Dreamworks Quotes

There’s the animation ghetto of feature films in this country. There’s this flavor at DreamWorks, and Pixar does their own thing, and generally they’re safe. But if you look at Walt Disney’s original films, at the time and in the context, they weren’t safe. They were really dark and troubling.

I’m not as successful as Pixar or Dreamworks, and that is disappointing to me, because I think my films are as valid as a Pixar film. I think there’s an audience for my films. I know there’s a market for someone like Quentin Tarantino, who basically does adult cartoons in live action.

I loved DreamWorks and Pixar, and I still love kids’ films…

I don’t think that Dreamworks would have signed me expecting to really mess around with whatever it is I do.

We’d all [with Mike Mitchell] been together at Dreamworks for over ten years, so we all had the same goals.

As I said, i’m very quiet, i don’t go around saying “I’m awesome!” but when I brought in my portfolio into DreamWorks and showed them what I could do, my art style is a lot wilder than I am.

When I came to DreamWorks, I was in bad trouble. They were in bad trouble. They were millions of dollars in the hole and a few days from closing their doors. I was on my last leg.

You might have seen a housefly, maybe even a superfly, but I bet you ain’t never seen a donkey fly! Ha, ha!

We can still do a stop motion feature for about one-third of what it costs Pixar or DreamWorks or Blue Sky to make a feature. But nobody is interested in a film that cost $50 to 60 million with the potential to do $120 million. They want to risk big money to make huge money.

Marylata [ Elton] introduced me to Hans Zimmer. Hans tapped me [to] work on songs for DreamWorks’ animated features. I arranged Elton John’s opening main title for The Road to El Dorado, I played guitars on Shrek for Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, I co-produced “I Can See Clearly Now” for Antz.

I actually worked for a small company in Ohio that sort of farmed out work from Disney and Dreamworks, so I really only ever worked in two studios.

In 1985, I went to work for MTM Records, Mary Tyler Moore’s Nashville record label, and stayed three years. After that, I spent two years as an independent promoter, then worked for MCA Nashville Records, DreamWorks Nashville, and Universal Music Nashville.

A company like DreamWorks, all we do is make product. That’s all we do. We don’t own distribution. We are purely in the creation of content.

After six years of working on low-budget independent films of the too-weird-to-watch variety, being asked by DreamWorks to come and play with the big boys, it was like finding an unicorn in your sock drawer.

Twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death

I loved DreamWorks and Pixar, and I still love kids’ films.

If there is any truth to my parenting the dreamwork movement, it comes from the power of the press.