The TV roster from DreamWorks Animation features many familiar faces for kids and families, with beloved characters from a bevy of the studio\u2019s movie franchises in fresh, fun stories made especially for television. Pushing boundaries in terms of both animation and storytelling has been part of its mission from the very start, and this continues today in its newest IP.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing back to the early days at our studio, we wanted to change people\u2019s perception of what TV animation could be, both in terms of the quality of the animation and in the level of storytelling,\u201d says Peter Gal, chief creative officer of television at DreamWorks Animation. The first show to truly encapsulate that was Trollhunters<\/em> from Guillermo del Toro, which has now become a trilogy of TV series (with 3Below<\/em> and Wizards<\/em>) and a recently announced film for Netflix, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans<\/em>. \u201cWe really did push beyond the type of animation that anyone else was doing for families, edging closer to feature-quality animation and also telling bigger, more epic stories that used to only live in the world of features; we brought them into the world of television,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n That experience paid off as DreamWorks Animation moved into other ambitious projects, including the recently launched Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous<\/em>. \u201cThis was a very special opportunity to take a massive piece of IP, one of the biggest family titles in the history of cinema, and bring it into animation,\u201d Gal says of the series extension of the Jurassic Park <\/em>franchise. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous<\/em> launched on Netflix in September and is stirring up \u201ca lot of culture conversation; it\u2019s in the top 10 every day on the platform. In terms of storytelling, this is an example of keeping the tone of the series very close to the tone of the features; not feeling like it needs to be dumbed-down for kids\u2014we respect our audience too much. They want the scares, they want the big adventure that they know from the films, so we\u2019re delivering that now in animation.\u201d<\/p>\n Also sprung from a hit film franchise, TrollsTopia<\/em> is coming soon to Peacock and Hulu. \u201cThis is a great case where the second film introduced an idea that propelled this whole franchise forward from a storytelling standpoint,\u201d Gal explains. \u201cOur Trolls had always believed that they were the only ones in the world, and when they discovered that there was this world filled with all different kinds of trolls and different musical traditions, it gave an opportunity for us to tell a story that we think is really relevant today, which is about people from different backgrounds learning to live together in harmony and respecting differences. There couldn\u2019t be a better time for that message. One of the wonderful things about the franchise is that it wears its emotions on its sleeve; nothing in it is subtle, it\u2019s really out there. We\u2019re really excited that this series is coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n The studio has also taken some major DreamWorks Animation titles and brought them into the younger space, making them more preschool-oriented. This is the case with DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders<\/em>, \u201cwhich has been really successful for us,\u201d says Gal. \u201cWe changed the design language of the Dragons<\/em> franchise a little bit, made it accessible to a younger audience and changed up the storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the preschool-targeted Madagascar: A Little Wild<\/em>. \u201cWe took our core \u2018Zoosters\u2019 from the Madagascar<\/em> films and made kid versions of them,\u201d Gal explains. \u201cThe same character attributes and same emotional drive they have in the features as adults, we\u2019ve brought into their kid versions. That\u2019s been incredibly fun. We love this show. The music is fantastic, the storytelling is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n Another innovative feature-to-TV adaptation is Fast & Furious: Spy Racers<\/em>, which sprung from the high-octane adventures in the adult-focused Fast & Furious<\/em> action films. A second season has just launched on Netflix. \u201cEach of the seasons that comes is going to be based around a different region of the world,\u201d Gal says. \u201cThe first started in L.A., the home of the franchise, and the second takes place in Rio. Once again, we\u2019re really trying to channel what makes the adult features so exciting and bring it into the kids\u2019 space.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a wealth of original IP that sits alongside these franchise extensions as well, he adds. \u201cWe develop from all different sources, from comics and graphic novels to classic literature as well as original pitches and internal pitches at the studio. The first thing that generally gets us excited is a really unique voice in animation\u2014an artist and creator who has a distinct style and the right idea at the right time.\u201d Gal cites as an example Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts<\/em>, created by Radford Sechrist.<\/p>\n