Disney vs. DreamWorks: The Tussle for the Tales

Once upon a time… 

Two of the biggest Animation Studios went head-to-head in a movie battle, unravelling a rivalry that exists to date.

I have always been fascinated by this - Who among the two lives happily ever after? 

Disney, or DreamWorks?

Disney has currently caught flack for its live-actions. But what I want to dive into, is what defines the company - its animation studio, and how it stands alongside a highly worthy competitor. 

The competitor that released Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on 20 January 2023 and collected a massive $555 million at the box office! 

Walt Disney Animation Studios

It’s a universal fact that Disney Animation Studios owns the animation game. 

The studio was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt and Roy Disney, and is the oldest and most established animation studio in the world. As of 2022, Disney has released 61 feature films.

The three highest grossing animated films of all time

The Lion King, 2019 ($1.6b)

Frozen II, 2019 ($1.4b)

Frozen, 2013 ($1.2b)

are all Disney’s creations. 

Disney Animation is known for its musicals, romances, fairy-tale adaptations and both hand-drawn and computer animations. Its characters have distinct facial features that when seen are easily recognizable.

The almost 100 year old company has stood the test of time - having faced even the World War, and financial difficulties as well as labor disputes during the 1940s and 50s. 

It also faced a series of failed releases from the 1970s to early 1980s, after which, it underwent several management changes and corporate restructuring.

DreamWorks Animations

DreamWorks is a fairly new animation studio founded in 1994, but has generated a strong foothold in the industry, with many starting to prefer it over Disney. 

DreamWorks has released 44 feature films. Considering that DreamWorks is the younger one of the two by approximately 71 years, it has a much higher rate of film production than Disney, arguably without any loss in animation quality. 

DreamWorks’ highest grossing film is Shrek 2 (2004) with $928M in its pocket. It became the highest grossing film of all time from 2004-2010, after which Toy Story 3 dethroned it - a film by, again, Disney. 

DreamWorks has some of the funniest movies in the animation industry, with Shrek series becoming one of the biggest influences in pop-culture and media today. Its movies have become a classic among today’s generation, with a huge fan following. 

DreamWorks faced financial and creative challenges in the 2010s, suffering from several box office flops, layoffs, restructuring, and distribution deals with other studios. 

Now comes the good part…

… and Jeffrey Katzenberg is at its root.

Jeffrey Katzenberg became the chairman of Disney Studios in 1984 and practically rescued Disney from its decline, bringing about the Disney Renaissance from late 1980s to early 1990s. The studio started making hit after hit with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, and soon embraced computer animation. 

In 1994, this genius left Disney due to some ugly internal conflicts, and a lawsuit that cost Disney $250 million. 

In the same year, alongside director Steven Spielberg and music executive David Geffen, he co-founded… DreamWorks Animation, on October 12.

Jeffrey now vowed to compete with Disney.

Battle of the Movies

The first movie that DreamWorks created under Jeffrey was Antz, released on October 2, 1998.

In the same year on November 14, Pixar released a movie for Walt Disney called A Bug’s Life. 

Both movies had similar leads and similar plots.

Where Antz movie’s worldwide box office collection was $152 million, A Bug’s Life stood at more than double that value, at $363 million. But the animation and characters in both Antz and A Bug’s Life have found a way in pop-culture today in the form of memes and commentaries. 

Just like these, DreamWorks and Disney (and Pixar) started releasing eerily similar or competing projects. For example, Shrek (2001) and Monsters Inc. (2001), Shark Tale (2004) and Finding Nemo (2003), and Madagascar (2005) and The Wild (2006). DreamWorks also made a satirical comment on Disney’s fairy-tale musical tropes in Shrek.

This is the point to be noted - that simply box office collections these days aren’t the pinnacle of success. 

It boils down to reception by the masses. 

Disney and DreamWorks of Today

Disney was starting to face tons of criticism for its lack of diversity and imagination in its movies, something that DreamWorks never really suffered from. 

While Disney movies can be considered ‘sweet’ and conform to the standards of a good, romantic story, like Tangled and The Little Mermaid, DreamWorks has never shied away from political and pop-culture jokes, and characters that are out-of-the-box. 

Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda are big examples. 

Disney Animation is backed by a big empire behind it as part of the Walt Disney Company - the Disney World, Marvel Studios, Pixar and 20th Century Studios. 

DreamWorks, not so much. 

Despite this, DreamWorks animation is rising extremely quickly. If Disney retains its focus on live-actions as it has been doing currently, who’s to say, DreamWorks might just overtake and win the animation game invented by Disney itself?