DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio that creates animated feature films and television programmes. The company was born on October 12^th 1994, and it resides in Glendale, California.

They have created a total of 23 feature films, with their notable works being the franchises of Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda.

On 12^th October 1994, DreamWorks SKG was founded and formed by a trio of entertainment players: producer and director Steven Spielberg, former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and music executive David Geffen. This new studio had caught the attention of many artists from Spielberg’s animation studio Amblimation. When their last feature was completed in 1995, they joined DreamWorks, and when the studio shut down for good in 1997, the remains joined DreamWorks.

In 1995, DreamWorks signed a co-production deal with Pacific Data Images to form the subsidiary PDI, LLC. PDI owned 60% of the subsidiary, while DreamWorks SKG owned 40%. This new unit would start producing computer-generated feature films, beginning with Antz in 1998. In the same year, DreamWorks SKG released The Prince of Egypt, which used both traditional animation techniques and CG technology. Both films were positively received by critics and did reasonably well at the box office; Antz grossed $171 million and The Prince of Egypt grossed $218 million.

In 1997, DreamWorks partnered with Aardman Animations, a British stop-motion animation studio, to co-produce and distribute Chicken Run, a stop-motion film already in pre-production. The deal was extended for an additional four films two years later.

In 2000, DreamWorks SKG created a new business division, DreamWorks Animation, which would regularly produce both types of animated feature films: stop-motion and CG. In the same year, DreamWorks obtained the majority interest (90%) in PDI, and reformed it into PDI/DreamWorks for their Northern California branch. The following year, Shrek was released to great critical and commercial success, taking in $484 million at the box office. Not just that, but it also won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Due to CG success, DreamWorks Animation decided the same year to exit hand-drawn animation. All their films since Shrek 2, except some co-produced with Aardman, have been CG-produced. The release of that film and Shark Tale in 2004 made them the first studio to produce two CG-animated feature films in a single year. That number increased to three in 2010, with How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Megamind.