Like most animation fans, I had a great respect and admiration for Pixar Animation Studios at least as far back as their first feature film, Toy Story, in 1995. For 15 years, they had an almost unblemished record of artistic excellence other film studios would sell their soul for.
This especially with the period of 2007 to 2010 when they took marvelous artistic gambles with such seemingly unlikely story material like a culinary talented rat in Ratatouille, a largely silent post-apocalyptic robot love story in Wall-E, a high flying adventure with a geriatric hero in Up! and a grand conclusion to Woody and friends' adventures in Toy Story 3. Each time, they dared and hit the bullseye perfectly each time.
For all that success, Pixar paid the price for that track record and arrogantly betrayed its artistic principles in 2011 making that sorry dreck called Cars 2. As such, they underperformed in the box office for the first time in over a decade and AMPAS gave it the Oscar snub it deserved. John Lasseter can deny it all he wants, but the sole reason for sequelizing their weakest film can only be for the $5 Billion in toy car merchandise from the first film. I don't care if that film is really popular with children, Pixar is a company that was supposed to be better than that, but they threw away a film standard of excellence matched only Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) in Japan for mere money.
Now, their reputation is indelibly tarnished and their newest film, Brave, which could have been welcomed as an experiment in a new direction, now can only look like an attempt to return to their previous standard. Given the fact that film is rating only 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is shockingly low for Pixar, it appears their self-inflicted wounds are not healing for some time.
That's why I am as annoyed as Scott Mendelson when he reads how people complain Brave is as bad as DreamWorks Animation. As Mendelson notes, DA may not have gotten all the kudos Pixar has, but it has grown to become a real artistic competitor with a largely steady determination to become far more than what they began as since 2008. Although their work has been more inconsistent over the years, it still has become a company that has been working hard to become better with brilliant films like the Kung Fu Panda series and How to Train Your Dragon.
Heck, their Madagascar series is a shining example of the studio's maturity. Yes, the first film was a rushed attempt to head off Disney's The Wild, and its Tomatoscore of 55% is deserved, but the series has steadily improved with the second film's 64% and the current one with 75% as it found its own voice and heart.
Unlike Pixar, DreamWorks Animation has never had the opportunity to rest on their laurels even after it won the first Animated Feature Oscar in 2002. As an independent company, each feature has to be a hit or they are sunk. However, for this struggle, DA has learned from its mistakes and has grown into a fine company that is still trying for be more than merely Jeffery Katzenberg's grudge work against Disney. While they did sink into a nadir with 2007 with some bad film and alienating Aardman Animations (Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit), they ultimately dug themselves out with superb films any studio would be proud of.
The end result is that while I look forward to seeing Brave and the rest of Pixar's future projects, DreamWorks Animation is the company I root for as I eagerly await for Po and Hiccup's new adventures from a company that has earned more respect than too few people seem to recognize.
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