Sunday 25 January 2015

The Death of PDI/Dreamworks

A few days ago, news broke that Dreamworks Animation is closing down PDI studios, one of their subsidiaries who produced many of their films, including Antz, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda and the Madagascar & Shrek movies. This means over 500 jobs are being ended, but don't worry, many of them are getting jobs at the main Dreamworks Animation studio, or at the very least, opportunities at other studios, hell, a lot of animation & gaming studios have openly said they're offering jobs to those laid off, so all is good for them. And being honest that was my main concern with this closure because personally i feel like this isn't going to affect the quality of Dreamworks films very much. All of their films are for the most part, produced by either Dreamworks Animation or Pacific Digital Images (PDI).  And though PDI has made plenty of great films, they also have made the weakest of the Dreamworks films, including Shark Tale, Over the Hedge & Mr Peabody & Sherman; not to mention their habit of not letting a franchise die, *cough* Shrek *cough* Madagascar*.

Dreamworks Animation, especially over the past few years have-in my opinion-become better than the last few Pixar movies. How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2 are some of the best animated films i've ever seen, Monsters vs Aliens which was funny as hell, and while Kung Fu Panda (By PDI) was good, it's sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 (By Dreamworks) was a masterpiece. Or hell, let's go back to Dreamworks' routes, Prince of Egypt, an amazing movie. My point is, I honestly think this might be the right move for Dreamworks. Their filmography is half great and half mediocre (Hell, their only awful film is Shark Tale) but most their mediocre films did come from PDI, and now, with the cut backs on films, meaning more time to work on the current ones and make them all the better. The best of Dreamworks is still around and those at PDI will still have jobs so yeah, looking into it, i'm all for this decision, my only problem is Gimme Kung Fu Panda 3 already!!

-Danny

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