Dreamworks Controversy Meme: TAKE YOUR PICKS!

Following the rip-roaring success of my Star Wars Controversy Meme, I've looked back at the one that started all my interest in controversy memes (Dreamworks) and made my choices:



And here are my reasons for them:
Favourite Character: This was a close call between Po and Shrek, but Po makes me laugh more because of Jack Black's hilarious voice acting for him. On one hand Po is the Dragon Warrior he always hoped to be, but on the other he's still a clueless bumbler just as he was before he made that fateful journey to the Jade Palace. And in 3 we know where he gets it from!

Favourite Villain: It has to be Shen. From the first time I saw Kung Fu Panda 2, I found Shen to be very much what I would be if I was a villain - physically weaker than others but cunning, tactical and skilled with a blade - as well as having a full plan as to how I would conquer the world - not to mention his magnificent voice acting by the legend that is Gary Oldman. Tai Lung from the first film was great too (what are you going to do, Big Guy? Sit on me?) - indeed I'd say he's my second favourite - but Shen clinches it for me.

Favourite Film: Kung Fu Panda 2, because Shen steals the show and that it has a sinister dark edge to it that I really like.

Favourite Song: I have to say that is Jennifer Saunders' cover to 'I wanna be a hero', because it is just so fitting for the desperate assault on the castle it accompanies. Also arguably better than the original in places.

Favourite Moment: When Shen returns to Gongmen City, not only for the reasons above but also because he is able to use his swordfighting skills to thrash two Kung Fu masters at the same time, and when the greatest of the three defeats him, Shen promptly destroys him with one of his new cannons.

Despised Character(s): While I think Forever After is the worst of the Shrek films so far, the worst characters (not only in Shrek but all of Dreamworks' filmmaking history) are the pupils and staff of Worcestershire Academy from Shrek the Third, principally because they have the dreadful dialogue and diction to the way they speak so common in people nowadays, but also the whole atmosphere that they have bred is just the epitome of savagery and the death of civilisation, the complete opposite to the noble kingdom of Camelot portrayed in the legends. Even the teachers are bullies there as they want Shrek to eat Arthur just as much as the pupils do. From the show-off Lancelot to the tarty Guinevere, they are all insults to the Arthurian legends.

Despised Villain: Of all the villains in Dreamworks films I've seen, by far the worst is Rumpelstiltskin from Forever After in my view, mainly because from the moment I first encountered him, he reminded me far more of a school bully from my past than the evil conniving dictator they tried to make him - annoying and highly punch-worthy, but ultimately without any backbone. I honestly dread to think of the mess that Far Far Away would become if my favourite and despised Dreamworks villains were ever to meet...

Despised Movie: The one Dreamworks film I think I remember seeing at some point is Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, because it is definitely the most forgettable of all the Dreamworks films I've seen. Of course there are Dreamworks films I've not seen that look ten times worse (Home and Trolls come to mind) but Legend of the Seven Seas I would say is the worst I've seen. If you want to watch a great Sinbad film (or three), have a look at the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad trilogy (Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger), because those are truly terrific old films that blow Legend of the Seven Seas out of the water in my view.

Despised Song: I have to say I can't think of any song I particularly hate, because all the Dreamworks film songs I've heard are either great or average in my opinion.

Despised Scene: Continuing my Despised Character reasoning, the worst scene has got to be the arrival at Worcestershire Academy scene because it is just so cringeworthy, from the completely out-of-sync cheerleaders to Guinevere speaking in a language based on English none of the main characters can understand. The only decent parts are the future Sir Percival failing his driving test miserably ("Ease up on the reins") and the two RPG player stereotypes who are 'not fitting in' (I like to reinterpret them as Magic players who haven't ditched their cards and started Warhammer instead).

Anyway, I don't know how many of you watch or like Dreamworks films, but here's the blank template for those who want to create their own version:


I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

 

Interesting choices - I’ve never seen “Troll Hunters”, “The Boss Baby”, “The Road to El Dorado” or “Home”, though, so I can’t really comment on them. However:

I do agree here - I was originally thinking of choosing “You’re playing with the big boys now” from that soundtrack as my favourite song but I still see it as my second fave after “I wanna be a hero”

 

Now I have not exactly seen all Dreamworks movies, and I am probably quite biased towards HTTYD as can be seen here:



Favourite Character: This is a tie between Toothless and Hiccup. Toothless is adorable and I absolutely love his design, I love cats and dragons so the match is perfect for me. Furthermore Who didn't want a dragon companion as a kid? Maybe there is some Eragon influence here too.
For Hiccup I just see a lot of my own personality in his, so I guess that is part of why i like him so much.

Favourite Villain: Tai Lung is an interesting villain, in that he was/is not inherently evil, and was basically brought up to be that way by shifu, and I think that Shifu being both Po and Tai Lung's mentor is quite neat. and he's a cat, so there's that too .

Favourite Film: Really this is a toss up between either of the HTTYD movies, as I adore all of them. I have just chosen the third movie, as it is great due to the character building of the first two films, which makes me care about the characters that bit more, and the ending is quite bitter sweet IMO, but probably in the best way they could have done it.

Favourite Song: I could again go with more than one here: If scores are allowed then 'Forbidden friendship' from HTTYD (), 'Where No One Goes' from HTTYD2 () or 'Together From Afar' from HTTYD3 ().
Once again I will go with HTTYD3 and say 'Together From Afar', because of the baggage from the other movies, and the, for me, bit emotional end of the franchise.

Favourite Moment: This is either the part in HTTYD where Hiccup and Toothless connect while 'Forbidden Friendship' is playing, specifically at the end where Hiccup gets to touch Toohtless for the first time; Or ir is the very end of HTTYD3, which I will not spoil for anyone who has not seen it yet.

Despised Stuff:
Honestly I have never given much thought to what I disliked the most; furthermore I don't think I have seen any Dreamworks movie that I disliked, but if I had seen Boss baby that would probably be it for every despised entry.

 

I largely guessed by your avatar that you would put How To Train Your Dragon as most of your ‘favourite’ choices

I liked the first two How To Train Your Dragon Movies when I saw them as well as Riders of Berk - as standalone films they are very good. However, I had read the books before the films came out, and if you have read the books at all you’ll know as much as I do that the books and films are as different as chalk and cheese. The only two characters even remotely accurate to the book versions are Hiccup and Stoick (and even then personally I never voiced Stoick as a Scot in my mind), and the plots are very different. But in any case, I was rather spoiled, I suppose, in reading the books first, so I imagine that I can’t really enjoy the films to the fullest extent that others can, although I maintain that as standalone features I still enjoy them. To be honest the music for HTTYD never really gripped me compared to Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and The Prince of Egypt (perhaps too Scottish for my tastes? I don’t know), but that’s just me.

 

Yeah, that’s another inaccuracy the films have to the books - throughout the first 2 or 3 books Hiccup is desperately trying to get his much smaller and younger Toothless to do basic things where the other boys already have their dragons pretty much trained, while in the film he manages to train Toothless much more easily, although they did have less time in which to do it I suppose.

No matter, I understand everyone has other commitments to fulfil - I just put this thread up for those who have seen and enjoyed a good lot of the Dreamworks films. Maybe you’ll see more of them later on

 

I look forward to your answers!

 

Never seen Antz myself, although I do like A Bug’s Life.

Never seen The Ten Commandments, but yes, the soundtrack is great.

Never seen this one either.

Yeah Chicken Run is great.

Agreed 100%

I saw this one once and thought it was pretty good, but am unsure if it’s worth a rewatch.

This was certainly the most forgettable one I’ve seen.

And it’s my second after KFP2.

Shark Tale I see as largely mediocre, but I suggest you still watch it and form your own opinion rather than using that of a so-called critic who thinks they know everything about films just because they’ve got a mickey-mouse Film Studies degree.

Also I’m sure Plinkett is the b@stard who first started all the hate for The Phantom Menace. That’s reason enough for me to loathe him with every ounce of my being.

I’m sad to hear you say this because I love Wallace and Gromit, especially the Curse of the Were Rabbit. However I think it’s a film that appeals more to British viewers because there are loads of little British gags that American viewers just wouldn’t get - obviously even though Dreamworks funded the production of Curse of the Were Rabbit, they must have interfered very little in production, otherwise it’s likely that all these British-isms wouldn’t have made it into the final film. Certainly I think it was enjoyed much more over here than in the US because of this.

I honestly think Over the Hedge is actually a lot funnier than Madagascar. I mean I love Ben Stiller’s comedy routines as much as the next man, but when compared to other films he’s starred in like Night at the Museum and Meet the Parents, Madagascar is very flat. In fact the best part of Madagascar for me was the crack team of Penguins, and they then disappeared halfway through in their quest to reach Antarctica.

Flushed Away again is a highly underrated film in my opinion, but like Curse of the Were Rabbit it appeals more to British viewers I think. Also the only actual toilet humour really is the whole idea of being flushed down the toilet into an underground rat version of London in the sewers. There aren’t any references to excretory matter anywhere.

I honestly thought that Forever After was worse and that Shrek the Third was largely enjoyable except for the Worcestershire Academy sequence.

This one was largely forgettable in my view.

Perfect film this one.

Never watched it because the first one was mediocre in itself.

Never seen it, and to me the ‘monsters’ just look too goofy to be taken seriously - less monsters and more Victorian Freak Show articles.

Agreed here, and because I read the arguably more entertaining books first I feel that it is a bit overrated, but it’s still good.

Forever After just had a different feel in my view to the previous three, in fact I largely avoided watching Forever after for a long while and treated Shrek as a trilogy, and when I came to watch Forever after I didn’t think it was as good as the previous three.

I‘ve never watched Megamind and to me it looks bad, but maybe I should see it. At least it looks better than Despicable Me.

Honestly I think Kung Fu Panda 2 was better than the first one, and I loved the first one.

I enjoyed Puss’ spin-off film but I’m unsure if it has rewatch value.

Same

In my view it’s the other way round - I enjoyed Rise of the Guardians while the Croods looks far too campy.

Never seen this either but I thought it looked better than stuff like The Croods and Megamind.

I skirted around this one like the plague because it just looked so bad.

This one I still enjoyed, and it was nice to see Hiccup find his mother, but again the whole thing was inaccurate to the books so that spoilt it a little.

Never seen the TV series, but I thought the penguins were the best characters, so maybe their film is worth watching.

Agreed. It wasn’t as good as 1 and 2 but still funny and enjoyable.

Considering all the dreadful animated films released that year, it looks as if there wasn’t much choice but to nominate it. The only half-decent looking film of that list is Ferdinand, and neither it or the Boss Baby won anyway.

Same

I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD due to University commitments.

Never seen Legends of Awesomeness, but I imagine like the Clone Wars Series it didn’t have nearly as big a budget as the films so it had to get cheaper actors to mimic the film characters. Still sounds worth a watch though. And yes Jack Black is brilliant as Po. In fact in many ways he is Po, like Leonard Nimoy was Spock and William Shatner is Captain Kirk.

Join the Shen fan club!

Awesome villain!

Still prefer Kung Fu Panda 2 myself but Shrek 2 is a close second.

Agreed 110%

The actual scene where they assault the castle I saw also a really good scene, but the Shen scenes are also great, if not better, that’s why I put a Shen scene as my choice.

I thought Seth Rogen and David Cross were great as their respective characters, Rogen as the wisecracking Mantis and Crane as the more diplomatic sage kind of character. To be honest though, overall the Furious Five are mainly used as a plot device to represent the heroes that Po aspires to be, like children these days idolise the Avengers, and they do this job very well I’d say. I’m surprised you put them there as despised characters. I do agree Tigress and Viper are meh, but otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have put them as my despised characters. They’re still infinitely more enjoyable to watch than the losers of Worcestershire (the school in Shrek the Third not the county - I love the actual English county)

I’d agree with that (I remember the giant Thundertusk dragon more than its rider) but I still think Rumpelstiltskin is worse, not so much because he’s annoying (even though he is), but more because he just doesn’t have the evil atmosphere and is pretty weak in every way compared to the awesome bad guys like Shen and Tai Lung.

See above

Maybe that song wasn’t the best to play at King Harold’s funeral, but I still think it’s amusing to see a James Bond song crop up in a Shrek film. Perhaps because it’s just so random.

On the contrary I think it’s pretty funny to see the play exposed as the silly charade everyone except Charming sees it as already. It still has tension because Charming was effectively doing it in the style of a Roman Gladiatorial arena with Charming as the armed gladiator and Shrek as the condemned unarmed criminal that the Gladiators often used to kill in Roman arenas rather than each other because training them was expensive. Also some of the best Shrek-Charming insults are traded here (“That’s actually a really nice leotard.” “Oh, thank you.” “Do they do them in men’s sizes?”). At the very least the Worcestershire scene was more cringeworthy by a long way, if we have to pick a Shrek the Third scene.

 

:O this thread is getting bigger every second.

 

Film analysts require a lot of space to work

Interested in stating your views on the Dreamworks films?

 

*cough* Coco *cough*

Personally, while I’ve seen quite a few Dreamworks films, I’ve never really connected with any of them enough to have real opinions on them. I’ve only ever really seen them as filler and never really paid that much attention, so I don’t really feel strongly about any of them really