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In 1994, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned from the company and teamed up with Steven Spielberg and music executive David Geffen to form DreamWorks SKG, which later was rechristened DreamWorks Animation. Its first feature film, released four years later, was “Antz,” a brash, adult-oriented CGI production about a worker ant struggling to stick out in the communal colony he slaves away in. The film was successful — it was the first non-Disney animated movie to gross $100 million worldwide — but it was also overshadowed by comparisons to “A Bug’s Life,” Pixar’s film released that year which also focused on a misfit ant trying to save his ant colony.
That beginning encapsulates the perception of DreamWorks Animation in a nutshell — as the decidedly less ambitious, less artful cousin to Pixar. And it’s hard to say that reputation is totally unearned. DreamWorks is responsible for many lazily constructed, irritating animated movies, from “Shark Tale” to the “Trolls” franchise to the existential horror that is the “Boss Baby” film series. Its worst movies often seem on autopilot, relying on referential humor and massively star-studded casts to carry stories that don’t have much heart.
But DreamWorks, over just a 26 year history, has developed a wide variety of films that go beyond just the loud, annoying comedy they’re often associated with; and often that loud, annoying comedy can be genuinely good, as can be seen in the better “Shrek” films. Their early 2D animated films, from epic “The Prince of Egypt” to fizzy comedy “The Road to El Dorado,” are delights, and the early Aardman Animation films they helped produce and distribute are equally wonderful. And every so often, a DreamWorks film comes around with a real storytelling perspective that makes them sing, like the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies or the early “Kung Fu Panda” films. DreamWorks latest is also one of their best: based on a novel by Peter Brown, “The Wild Robot” tells an ecological story of a robot turned protector of a small island, with gorgeous animation and a heartwarming moral about parenthood making for one of DreamWorks most nakedly emotional works.
With “The Wild Robot” in theaters now, IndieWire is revisiting the best of DreamWorks’ output. The list includes both their modern 3D animated output, their 2D work from the early 2000s, and the claymation films that they distributed and produced in partnership with Aardman Animations. We also limited ourselves to one representative for every franchise DreamWorks produces. Read on for the 10 best DreamWorks movies, ranked.
10. ‘Antz’ (1998)
Although it’s overshadowed by ‘A Bug’s Life’ from the same year, DreamWorks’ first film is actually the superior movie about an ant attempting to save his colony from an invading force. It’s funnier, for one, with a mature sense of humor that’s genuinely somewhat edgy for a kids movie (the presence of Woody Allen as the ant hero helps a lot). And the voice cast is terrific, from Allen to Gene Hackman’s sneering lead villain to Sharon Stone’s portrayal of the princess of the colony. Its storyline is a bit weightless, but on a whole, the film’s humor is enough to make it stand out from the pack.
9. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ (2008)
DreamWorks films aren’t known for their amazing voice acting performances: the overreliance on celebrity performers can sometimes prove detrimental to the performances in the films. But the studio struck gold casting Jack Black as the lead hero of ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ as the comedic star brings high energy and heart that elevates the wuxia riff. Following the noodle shop worker Po as he becomes the unlikely candidate to be the prophesied Dragon Warrior and defeat the villainous Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Black’s performance makes this fairly typical underdog story sing, and the inventive and fun action choreography ranks among the best in recent animated history.
8. ‘Megamind’ (2010)
The recent straight-to-Peacock sequel was a disaster, but the original ‘Megamind’ is a pretty good and amusing riff on modern superhero films. Starring Will Ferrell as the titular supervillain, it follows Megamind as he achieves the impossible: actually defeating his archenemy Metro Man (Brad Pitt). With nothing to do after he’s devoted his entire life to undermining the handsome super, he decides to create a new hero, but discovers that the real hero may be…himself. Funny and irreverent, ‘Megamind’ is one of DreamWorks best comedic films, but its earnest story about there being good in all of us is what makes it great.
7. ‘The Wild Robot’ (2024)
Chris Sanders’ ‘The Wild Robot’ is definitely the best-looking DreamWorks film ever released: the final movie produced entirely in-house by the studio, it builds on the hand-painted look of recent films like ‘Puss in Boots: the Last Wish’ to construct an animal kingdom teaming with life. On the gorgeous green island, a robot (voiced by a terrific Lupita Nyong’o) washes ashore, and slowly adapts to its surroundings despite being shunned as a monster by the animals around her. After accidentally killing a family of geese, she looks after the only surviving runt (Kit Connor), and in the process, learns real emotions and how to become a mother. The opening of the film, before Roz learns to speak like the animals, is a bit more thrillingly unconventional than the rest. Still, ‘The Wild Robot’ is a thoughtful work that packs in lovely messages about family, environmentalism, and becoming your own person that sneaks up on you before reducing you to a blubbering mess.
6. ‘The Prince of Egypt’ (1998)
It’s difficult to make any film about religion or the Bible that entertains: While there’s certainly some memorable stories within the central Christian text, too often they’re rendered as preachy and moralizing rather than epic. ‘The Prince of Egypt,’ DreamWorks sophomore feature, is a welcome exception, a biblical story that always remains human at its core, adapting the story of Moses as a deeply felt musical. A fairly straightforward telling of the original Biblical tale, its changes (including making Moses and Rameses adopted brother) deliver at turning it into an operatic tragedy. And the songs, written by Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer, are terrific, especially Oscar winner ‘When You Believe.’
5. ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ (2005)
Aardman Animation’s Wallace and Gromit work best as the stars of short films, especially the all-time classic ‘The Wrong Trousers.’ Still, the duo’s feature-length debut, ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,’ is pretty terrific in its own right, casting the duo in a Hammer Horror parody that works for film geeks and little kids alike. In Tottington Hall, Wallace and his hypercompetent dog Gromit work as pest control, protecting the townspeople’s crops from being devoured by the local rabbit population. The two are hired to defeat the Were-Rabbit, a giant creature as deadly as it is obsessed with vegetables. It’s aggressively English in the best way, and mixes its Hammer Horror parody with endless references to films like ‘Top Gun’ and ‘King Kong’ and an eccentric, singular humor. Like all the best Aardman movies, though, it has a heart inside all the clay, as the central friendship between man and dog provides some real pathos with all the beats and carrots.
4. ‘The Road to El Dorado’ (2000)
A financial failure upon release, ‘The Road to El Dorado’ faced mixed reception upon release and helped fully kill Dreamworks’ business making 2D animated films. That’s a shame, because it’s one of DreamWorks very best, an incredibly entertaining hangout comedy that mixes a Hans Zimmer score, an Elton John soundtrack, and Mesoamerican culture to create a great time. Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh play two con artists who lie their way into possession of a map to El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. Once they travel there, a priest seeking to control the city proclaims to be gods, and they gladly go along with the ruse until they’re forced by local woman Chel (Rosie Perez) to step up and become heroes. It’s essentially a swashbuckling adventure buddy comedy, and it works amazingly well, thanks to the lovely animation and the performances from the three lead actors. The film does traffic in some ‘sexy native’ stereotypes that prove a bit unfortunate, but otherwise, ‘The Road to El Dorado’ is nearly flawless.
3. ‘Shrek 2’ (2004)
When people think of DreamWorks, they think of the ‘Shrek’ films and its snarky, irreverent, pop-culture infused parody of fairy tales. While some may find that style insufferable, ‘Shrek’ is where that DreamWorks style of humor works best, and the franchise is at the peak of its powers in the 2004 second installment, which expands the world for a storyline in which the titular ogre, his bride Fiona, and the trusty Donkey head to Far Far Away meet Fiona’s parents. There, the scheming Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders, absolutely fabulous) attempts to separate the happy couple in order to marry off Fiona to her son Prince Charming (a preening Rupert Everett). The cast of the first film is fleshed out and expanded, with killer new additions like Puss in Boots. The comedy is funnier and meaner, the soundtrack is killer, and the film more successfully grounds itself in the love story between Mike Meyers and Cameron Diaz’s central ogre couple. Plus, it’s the only DreamWorks movie that screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which counts for something.
2. ‘Chicken Run’ (2000)
A straight-up masterpiece, ‘Chicken Run’ is Aardman’s first feature-length film, and it’s still the company’s greatest achievement. The story of a group of British chickens attempting to escape their prison-like egg farm before they’re baked into meat pies, it’s a hilarious spin on the ‘The Great Escape’ for children, and a great rom-com between the chicken leader Ginger and the boisterous American rooster Rocky. Gorgeously constructed, and with a feminist political bent that can be seen as anarchist or Marxist is you’re so inclined, ‘Chicken Run’ is simply an absolute classic.
1. ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (2010)
Easily DreamWorks’ peak, the first ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is also one of the best animated films of all-time: a timeless, gorgeous, deeply moving portrait of an unlikely friendship that tells its simple story in unforgettable fashion. Chris Sanders’ film adeptly situates the audience in the life of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a nerdy outcast in a viking village that hunts attacking dragons, deemed to weak by his chieftainfather (Gerard Butler). His attempts to prove himself by going after a particularly rare dragon ends in him discovering the creatures are more docile than expected, and he soon begins bonding with the creature and attempting to end the war between the species. It’s a typical story for a kids adventure, but ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ does everything right: the bond between Hiccup and Toothless is deeply moving, the animation and action choreography are breathtaking, the vocal performances are top-tier, and the score from John Powell is stirring. DreamWorks has produced plenty of great movies, but none can fully capture the magic of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’
