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DreamWorks plans on kicking its "Shrek" franchise into ogre-drive with next year's "Shrek the Halls" holiday special

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Jim Hill

DreamWorks plans on kicking its "Shrek" franchise into ogre-drive with next year's "Shrek the Halls" holiday special

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6 Nov 2006 9:00 PM
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Yesterday's announcement that DreamWorks Animation SKG will be producing "Shrek the Halls," a new holiday special for ABC, caught a number of animation professionals by surprise.

Not so much because this Glendale-based animation company was looking to move into television. As DreamWorks Animation's 2004's television series "Father of the Pride" as well as its recently announced Nickelodeon deal (Which will place TV spin-offs of "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda" on that Viacom-owned cable channel) prove, this company is anxious to have a presence in that arena.

Nor is it all that surprising that DreamWorks Animation would agree to sell the rights to initially air "Shrek the Halls" to ABC. After all, this Disney-owned network currently holds the broadcast rights to "Shrek 2." Which -- FYI -- will be airing on ABC on Friday, November 24th.

No, what caught a lot of people off guard was the fact that DreamWorks Animation will be handing "Shrek the Halls" off to ABC (Which hopes to turn this new holiday special into a perennial. Something along the lines of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town") for airing in 2007. Just as the theatrical arm of that company is readying Shrek for his Broadway debut AND as DreamWorks' feature animation unit is pushing ahead with active development of "Shrek 4" (Which is currently slated to hit theaters in 2010).

In the past, whenever a character and/or film franchise that had initially been introduced on the big screen shifted over to the small screen ... Well, that usually indicated that that character's parent company felt that this franchise was creatively tapped out. That it was now time to cash in.

Whereas with Shrek ... DreamWorks clearly doesn't think that this franchise is tapped out. Hell, Jeffrey Katzenberg -- CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG -- is already talking about yet another "Shrek" -related theatrical release, "Puss In Boots." Which had initially been envisioned as a direct-to-video title but is now being readied for theatrical release in 2013.


Copyright 2007 DreamWorks Animation SKG

And it's not like DreamWorks Animation is actually planning on stinting on "Shrek the Halls." The original vocal cast of the "Shrek" film franchise (I.E. Mike Myers as Shrek, Cameron Diaz as Fiona, Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Antonio Banderas as Puss In Boots) have already agreed to take part in this TV project. Which -- by the way -- will be directed by WDFA vet Gary Trousdale.

Meanwhile, the Shrek-re-envisioned-as-a-Broadway-musical project is zooming right along. Late last month, Dreamworks Animation & Neal Street Productions announced that a staged reading of this still-in-development project will be held in NYC in February of 2007. Featuring music by Jeanine Tesori (Who is probably best known to Disney fans for her work on "Mulan II" & "Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch." More importantly, Ms. Tesori is prepping the score for Glen Keane's eagerly awaited "Rapunzel") as well as book & lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, "Shrek the Musical" will be directed by Jason Moore of "Avenue Q" fame.

So I guess what I'm saying here, folks, is please don't mis-interpret DreamWorks Animation's decision to have Shrek star in his first holiday special as a sign that this studio now thinks that its ogre's career is over. If anything, DreamWorks is looking to make even more green off of this big green monster for many years yet to come.

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  • 7 Nov 2006 5:25 AM
    This upsets me.  Why would ABC air anything having to do with "Shrek", let alone DreamWorks?  That's their direct competition...
    And, Gary Trousdale is directing?  That hurts my heart.
    On a lesser scale, Jeanine Tesori working on the music hurts, too...

    Why doesn't DreamWorks buy their own broadcast station and leave Disney alone...

    (sorry for all you DW fans, but I just don't like them...)
  • 7 Nov 2006 7:23 AM
    More Shrek? Yeesch. That manic, nonstop, pop cult jabbering that replaced a coherent story with characters you care about has already influenced animation pictures which are now mostly a series of unrelated jokes. I'm sick of listening to ten year olds in the movie theater sounding like they're middle aged studio executives thanks to these cynical CGI productions.
  • 7 Nov 2006 8:47 AM
    ABC is a for-profit content distributor, first and foremost.

    Mmm, I would've liked to see what the South Park guys would have done with a Shrek musical if they'd  agrred to it and had full creative control. (They were offered it.)
  • 7 Nov 2006 9:00 AM
    Okay, I am curious about one thing: how the heck will the Broadway show depict Donkey? Somebody in a donkey suit? A puppet? That's going to be one hard character to pull off IMO...
  • 7 Nov 2006 9:09 AM
    DW HAS to try and make money off of Shrek because they've got nothing else!
  • 7 Nov 2006 9:14 AM
    Actually, this DOES signal the end for Shrek.

    It's a little thing called "overexposure".
  • 7 Nov 2006 5:56 PM
    Seems the only upcoming Shrek-pimping not mentioned in the article is next May's "Shrek the Third"--
    But then, JHM readers already have the jump on that one:  :)
    http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2006/09/17/5764.aspx
    ===
    blackcauldron85 said:
    "And, Gary Trousdale is directing?  That hurts my heart."
    ---
    Same here--I'm no fan of Hunchback, Atlantis or (especially) B&tB, but if ANY pedigreed old-school 90's-"refugee" director deserved "amnesty" back in the 2D studios after Musker & Clements came back...
    Oh, well, maybe Trousdale -and- Roger Allers will be invited back from their struggling part-time jobs, if "Frog Princess" leads the Spartacus revolt.  :)
    ===
    gigglesock said:
    "Okay, I am curious about one thing: how the heck will the Broadway show depict Donkey?"
    ---
    That's not the important part--The "important" part is to have it produced by Universal's theatrical department, who already gave us "Wicked" (after a movie version of the book fell through) and, um..."Seussical".
    The rationale being, "Look, if -one- carpetbagging studio could actually get people to buy tickets to 'Tarzan', how hard could it BE??"...Warner has also taken notice.
  • 7 Nov 2006 6:05 PM
    i still can't figure out if I'm in the minority or not about this, but I just can't get into this whole "Shrek" thing.  I'm a fan of animation (even lesser stuff like DW) satire, Mike Myers, (even though he's totally mis-cast here) and even on occassion, Eddie Murphy (yeah, I know, I know...).  It's not the concept-at least the first film seemed like a fresh idea.  Even the far inferior animation is not a huge drawback.  But why is it I can laugh out lout ar "Rocky & Bullwinkle's Fracktured Fairy Tales", and just shake my head in disbelief at the "Shrek" garbage? Weak animation and weaker story telling is a given from this franchise (and if I see someone in these thing pass wind once more...), but I hope they beat this dead donkey for the last time soon.

    Can they speed up production on Toy Story 3...PLEASE???!!!
  • 7 Nov 2006 6:41 PM
    "Okay, I am curious about one thing: how the heck will the Broadway show depict Donkey? Somebody in a donkey suit? A puppet? That's going to be one hard character to pull off IMO..."
    Same way they portray a lion, a meerkat, a warthog, an ape & a beast.

    "Why would ABC air anything having to do with "Shrek", let alone DreamWorks?"
    Ratings. You have to figure that the timing of the broadcast is early enough that it won't really be promotion for Shrek 3. And also figure that Friday is one of the only week nights in ABC's schedule. And also keep in mind that ABC's entire schedule isn't made up by Buena Vista programming. Mind some of the most popular shows on ABC are Touchtone programs (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, etc) other regular program is made by companies such as RDF Media, Regency Television, Next Entertainment, 20th Century Fox & Warner Bros. Television. Not to mention ABC constantly airs movies from other companies like (NBC) Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, etc.
  • 7 Nov 2006 10:15 PM
    "Mr. Katzenberg... dead horse for one."  This is Lion King all over again, milk it until its dry.

    I guess he really didn't learn very much from when he was at Disney.
  • 8 Nov 2006 7:32 AM
    Run away, Mike Myers, run away!!

    Ugh, this article makes me feel gross all over. "Shrek the Third" won't be released for quite some time and they're already talking about a fourth "Shrek" and a "Puss in Boots" spin-off? Katzenburg really has no imagination, and certainly no faith in trying something new.

    In my opinion, you have to be a more enduring, engaging, and certainly a more expendible character than Shrek to deserve a Christmas special. Mickey Mouse, Charlie Brown, Elmo in all his screen-grabbing glory, and obviously Santa Clause and Rudolph have a sentimental audience who would have the capacity to soak up the Christmas spirit...not so sure about die-hard, anti-Disney Shrek fans.
  • 8 Nov 2006 10:08 AM
    Elera said:
    "Run away, Mike Myers, run away!!"
    ----
    Hard to believe, but Myers DOES have a sense of taste offscreen--We just don't see it that often:
    No word on why he finally lost interest in shoving Austin Powers down our throats, but things have been quiet for a while now--Myers also turned down an offer to co-write Warner's "Scooby-Doo" (and play Shaggy) after he thought the material was too poor-quality.
    "But what about that Cat in the Hat thing?"--Well, that also came from director Bo Welch originally having Myers under contract to do "Dieter: a Sprockets Movie", and then Myers turning down the project as "not up to the quality" expected by his fans."
    Not sure if Myers' Oscar-ceremony joke ("Some people enjoy animation for the unique storytelling...I like it when Shrek farts in the mud.") was forced upon him, or whether even HE'S getting publicly tired of the neverending prison of being Katzenberg's one-trick brogue-machine, but it's not out of the realm of theory.
    ====
    "In my opinion, you have to be a more enduring, engaging, and certainly a more expendible character than Shrek to deserve a Christmas special. Mickey Mouse, Charlie Brown, Elmo in all his screen-grabbing glory, and obviously Santa Clause and Rudolph have a sentimental audience who would have the capacity to soak up the Christmas spirit...not so sure about die-hard, anti-Disney Shrek fans."
    ---
    That's the thing:  They want to do a Christmas special?...Fine.  Haven't seen a new one since, what, Garfield?
    But who, reporters or the network execs, were the first to assume instant-association and turn it into "It'll be a new family tradition, rerun every year for families to gather around the set, for the next fifteen seasons"?...Whoa, WHOAA there, Tex!  We're not even sure yet if specials still even *exist*, in these new modern days when Rudolph and Charlie can be pulled off of the DVD shelf at will.
  • Japanese Crime Fighting, Shrek 26, and Notlob…I Mean Bolton « Bullfrog117 Links
    8 Nov 2006 3:16 PM
    PingBack from http://bullfrog117.wordpress.com/2006/11/08/japanese-crime-fighting-shrek-26-and-notlobi-mean-bolton/
  • 8 Nov 2006 4:36 PM
    "That's the thing:  They want to do a Christmas special?...Fine.  Haven't seen a new one since, what, Garfield?
    But who, reporters or the network execs, were the first to assume instant-association and turn it into "It'll be a new family tradition, rerun every year for families to gather around the set, for the next fifteen seasons"?...Whoa, WHOAA there, Tex!  We're not even sure yet if specials still even *exist*, in these new modern days when Rudolph and Charlie can be pulled off of the DVD shelf at will."

    ---

    Ironic that you chose to call me Tex, considering I'm a native Texan. ;)

    Anyway, you make a fine point. I wasn't saying that "Shrek" shouldn't be allowed to make a Christmas special, I was just saying that it's probably not going to be very endearing and that it's not going to be the hit Katzenberg is probably hoping for. I mean, it'll probably initially draw in a ton of ratings from people who aren't sick of Shrek or who just need a good laugh, but unless it lives up to the humor of the movies than I don't think it's going to be highly popular to buy on DVD, which I'm guessing Katzenberg is really after.

    Now that you mention it, specials really DON'T exist anymore, do they? It's become a television show's initiation to have a Christmas episode now-a-days. In my opinion that's TV's biggest flaw: there's just nothing "special" about it anymore (And, no, I'm not anti-TV or anything of the sort...I've just stopped relying on it as much because I've been living in DVDLand).

    ---

    Hard to believe, but Myers DOES have a sense of taste offscreen--We just don't see it that often:
    No word on why he finally lost interest in shoving Austin Powers down our throats, but things have been quiet for a while now--Myers also turned down an offer to co-write Warner's "Scooby-Doo" (and play Shaggy) after he thought the material was too poor-quality.
    "But what about that Cat in the Hat thing?"--Well, that also came from director Bo Welch originally having Myers under contract to do "Dieter: a Sprockets Movie", and then Myers turning down the project as "not up to the quality" expected by his fans."
    Not sure if Myers' Oscar-ceremony joke ("Some people enjoy animation for the unique storytelling...I like it when Shrek farts in the mud.") was forced upon him, or whether even HE'S getting publicly tired of the neverending prison of being Katzenberg's one-trick brogue-machine, but it's not out of the realm of theory.

    ---

    I do love Mike Myers a lot, and I do think that he has a great taste in the projects he gets into. I definitely don't see his commitment into "Shrek" as a bad move at all; but I doubt that he expected it to become a saga that may or may not run out of steam and put an ill mark on his career. If anything I think Myers is one of the few elements that can keep Shrek afloat for more sequels. He's a brilliant (and very humble) actor who takes his job seriously, as unserious as his movies's material can be.
  • 8 Nov 2006 7:18 PM
    Elera said:
    "But who, reporters or the network execs, were the first to assume instant-association and turn it into "It'll be a new family tradition, rerun every year for families to gather around the set, for the next fifteen seasons"?...Whoa, WHOAA there, Tex!"  
    "Iroic that you chose to call me Tex, considering I'm a native Texan. ;)"
    ---
    No, that was to whoever decided to believe their own semi-satirical hype and convince themselves this really -WAS- going to be a Little-Drimmer-Boy-level "classic" for the ages before it'd even aired...
    Probably, like all their other lame Disney pokes, because the writers were going to make lame Shrek-style jokes about Christmas specials, and then chortle about calling itself a "classic" for crashing the party.
    ...Yawn.  If I want Christmas "parodies", I'll watch those South Park and Simpsons pilots again.
    ====
    "I do love Mike Myers a lot, and I do think that he has a great taste in the projects he gets into. I definitely don't see his commitment into "Shrek" as a bad move at all; but I doubt that he expected it to become a saga that may or may not run out of steam and put an ill mark on his career. If anything I think Myers is one of the few elements that can keep Shrek afloat for more sequels. He's a brilliant (and very humble) actor who takes his job seriously, as unserious as his movies's material can be."
    ----
    The first movie got All Mushy at the end, so Myers probably thought it would be a serious enough career move to make the one--Even reportedly came up with the idea of changing the first concept of Shrek's voice to the more sympathetic Scot-gag one.
    However, scratch one more victim who sadly overestimated Jeffrey Katzenberg's goodwill, taste and restraint...   -_-
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