The original Shrek was a breath of fresh air in the otherwise rather rarefied world of feature animation. Besides Disney (and by extension, Pixar), no-one company seemed to be able to crack the whip when it came to attracting audiences. Enter Dreamworks with their debut CGI film about an big green ogre. Fairytales have, in this blogger’s opinion, been done to death in the animation world, but that is not what made Shrek bring in as much dough as he did.
Back in 2001 when Shrek first appeared, it was lauded as being every movie that Disney wasn’t. No song-and-dance numbers, no perfect princes and no sugar-coating on every corner of the screen. That was then, when such a thing was new and in style. Today, such films are commonplace, even expected. When was the last time you saw a CGI flick with some songs in it? Probably never.
Since the first movie was such a runaway success, we’ve had three more films and with each installment, the whole idea has gotten a little staler. The reason? Well, we’ve seen it all before haven’t we? The first film broke new ground in that it took a swipe at what was considered acceptable for a family film.
Since then the series has tried to outdo itself. I dare say that Shrek is somewhat of an over-saturated market.
This is what I’m afraid they are going to do with the How To Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda movies. They are successful so of course they have to have shows and a thousand sequels and what have you.
Madagascar is the only exception because somehow the sequel ended up better than the first one.
I agree, but that is the business model that Dreamworks has chosen to follow: basically squeeze a hit property for all it’s worth. It makes them money for sure, but the general public doesn’t exactly care either or they wouldn’t be coughing up their hard earned cash.
Two films are of interest though: Monsters Vs. Aliens. a film that did well enough in the US to deserve a sequel. but it’s international performance wasn’t up to par.I’ve Blue Sky’s Ice Age series, which I know for sure continues only because one of the films (don’t know which) did well enough abroad to justify further releases. I’ve become somewhat cynical of Hollywood’s “creativity” in recent times. Even Pixar has started to stray into similar territory thanks to the influence of Disney. It’s a shame, but I have hope that with the success of the likes of Coraline and The Secret of Kells, we may well see higher quality films in the future.