They were enjoying the afterglow and coasting on inertia. But in the aftermath of the Disney Renaissance, everything was falling apart. The problem was how thoroughly Shrek beat Disney at their own game.ĭisney had pioneered animation and filmmaking for years. The problem with Shrek was not just the vindictiveness. You roll with the punches, laugh at yourself, and move on. However, being in the public eye makes you a fair target.
#CHICKEN LITTLE MOVIE#
Having a movie satirize your company is a minor problem. It’s the nature of the corporate media world. Having a rival studio produce a successful film is not a huge problem. Even the film’s villain is a caricature of Michael Eisner, ruling from a kingdom very reminiscent of Disneyland. It’s a mockery of Disney’s pristine, wholesome aesthetic. It’s a ridicule of pointless, overwrought musical numbers. Shrek is a 90-minte roast of the Disney Corporation, its filmmaking style, and its cultural legacy. It was a personal insult directed at Disney. It wasn’t a mockery of fairy tales and myths. Shrek is the culmination of a career filled with scorn and bitterness. Shrek was Katzenberg’s long-awaited revenge. Without going into the details of Shrek’s plot, the movie is not an ordinary satire of public domain works. Katzenberg served as CEO of DreamWorks’s animation division for 20 years. Deposed, he co-founded DreamWorks Pictures alongside entertainment luminaries Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Katzenberg was the former head of Disney Animation, who left the company on very poor terms in 1994. The executive behind Shrek’s meteoric success was Jeffrey Katzenberg. Shrek turned DreamWorks Animation into one of the film industry’s largest companies. It won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Shrek proudly boasts three sequels, a spin-off franchise, numerous specials, a Broadway musical, and loads of toys, games, and marketing tie-ins. It was the first entirely-CGI film from DreamWorks, and has spawned an empire. It remains DreamWorks’s most popular film to date, challenged only by its own sequel. It was a box-office phenomenon, becoming the second-highest grossing film of 2001. Shrek was the fifth movie from DreamWorks Animation. Disney had to survive the wrath of Shrek. It was a direct attack from their newfound rivals, DreamWorks Animation.
The largest source of strife, Disney couldn’t prepare for and couldn’t expect. A pervasive rumor that Comcast was seeking to acquire the distressed Disney Corporation. Brain drain of talented filmmakers to rival companies. A growing reputation as irrelevant and out-of-touch. Lowered ambitions to cut production costs. A string of commercially underperforming films.
Disney’s slow, reluctant conversion to CGI animation. There were many factors to blame for the third Disney Dark Age.
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