Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

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Call it schizo, but the general premise likely isn’t wrong. When Shrek came out in the 2000s, it was a time when animated films were pushing heavily for a male audience, whereas now animation seems increasingly more directed towards a female audience. Animation styles have definitely gotten less crude as a result, with everyone going the Frozen/Tangled route as it made bank with women.

Obviously cannot fully claim anything, but a lot of animation today seems more focused on being cutesy to bring in girls, resulting in the spiral that lead to this.
I know people feel it's a retarded conspiracy but i think there is some merit to the re-design of Sanic in the first movie, like it was planned to generate badwill just so they could swoop in and change it and go "Lookeee guys! We totally listen to our fans!"
Gonna disagree just given the general direction of the films. You can tell the first movie was heavily hampered by Paramount not getting Sanic. Luckily the directors did like the character (actually having a ton of history with the IP), but that entire first movie was as corporate safe as possible.

My money is on Paramount actually being that retarded and the director using the online hate as a way to pressure them into changing the design. It sounds like he hated it and warned them from day one, but out-of-touch boomer going to out-of-touch boomer. At best, I can see them already having some animations ready as they fought with the studio over it.
 
Everyone seeing the Shrek 5 trailer complaining about the designs and asking where the other kids are, me I can't get past the fact that they used memes in the Shrek trailer. Shit memes
the problem with shrek is the only reason to bring it back is either:
a) go full fairy tale and actually take yourself seriously, ala puss in boots 2, and risk alienating the audience
b) be faithful to the ethos of the franchise being modern pop culture, as reviewed thru a fairy tale setting, and come off as cringy and tryhard if done poorly
they chose b
 
modern pop culture, as reviewed thru a fairy tale setting
The not cringy way to do it (without changing the setup too much) would have been to scroll through in-universe brainrot and have them react to it.
Lots of opportunities to reference modern trends and show not only a glimpse of each character, but also the dynamics between them on different levels (male/female, husband/wife, parent/child, etc.). Hell, go crazy and throw in a racial layer with Shrek not getting Black Donkey Twitter while you're at it!
 
I get it, there's probably a story to tell with Shrek learning how to handle his teenage kids as a way to "mirror" how boomers handled their Millennial/Zoomer kids and such, but unfortunately they don't have the writers to bring it justice.

As you can see, no one has made more than two movies, if that.
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Puss in Boots:
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This is Shrek 5:
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Conrad is the only returning name on this list, since he's the voice of Gingy.
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But wait, who's Walt Dohrn? Fucking Rumpelstiltskin, who is the main lead director for the Trolls franchise.
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I... I don't know how to feel about this. Honestly, Shrek 5 should've happened years ago if they actually really wanted it made. But now, with Illumination pretty much breathing down their necks the whole time, it's possible DreamWorks got pozzed. But also, when you compare his work in SpongeBob vs. Trolls, you can tell that he doesn't have that same spark, if he ever did. Even if he and Conrad worked together well as directors, that doesn't mean the writer for the Austin Powers movies can deliver for Shrek because he wrote the script for the fucking Boss Baby.
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The magic may as well be non-existent.
 
Aaaaah, now it makes sense why the first movie still holds up while the sequels are meh at best. Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were the two writers behind The Mask of Zorro, the original 1992 Aladdin, and Pirate of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. All great adventure movies.
 
Aaaaah, now it makes sense why the first movie still holds up while the sequels are meh at best. Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were the two writers behind The Mask of Zorro, the original 1992 Aladdin, and Pirate of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. All great adventure movies.
2 was good, though I’ll admit it was largely building up to a single brilliant moment which was genuinely worth it. 3 and 4 suck, though.
 
speaking of DreamWorks, I just found out that an absolute giga-Chad made a version of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron without Matt Damon's god-awful narration. The torrent link is attached, the mp4 is too big to be uploaded here
 

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the problem with shrek is the only reason to bring it back is either:
a) go full fairy tale and actually take yourself seriously, ala puss in boots 2, and risk alienating the audience
b) be faithful to the ethos of the franchise being modern pop culture, as reviewed thru a fairy tale setting, and come off as cringy and tryhard if done poorly
they chose b
The best route they could go would arguably be a reverse of Shrek 4. I cannot believe I am going to use this as an example, but Toy Story 4's premise would actually be rather fitting for a final Shrek movie. Shrek is old now, we have already seen Shrek go through all the main stages of adulthood: falling in love (Shrek), the integration into a wider family (Shrek 2), The taking on of new responsibilities/parenthood (Shrek 3) and the midlife crisis leading to realization of how good he now has it (Shrek 4). The obvious last step is to figure out what to do with his life now that the kids are grown and an entire era of his life is ogre now. The time between films could actually work to the benefit with this plot. It has been 16 years since we last saw Shrek, so his kids would be moving out around this point.

IDK, I think there is a good film one can gleam out of a Shrek 5 that continues the general trajectory of Shrek's growth. A retirement/end of parenthood story is rarely done, especially in kids films. Only Cars 3 and Toy Story 4 come to mind for giving that sort of plot that I think it would be different enough to explore in a film universe like Shrek.

2 was good, though I’ll admit it was largely building up to a single brilliant moment which was genuinely worth it. 3 and 4 suck, though.
Shrek 1 was great, Shrek 2 is arguably the best, Shrek 3 is better within the wider context of the franchise and Shrek 4 is underrated. Between that 4 films, you get a decent story about a jaded man who found love and a community, grew to build his own family and, while he may have his longing for the glory days, ultimately realizes that the growth he made gives him a happiness he never would have achieved had he continued being the angry, lonely ogre from Shrek 1.

I know Shrek 4 is contentious, but I think the ending perfectly encapsulates the franchise and the real heart it had underneath the pop cultural references and Disney jabs.
 
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