The Green Issue

Vol. 1#3

4The Green IssueDreamworks versus Pixar

Dreamworks:

When what you are looking for is a fun family time, the best place to turn to is DreamWorks. The characters appear to have stepped right out of fairy tales; literally so in the case of the Shrek series. It is a world where the land is magical, the heroes are perfect, the villains are buffoons who want to rule the world, and the endings are eter-nally happy.

The studio has released some of the highest grossing animated movies of all time. Their formula for all movies seems to be ‘(genre), but with animals’. This coat fits remarkably well for most of their movies, but little dabs of humanity make it all come alive and shine on the screen, as if some lost remnant of childhood. As for the ani-mation quality, their movies are a sight for sore eyes, especially in this era of Holly wood wherein every single director strives to make his/her movie as dark as humanly possible, filling their and the view-ers’ optometrists’ pockets as they do it. Magnificent colours fill every

5The Green Issue Dreamworks versus Pixar

scene, and they seem to form an integral part of their movie, tran-scending the fact that they are but a medium to convey the story.

One of the real stand-out movie for this iconic movie making com-pany has been Kung-Fu Panda, a film about a fighting Panda. The action comedy put DreamWorks in an entirely new league. The con-cept wasn’t original, for we have all seen Bruce Lee kicking arse, but how often does a Panda do it? The animation was ideal, the dialogue hilarious and the characters each stood out like the spikes of a porcu-pine.

But DreamWorks is not all talking animals and evil villains. Often, they also make movies that bring history alive through their various films Joseph: King of Dreams, The Prince of Egypt, The Road E1 Do-rado and Sinbad, to name a few, which are an educational and enter-taining delight for kids and adults alike.

In keeping with their childlike image, all the DreamWorks movies, (most notably Madagascar and Ice Age) have a comedic streak in them that can only be described as slapstick. Granted, DreamWorks does market its photo plays to the younger crowd, but through the extravagant and colourful display a nagging doubt fills your mind, that you would much rather be watching something more cerebral, rather than laughing as a sabre toothed squirrel fails to get an acorn for the eleventy billionth time, raising serious doubts as to his mode of sustenance.

But then the aforementioned rodent goes ‘urk’ and disappears under an avalanche of snow, and you laugh again, the feeling forgotten.

6The Green IssueDreamworks versus Pixar

Pixar:

Animated movies are director’s greatest tools. He does not have to deal with weather, no special effect is out of his grasp and the blood pressure he saves by not using flesh and blood actors probably adds a year of two to his life. The people at Pixar understand that, and use it to their advantage. Being an animation studio, they are in-stantly connected to children, and while the animated people look like something a child would draw, the emotions conveyed by those blocks of pixels are far beyond anything conceivable in a human ac-tor.

Every Pixar movie has its own grandiose majesty. The Pixar world does not revolve around the main character; they only go to show

7The Green Issue Dreamworks versus Pixar

that he, like all of us, has a small story to tell. They do not tell us about the other models of Wall E who go on to clean the planet while humanity is floating to decadence in a ship, or of the countless other toys in countless other homes across the world.

The movies have a way of telling stories, which seems almost endear-ing, and they deal with so many mature subjects in a way that brings a subtle beauty into them. The opening montage of Up, for instance, shows the couple meeting, their marriage and finally the wife’s death with such masterful strokes of emotion that one has no option but to marvel at the beauty of it all.

The visual style of every film is immaculate, with special attention given to small thing that people most likely will not notice, but will remind the users as to how much love was put into making the mov-ies. They serve as small segues into the lives of the people outside of the focus of the story, like the neighbour who harasses his toys in Toy Story 1 or the girl who runs to her window in wonder as the house rises over the city skyline.

But most of all, what these movies offer is hope. Hope that you will find what you are looking for. Hope that humanity will get a second chance. Hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long it is.

- Krushna Dande

A Saahil Dama, Ishan Dabri, Krushna Dande production.