I'm a year 13 A level film student doing my independent study on the development of animation, I have chosen three films to focus on:
Snow White
Shrek
Toy Story
Do you think that Shrek chnaged the animation world forever?
Yes and no. I think Shrek gave people what they wanted at that time. The people who grew up with the Disney-Renaissance had grown tired of the Disney-formula and Shrek proved to be a big hit as a satire of those films. But in the last couple of years it has been obvious, that people are yearning for films in the spirit of Pixar and Disney. DW's biggest succes the last few years How to Train Your Dragon, felt similar to Disney/Pixar. One thing is for sure, though. The amount of pop-culture references have increased since Shrek, proving the humour to have been significantly popular.
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"Why do you work for a living, when you kill yourself working?
Do i think Shrek changed the animation world forever. Maybe. It was really just a big hit for Dreamworks and allowed them to make more computer-animated films.
shareNo, it's a great movie made with computer animation, but that has been out for at least 5 years. I'de say Toy Story changed the animiation world, it was the first full length, well done, computer animiated movie. And it had a great story, years ago i asked a friend, who was studing new media design, how come Pixar movies are so good. He said it takes so much time and effort to make a computer animiated movie, it's really critical that they pick a story that they know will be popular.
shareit certainly upped the technology of computer animation. The making-of featurettes go over a lot of detail how they had to work hard to get the fire and water effects to look good. also they did a lot of stuff to make hair look more natural.
shareno
shareIf it didn't change the animation world forever, it certainly set the benchmark. 99% of movies, and tv shows, that started out AFTER Shrek, are either 3D or 3D animation.
Before that, movies like the Lion King and other Disney movies etc... were all cartoon.
Even kids tv shows are all 3D animation now.
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Steven Seagal Fan Club President
Shrek was definitely one of the most influential animated movies of the '00s and it's formula, which was unique for an animated movie in 2001, has been copied by countless animated movies over the past decade. I don't know if it changed the animation world in the same way as Snow White or Toy Story, or even a show like The Simpsons, which was also using subtle adult humor and satire in a similar way for a decade before Shrek. But still, Shrek is definitely an iconic animated film and its influence is very noticeable.
A recreation of my nightmares
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Yes I completely agree with you, Snow White and Toy Story are benchmarks for the form, but what was completely different about Shrek was more about the content, it spawned a whole era of satirical animated films (shrek, enchanted, the incredibles...) and changed the kind of humor found in animation, turning it more and more adult friendly, mainly through pop culture references and innuendos unintelligible to children.
I totally understand Snow White and Shrek being the big hits of their times but as for toy story I just didn't get the same adult satisfaction as I did with Shrek
I can't say for sure if it changed things or not because everyone has their own personal opinion so where one person says yes another says no but from me you're getting a BIG YES!!!!!
My favourite animated films as a kid were Bambi, Robin Hood and the jungle book.
My recent faves are the Shrek series and Despicable Me 1&2 , I thought ice age was not bad also. Oh and of course Brave, I am Scottish after all :)
EDIT: OMG HOW! HOW! HOW? Could I forget UP and Wall-E ?!?!?!? They are awesome too!
Shrek wasn't important from an animated standpoint, but it still has it's place in animation history. For better or worse, it got more adult audiences to pay attention to animation and helped put butts in the seats for future Pixar and Dreamworks films. I've never been a big fan of this one, but I can't deny it was instrumental in creating the modern golden age of animated films that would kick into full gear in 2006. But much like Aladdin before it, the positive influences are heavily balanced out if not surpassed by the negative influences.
If everything is not all rainbows and kittens for you today, hopefully it will be tomorrow!
I wouldn't say it was hugely influential, but I suppose it deserves a historical footnote. Jeffery Katzenberg's mission in life for many years was to make an animated feature that was both for kids but also edgy. If you look into the history of Toy Story, there was a time when Katzenberg was in charge of its production, and he tried to get Pixar to make it super edgy... everyone hated it. Then Katzenberg moved on, and Shrek became his next experiment in edginess. I suppose it might be fair to say that any "edgy, but still for kids" thing that's come down the pike since then was influenced by Shrek, even if indirectly.
shareHere are the ways it changed animation but Druff said it was not a complete game changer:
1) It guaranteed Dreamworks animation studio would continue to exist. Up until 2001 there had not been a great and huge full feature length animation movie made outside Disney/Pixar. (some were good - Antz, Iron Giant and others were hits but nothing huge) After Shrek other studios got more serious with animation as well. Lastly, it was the blueprint for all following Dreamworks so far.
2) It showed the best to a kid animation movie with an edge. (as a Simpsons fan, bringing a Simpsonesqe humor to kids movies.)
3) It continued to movement that big celebrities were used in future animation. Shrek's voices, especially Myers & Murphy, might still be the best voiced animation movie ever.
The success Shrek accelerated the movement to animated movies but nothing here that changed American animation over night (like Toy Story, Snow White, Felix The Cat, Steamboat Willie, The Golddiggers of '35, The Simpsons). One film you want to add to your list of industry changers was The Little Mermaid. Along with The Simpsons, 1989 was the end of the low point of American animation and studios began seeing the potential. (the 1980s sucked for animation of Scrappy-Doo and The Smurfs.) Had The Little Mermaid been a bust, feature length animation movies might have been set back another 10 years.
Hey, I missed your post seven years ago. As a fun aside, I worked at Dreamworks Animation from 2006 to 2017, and I love how none of the points you brought up have ANYTHING to do with "game changing" whatsoever.
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