Still in the midst of working on Shrek the Third for a 2007 release, DreamWorks Animation has announced their next CGI project. Like all the others currently in the pipe, it involves animals.
DreamWorks Animation has acquired the film rights to Jarrett J. Krosoczka's popular children's book "Punk Farm" and plans to turn it into a CGI feature. The book is the story of a bunch of rock and roll farm animals, who get together and form an underground rock band. The movie will follow their journey from the barnyard to stardom as they follow their dream and perform as the first ever animal act at "Livestock". Livestock! Get it? Right. Nothing like pointing out a lame wordplay joke to spice up a plot synopsis.
So who will develop this impending work of animal punk art for DreamWorks? They've stolen people from Fox Animation to make it happen. Kevin Messick and Jim Hecht, who co-wrote the year's biggest movie so far, Ice Age: The Meltdown are producing and writing Punk Farm.
As the number of computer animated films in theaters continues to get more crowded as the still profitable genre races towards oversaturation, it's becoming clear that these animation studios are running out of ideas. The next crop of computer animated movies seem to be nothing more than plug and play affairs centered around cute animals or talking whatevers. Maybe Punk Farm will have something. DreamWorks Animation's past record is good enough that it deserves the benefit of the doubt. But do we really need another cutesy, talking animal, computer generated movie? Come on, there has to be something else left to be done with the still young 3D animation genre.
