Movie Review: 20th Century Fox’s Finding Nemo
As one of the pre-eminent funding & investors in the Hollywood Studios, a small independent film called Shrek (also known as Princess Fiona and Shrek) was produced in low budget by Dreamworks Animation for only about $4 million dollars. It was then picked up by Universal Studios and went on to become one of their highest grossing movies ever. The film became a huge hit in international markets and went on to become one of the biggest financial success stories of all time. Universal Studios also acquired the franchise rights to the Shrek film franchise, which resulted in Shrek Sequels, prequels and other spin-offs. In fact, the worldwide box office performance of Shrek has been incredible, especially when considering that it opened on December 13th, 1996 and lasted for two full weeks.
In terms of the financial performance of Shrek, it is hard to point fingers at anyone. It has consistently ranked high in the box office, despite the fact that there were several competitors in the same genre. And considering that the animation features a cartoonish style, most of the audience watching Shrek is children. Shrek, however, did have an edge over its competitors as far as promotion and advertising goes. Disney, Dreamworks, Universal Studios and the credits used the movie for their own products, which explains why no major studio produced any of the major films based on the series.
However, there is one thing that kept Shrek from reaching the heights it deserves – the film lacked polish. The story and the visuals were never completed and were always confused, as the voice over talent was often inconsistent. A big reason for this is the fact that Dreamworks Animation had contracted several people to do the edit, but there were so many mishaps that the movies’ quality never reached the desired standards. The three main editors responsible for the Shrek films – Gary recorder, Bob De Luca and Mike De Luca, did not live up to the standards that they were paid to achieve. These mistakes included the following:
* The Cars series proved too profitable for Dreamworks Animation to handle, and the company failed to release a new film in the franchise for three years. Then, they finally announced a sequel to the first film in March 2021. The delay was caused by the Dreamworks Animation team trying to perfect the new line of films, which they failed to do. One of the biggest unsolved mysteries in Hollywood is the reason why three Shrek films went straight to DVD while the rest of the series were never released theatrically. There are speculations that the delay in DVD releases was caused by the problems with the Dreamworks Animation team, or by financial reasons ( Pixar had recently received funding from Dreamworks Animation Company).
* The Paper Kite Production was another film that had been expected to hit the charts, but never got off the ground. Though it featured a lead character who was as beloved as the main characters of Cars, and featured the same themes as the Cars films, it was unable to maintain the interest of audiences. Universal Pictures had greenlit the project, but didn’t have enough confidence in writer Peter Craig’s writing abilities to successfully adapt to the animated film genre. However, Universal did give the project a chance to be shown in some international countries like Japan, and it did receive warm audiences.
* It was announced in May that the second installment of the Finding Nemo movie is already scheduled to be released in October. Universal Pictures had picked up the rights to the long-running children’s cartoon, and it is expected to be a big hit with kids and parents. The release date is yet to be confirmed, but it is expected to hit theaters in October or November. The studio has also set up a slate of unannounced future projects. Whether or not these rumors are true, it is clear that the next installment of one of the most popular animated family movies will hit theaters in the near future.
