DreamWorks Animation is celebrating a big year in 2014. While the studio's first theatrical release would not come until 1998, it was October 12, 1994 that saw the birth of Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg's vision of a new movie studio, including, of course, Katzenberg's animation division. That makes it 20 years of DreamWorks, and with the release of “How to Train Your Dragon 2” next week (on the heels of a Cannes debut last month), the studio is toasting two decades with one of the most elite installments of its entire portfolio.
That's a portfolio that is already 29 films deep, by the way, and it'll extend to 30 in November with the release of “The Penguins of Madagascar.” There have been ups, there have been downs, but above all, an empire has been built. So on the occasion of “Dragon 2,” we thought maybe it was time we took a stab at ranking the whole of that empire, noting memorable moments from along the way. From 1998's “Antz” to this summer's highly anticipated sequel, see where your favorites might have ranked below.
And BEWARE: These are opinions. This is my list. I'd be very curious to see what your list might look like, though, so feel free to tell us.
(Speaking of all of this, if you haven't read Nicole LaPorte's expert account of the rise and fall of DreamWorks, “The Men Who Would Be King,” you're missing out on a hell of a story.)
“How to Train Your Dragon 2” hits theaters June 13.