for Hiccup (even if she is still a cutie). 

 

With downright beautiful animation, great story with no shortage in emotion or heart, great cast of characters, John Powell's gorgeous as usual score, HTTYD2 is not only of the best animated films of the year, it's one of the best films of the year. Period. But the best animated film of the year still goes to The Lego Movie for me, oops. I cannot wait for the the ending to the trilogy to this so far stellar trilogy. Bravo, DreamWorks, you truly created something that deserves to be called spectacular.

[Gabz Girl]

God I'm so hyped to see HTTYD2 but we have to wait until July to see it! D: it's not as bad as waiting more than 2 months but it's still a rather long wait for something which looks so epic! I really liked the first one (besides the rushed love story with Hiccup and Astrid) and knowing that this one tops it makes me even more excited to see it! Quick question; did anyone go see this in 3D? Any good?

As for Home, it really, REALLY doesn't appeal to me. The character designs are okay I guess but Tip's character irks me. She looks 10 but she's voiced by Rihanna (uggggh) and...drives a car? What. Also, I can has cheeseburger jokes? This isn't 2007! Penguins of Madagascar looks a lot better and even that I'm not so sure about!

[Johnny Boy]

Home looks like old school dreamworks to me. And I don't mean that in a good way. The fact that they cast a pop star (Rihanna) is already a huge strike in my eyes and also the pop culture references made me cringe, just when I thought dreamworks had finally grown past that kind of stuff. Oh well at least I still have the penguins of madagascar to be excited about.

[Mogtaki]

Home looks like old school dreamworks to me. And I don't mean that in a good way. The fact that they cast a pop star (Rihanna) is already a huge strike in my eyes and also the pop culture references made me cringe, just when I thought dreamworks had finally grown past that kind of stuff. Oh well at least I still have the penguins of madagascar to be excited about.

In my opinion, I don't think it's fair to judge someone's ability to voice act just because they're relevant in pop culture like Rihanna. From listening to her just in those little clips, she does a good job at it. A good instance where pop culture plain out doesn't work is Shark's Tale, but I honestly did not recognise Tip as being Rihanna at all until I saw the names while Jim Parsons stood out because Oh talked exactly like he does in Big Bang Theory. The book is full of pop culture references itself, I mean...her best friend is called J.Lo for instance.

The film looks like a 75-79% for me so far. I'm not seeing anything particularly bad in it and something about Jim Parsons going "Oh no! My hands are in the air like I just don't care!" amuses me. The animation looks fun and stretchy, not to mention look at that hair on Tip.

Oh and Gabz, in the book she does drive a car and yes she is eleven in the book too. She learns to drive because her mother gets captured as Captain Smek relocates the entire human race. The original book is called 'The True Meaning of Smekday' by Adam Rex. The book was published in 2007; does that help any?

Here's that short that was made to try and establish the aliens and why they came to Earth:

[Mega]

Honestly, while I'm not planning to see Home in theaters right now, I'm willing to give it a chance. For the most part, Dreamworks has released a steady stream of great films mixed with some decent movies sprinkled in-between. I think their only recent stinker was Turbo, and with HTTYD2 out, I think they've more than made up for that.

Speaking of which, I saw it on opening night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was great to see the world beyond Berk, and the sheer variety in the dragons was a sight to behold. I especially loved Toothless' animations and behavior. He's just as endearing as ever, and the plot overall felt much grander. They pulled a Pixar and really amped up the stakes and scale, which makes me incredibly excited for KFP3.

[DarkLight]

Well I'm back from the movie.

 

Loved it. Thought it was better than the first one in every way (though that's not to say the first one was bad).

 

The scenes where Hiccup and Stoick reunited with Valka were gut-wrenchingly heartfelt. Even Stoick's line, "You're as beautiful as on the day that I lost you" managed to get a lot of "DAAWW" reactions from the audience. And I actually cried during Stoick's funeral scene. You know you got a good movie when it's able to make you laugh and cry.

[Sean]

HTTYD2 was very good but I wouldn't say it improves on absolutely everything from the first, in fact I still like the first movie more. The emotional events in the original felt subtle and understated, while they were much more prevalent here. Some of them worked, but not all of them gripped me as much as others, but there was still that one punch-in-the-gut moment of course. I also think the sequel's pacing could use some work, it doesn't ease you into the story as cleanly as the first does since within the first ten minutes you're already told about the main villain and his overall intentions.

 

Great movie, but I would consider it to be a step below the first one. It met my expectations, but didn't surpass them entirely.

[pppp]

HTTYD2 was very good but I wouldn't say it improves on absolutely everything from the first, in fact I still like the first movie more. The emotional events in the original felt subtle and understated, while they were much more prevalent here.

 

I don't see how is it any less subtle than any Pixar movie. By that logic Ratatouille is quite overrated since it literally spells out the message for you:

 

 

The themes of the original were simpler than than the sequel, which allowed them to be less talky, but HTTY2 is more narratively complex, it needed that to make the plot tangible for kids.

[Sean]

This is all subjective so I have nothing to argue about, but I was referring to how HTTYD2 has a larger quantity of emotional events and there was that underlying feeling throughout the entire film that was like "we're gonna try pulling your heartstrings almost literally the entire time" which is a result of the movie being overall more bombastic and exciting so this was something I was already fully expecting as I walked into the theater room. Some of the emotional moments totally worked out for me, but others fell flat. The dancing scene, for example? I personally thought that part was a little forced, especially since the mother looked absolutely terrified during the first few minutes so I actually had no idea if it was supposed to be a heartwarming scene or not as I was watching.

[Milo]

DreamWorks Lays Off Dozens of Employees As ‘Dragons 2′ Continues to Underperform

 

 

We heard rumors of layoffs at DreamWorks last week, but they weren’t confirmed by a reputable source until yesterday evening when the animator’s union, The Animation Guild, posted an item about it on their blog. The Guild reported that the layoffs took place early last week. An estimated 40-50 employees were let go. According to the DreamWorks sources that the union spoke with:

 

"The studio didn’t have enough features that required staff building front-end production elements, so employees in departments that were overstaffed—and who didn’t have longer-term contracts or assignments—were given their walking papers."

 

The studio gave no prior warning to the employees that it laid off and demanded that they leave the studio that day. There are reports that employees weren’t even allowed to return to their cubicles to pack their belongings. “I get that the company needs to be cautious,” one person told the Animation Guild, “but I talked to one employee who said she wasn’t allowed back to her desk. She was kind of upset.”

 

DreamWorks’ stock has plummeted 35% since the beginning of 2014. How to Train Your Dragon 2 suffered another steep decline in its third U.S. weekend, dropping 46% at the box office. The first film in the series, by contrast, dropped just 14% in its third weekend.

 

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/dreamworks-lays-off-dozens-of-employees-as-dragons-2-continues-to-underperform-100957.html

 

Really sucks for this to happen on the heels of Dragons 2 being one of the most acclaimed DWA films for a while. It was also really messed up of DWA to not notify the people they laid off in advance and essentially forced them out of the building.

 

Hope the people laid off can find new jobs quickly.

[Gabz Girl]

Some comments on Cartoon Brew are saying it's not a big deal and that this always happens in animation. Err..then why haven't I heard of lay offs from Disney, yet I keep hearing about the ones happening at Dreamworks after every new release??

 

It's sad to see HTTYD2 not doing too great in the US though, and I don't understand why. I heard it's doing well internationally, so here's hoping that when it comes out in the UK this weekend it will be a major hit overseas.

[JezMM]

Saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 today.  Overall was great stuff, but like the first film nothing amazing-amazing.  Solidly entertaining but not something I feel has much lasting appeal, to be watched again and again, like my fave Pixar movies.  A few spoilers ahead:

 

My biggest disappointment was after the amazing soundtrack of the first film, they delivered an amazing soundtrack again.  …By basically reusing all the same music.  Like it’s obviously been re-recorded but due to being one of the few film scores out there that I loved enough to listen to the CD several times, I completely recognised every song that was reused.  I loved that the new Jónsi song incorporated the main orchestral theme, but even that was a bit of a letdown because I hoped for something different in flavour to Sticks and Stones, which the new theme wasn’t.  But yeah, way too much reused themes from the first movie.

 

Other than that gripe though it was pretty solid, I love that they weren’t afraid to tell a mature story by growing the characters up a bit, actually having young characters BE in their implied start of a relationship from the end of the first film in the sequel (looking at you Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2), and didn’t brush over subjects like death or war and stuff for the kids (though when the Alpha Dragon was killed it was a bit awkwardly done due to lack of… any sound effect at all when he was stabbed, as if it was a literal cut made by a TV network or something) though there was a spot or two where a comedy moment was shoe-horned into an emotional or tense scene seemingly just for the sake of not boring the kids.

 

But yeah, I got a bit tearful during the emotional parts, I had a real moment of “wtf are they gonna do to get out of this” before the finale, and while the gags involving the other teenage characters were as bland and forced as they were in the first movie, I enjoyed the rest of the comedy.  Overall on par with my experience with the first movie.  Very good film but just “very good”, not amazing or something I’d be desperate for another movie of or be eager to watch again unless it just came on TV or whatever.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Anyone see the vlog videos that feature Shrek,Po, and Puss in Boots on Dreamworks TV's Youtube page?

 

Oh by the way, one of the videos has Shrek revealing he loves boy bands and his favourite is called ''Wrong Direction'' 

 

Here's the Shrek vlogs:

 

[JezMM]

Anyone see the vlog videos that feature Shrek,Po, and Puss in Boots on Dreamworks TV's Youtube page?

 

Yeah, those abominations have their own topic in fact:

 

I can't even bring myself to watch them all, that "how to dance like an ogre" one is offending my eyes already with the thumbnail alone.

[Nepenthe]

Some comments on Cartoon Brew are saying it's not a big deal and that this always happens in animation. Err..then why haven't I heard of lay offs from Disney, yet I keep hearing about the ones happening at Dreamworks after every new release??

 

Probably because members don't post about Disney and Pixar layoffs in their respective threads. But as an example, here's an article about Disney laying off their entire Renaissance era hand-drawn division last year. Let's also not forget the Pixar Canada closings.

 

Animator turnover is common between productions and over various periods of time.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

My two personal favourite Dreamworks films is probably Shrek 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2. Both are very funny and have a lot of heart put into them. My favourite moments not being the comedy moments but surprisingly, the drama moments. The ending of KFP 2 is one of my all time favourite endings

It's just heartbreaking to see everyone injured and near death and Shen on the verge of winning until Po manages to reflect the cannonballs

Shrek 2 also does a great job in making Shrek want to change for Fiona and again the final battle is another favourite with Shrek and his friends storming the castle while Fairy Godmother sings I need a Hero., 

[Gabz Girl]

I...really don't want to watch those Shrek vlogs. I'm already creeped out by the Shrek is life thing. >>

 

Probably because members don't post about Disney and Pixar layoffs in their respective threads. But as an example, here's an article about Disney laying off their entire Renaissance era hand-drawn division last year. Let's also not forget the Pixar Canada closings.

 

Animator turnover is common between productions and over various periods of time.

 

Oh yeah, I remember those...ugh, and I remember being especially upset by Disney getting rid of their hand drawn division. Winnie the Pooh may not have been a big success but damn Disney, give it another chance! Now the only in house 2D animator working at Disney is Eric Goldberg, and he's great but it's such a shame that other great animators were laid off. =[

[SilentDoom]

A video some of the software behind How To Train Your Dragon 2

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepGUcvsWB0

[Kevin]

I'm late on giving my opinion on How To Train Your Dragon 2, but I thought it was really. It's one of those sequels that's just as good as if not better than the original one.There were a bunch of humors moments and since big surprises that I didn't see coming. It's a shame that those in the UK have to wait a bit longer to see it, but thankfully it's not a huge wait as some other films that took forever to release over there.

[Gabz Girl]

 

 

http://www.heatworld.com/2015/03/exclusive-clip-from-dreamworks-new-film-home-starring-rihanna#.VQQmyo4kSDk

 

Some new clips from Home. The last one should play automatically on the website.

 

Ehhh, I'm still not convinced. The more I see of this film, the more I feel like I should just wait until it's available on Netflix or something. I don't like the humour, I HATE Sheldon as Oh, I can't stand the way the Boov talk (I know it's a quirk of theirs in the book too but urgh) and it just doesn't look interesting enough to see on the big screen.

 

However, I will admit the animation is nice and I actually think Rihanna's voice isn't too bad for Tip. And not!Mochi is adorable. <3