I’m sure that we are all familiar with the Dreamworks Animation brand which has released films such as the Shrek franchise, the Kung Fu Panda series, the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy and more. These are all 3D CGI animated films and I do believe it is fair to say that 3D animation is what most people think of when they think of Dreamworks. However, did you know that of the first 7 films that Dreamworks Animation produced, only 2 of them were 3D CG films with the other 5 films animated in 2D?
It’s an interesting array of films as well with The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Joseph: King of Dreams (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003). Featuring 2 bible stories, a legendary city, a literary adaptation and a semi-historical film, these films are a strange mix when it comes to quality and animation.
The first film, The Prince of Egypt, is undoubtedly the most successful of these 5 films. Telling the story of Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt, the film grossed $218 million worldwide (despite being banned in some countries), garnered critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The Road to El Dorado is the story of two Spanish con artists who deceive the people of the legendary city of El Dorado into believing they are gods. One of my favourite animated films as a child, the film was nonetheless a failure at the box office and received a lacklustre critical response.
Joseph: King of Dreams is the first (and as of this article, only) film to be released by Dreamworks Animation direct to home video and tells the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis. Despite being a straight to home video film, the movie is surprisingly well animated with an affecting story.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is set during the American Indian Wars and features a wild horse called Spirit who is captured by the US army and is later helped by a Native American named Little Creek. The film is pleasant and entertaining with lovely animation. Something that stood out to me about this film is that the animals don’t talk. Matt Damon provides some inner narration for Spirit but this is restrained and infrequent and none of the other animals are provided with voices, instead relying on body movement and animation to convey their emotions.
Finally, we have Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, an adaptation of the story of Sinbad (as well as several other stories from One Thousand and One Nights). In my opinion, this film is easily the weakest of all the 2D animated Dreamworks films with poor dialogue and storytelling and ugly CGI animation. The poor box office performance of this film led Dreamworks Animation to abandon 2D animation.
From the get go, Dreamworks differentiated themselves from Disney by adapting a biblical story, something I can never imagine Disney deciding to do for fear of controversy and the subject matter. In contrast, The Road to El Dorado and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas feel decidedly more Disneyesque complete with comic relief animals and adventure. To me, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron feels like an unusual blend of the two, featuring animals but deciding to tell the story in a more restrained, subtle manner.
Watching through these films as an adult, something I noticed was that, despite ultimately becoming a CGI company, the CG animation in their 2D films never ended up matching the quality seen in Disney’s films. The CG animation of Sinbad was particularly bad but even in their other films, the CG animation never managed to blend in a manner similar to films made through CAPS (Computer Animation Production System).
While none of these films manage to reach the high standard of the best films of the Disney Renaissance, they are nonetheless interesting films to compare and worth watching if you are a fan of animation. I think it’s a shame that Dreamworks gave up 2D animation after Sinbad and I hope that we might see another 2D animated film from them eventually.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!