I personally believe that Shrek (2001)is the film that gained the closet success and qualities of a Pixar film. Shrek "helped establish Dreamworks as a prime competitor to Pixar in the field of feature film animation."
The Main character, Shrek, was an ogre who is in no way perfect and feared by villagers and fairytale creatures.Similarly to Pixar, the main charcter isnt a perfect character, and do not fit into their homeworld, but somehow they are realatable. (like Flik from bugs life, Walle the robot etc)
I think that Dreamworks tend to concentrate on the overall visual look of the film and effects used, whereas Pixar needs and has a solid story first and then apply their technical magic!
It's important to note that Shrek wasn't an original idea founded from Dreamworks writers, but a children's book Shrek! by William Steig, suggesting that the films success derived from someone elses story. The book was handed to Dreamworks co-founder Jefferey Katzenberg by Lizzie Macdonald co-head of Dreamworks. The Story stood out to Katzenberg because its an aytpical Fairytale. There were no dashing princes, singing animals or virtuous princesses, but a large Scottish ugly ogre. Katzenberg saw "irrevernce, humour,and a wonderful heart." He knew this Ogre would appeal to audiences, children and adults.
" The other part of Katzenberg's idea was equally challenging : using CG technoglogy to transform Shrek from the static world of the page into a hihjly relaistic 3-D world that onlycomputer generated animation was capable of producing "The Story itself was sort of a fractured fairy tale." says Katzenberg.
"Yet as impressive as CG aniamtion was at the time, it was still a relatively new art form. It had significant limitations, including a rather sterile "CG look" to settings and backgrounds, as well as human characters of limited mobility or expressiveness. Pixar's Toy Story , considered by many at PDI/Dreamworks to be the new Snow White of CG aniamtion, exploited these limitations brilliantly, with its relatively simple toy characters set against a visuallly striking, but bleak, suburban environment. "
The Main character, Shrek, was an ogre who is in no way perfect and feared by villagers and fairytale creatures.Similarly to Pixar, the main charcter isnt a perfect character, and do not fit into their homeworld, but somehow they are realatable. (like Flik from bugs life, Walle the robot etc)
I think that Dreamworks tend to concentrate on the overall visual look of the film and effects used, whereas Pixar needs and has a solid story first and then apply their technical magic!
It's important to note that Shrek wasn't an original idea founded from Dreamworks writers, but a children's book Shrek! by William Steig, suggesting that the films success derived from someone elses story. The book was handed to Dreamworks co-founder Jefferey Katzenberg by Lizzie Macdonald co-head of Dreamworks. The Story stood out to Katzenberg because its an aytpical Fairytale. There were no dashing princes, singing animals or virtuous princesses, but a large Scottish ugly ogre. Katzenberg saw "irrevernce, humour,and a wonderful heart." He knew this Ogre would appeal to audiences, children and adults.
" The other part of Katzenberg's idea was equally challenging : using CG technoglogy to transform Shrek from the static world of the page into a hihjly relaistic 3-D world that onlycomputer generated animation was capable of producing "The Story itself was sort of a fractured fairy tale." says Katzenberg.
"Yet as impressive as CG aniamtion was at the time, it was still a relatively new art form. It had significant limitations, including a rather sterile "CG look" to settings and backgrounds, as well as human characters of limited mobility or expressiveness. Pixar's Toy Story , considered by many at PDI/Dreamworks to be the new Snow White of CG aniamtion, exploited these limitations brilliantly, with its relatively simple toy characters set against a visuallly striking, but bleak, suburban environment. "
"But there was something deeper to shrek as a character that the creators were still struggling with "I think the hardest part was how do you make a big,gree,stinky, ogre somebody an audience can fall in love with." In the end, these movies if they work , connect with the audience because they're allegories. The challlenge here was to create a charcter how enough dimension and complexity, so that we recognise that Shrek's journey is, in fact all our journeys...I'm fond of saying theres a little ogre in all of us, whether we want to admit it or not."
-Shrek From the Swamp To The Screen- John Hopkins. 
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