7 Best DreamWorks Movies of the 2020s, Ranked
Michael Block is a 14 time GLAM Award nominated writer, producer, and host of the podcast Block Talk. Throughout his time in the entertainment industry, he has worked on and off Broadway as a stage manager, written several produced plays, critiqued hundreds of theatrical performances, drag and cabaret shows, and has produced events randing from drag competitoons to variety concerts!
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When it comes to family-friendly features, the biggest rival to the House of Mouse might be DreamWorks. Founded by filmmaker Steven Spielberg, former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, and music mogul David Geffen in 1994, DreamWorks has brought both live-action and animated classics to the cinema. After early success with films like Gladiator and American Beauty, its animated division became the real game changer.
Starting with Antz in 1998, DreamWorks has introduced pop culture to some major characters and franchises, from Shrek to Kung Fu Panda. While the 2000s and 2010s saw the company deliver nonstop sequels, the 2020s continued to build on those stories while introducing brand-new narratives as big as, or bigger than, DreamWorks' golden age. We are here to honor those brilliant projects from the past six years. Which modern classic is your favorite, and which will earn its own long-running legacy?
7 'Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken' (2023)
Just because the box office numbers are low doesn't mean Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a bad film. In fact, it's quite the opposite! The 2023 animated feature tells the story of Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor), a shy 16-year-old girl who lives in a seaside town and discovers she is part of a legendary royal family of sea krakens destined to protect the oceans, as she is next in line to become the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas. A truly charming tale, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken turns classic ocean myths upside down by making krakens the noble protectors of the sea and mermaids the vain villains.
Like many animated films, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a standard coming-of-age tale. Ruby deals with realistic teenage awkwardness, social anxiety, and fitting in at high school before discovering her royal heritage. Her rival, Chelsea (Annie Murphy), portrays the standard mean girl, but her mermaid identity flipped the script by making the mythical creature the instigator. By swapping the norms, it helps young viewers to understand that generational stereotypes are not always true. DreamWorks has brought us under the sea before, but the animation is colorfully visceral. The unique character designs allow the film to form its own identity. With a brilliant voice cast that also features Toni Collette, Coleman Domingo, and Jane Fonda, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken may have been a box office flop, but its charm allows it to swim to the surface.
6 'Orion and the Dark' (2024)
A DreamWorks Animation film made for Netflix, Orion and the Dark follows Orion (Jacob Tremblay), an anxious elementary school boy who is terrified of almost everything. His absolute worst fear is the dark. Tired of Orion's constant terror, Dark (Paul Walter Hauser)—a jolly, boisterous, and misunderstood supernatural entity—visits Orion's bedroom and takes him on a 24-hour global flight, meeting Dark’s quirky coworkers who manage the nighttime, including Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), and Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett). A heartfelt tale about overcoming your fears, Orion and the Dark blends a deeply existential, witty script with an imaginative story about childhood anxiety.
Written by Charlie Kaufman, the film mixes neurotic charm and genuine philosophical depth with a kids' film. With a beautiful generational narrative mechanic, Orion and the Dark explores how anxiety gets passed down and how it can be overcome. The film beautifully normalizes anxiety and fears without exclaiming to children to simply stop being scared. It serves as a teaching tool: Fear is a natural part of life. The film's most brilliant element was Hauser's casting. By pairing a jovial voice with a jolly, comforting presence, Dark becomes the antithesis of a monster. Even the quirky supporting characters illuminate the clever story. Despite a wide release, Orion and the Dark remains a hidden gem.
5 'The Bad Guys 2' (2025)
Yes, the sequel is better than the original. Let's discuss The Bad Guys 2. Now officially a franchise, the sequel picks up where the first film left off, as Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Shark (Craig Robinson), Piranha (Anthony Ramos), and Tarantula (Awkwafana) cannot find legitimate jobs because of their criminal records, while Snake (Marc Maron) is frequently absent. As they struggle to fit in, a mysterious new master criminal, the Phantom Bandit, led by Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks) alongside members Doom (Natasha Lyonne) and Pigtail (Maria Bakalova), starts pulling jobs in the crew's signature style and framing them. Through twists, turns, and team-ups, The Bad Guys 2 expands on the original's charm with bolder animation, clever heist thrills, and a fun new dynamic.
The Bad Guys 2's fast-paced, globe-trotting plot is an energetic animated blockbuster spy thriller. The sequel refines and finesses what the first film established, with a bit more pizzazz. The film maintains the brilliant dynamic while refreshing the unpredictable plot through new, magnetic characters. As far as the animation style, the chase scenes and slapstick moments pop thanks to its hybrid visual flair. The Bad Guys 2 is a high-stakes, action-packed, entertaining thrill ride that should help secure the characters in future stories. Aliens anyone?
4 'How to Train Your Dragon' (2025)
Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. We are discussing a live-action film, but it's based on the 2010 classic How to Train Your Dragon. The live-action remake, set on the rugged Isle of Berk, centers on innovative teenager Hiccup (Mason Thames), the son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). Struggling to fit in with the other Vikings and adhere to the Viking expectations, Hiccup defies custom when he traps and then befriends Toothless, a rare and dangerous Night Fury dragon. As he learns that dragons are peaceful and misunderstood, Hiccup challenges the core foundations of his village. Literally bringing the original to life with pure imagination, How to Train Your Dragon retains the emotional core through breathtaking visuals and wonderful performances.
Following Disney's footsteps in remaking animated films to monetize their longevity, How to Train Your Dragon could have been a colossal flop if it hadn't captured its original charm. Thankfully, it did! How to Train Your Dragon proved that live-action remakes have a place at the table and can actually turn out near perfectly. Thames takes on Hiccup with pure heart and vulnerability, giving Hiccup’s awkwardness a charming magnetism. Butler returns to the role he originated, giving Stoick a distinct larger-than-life presence. With Dean DeBlois back in the driver's seat as writer and director, the proper tone was kept honest and true. The flying sequence is sensational and truly magical. It's all thanks to how Toothless was crafted. By retaining the dragon's expressive, beloved animated designs, the film executed it properly.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Fantasy World Do You Belong To? Middle-earth · Grand Line · The Continent · Camp Half-Blood
Pick your magic, your crew, where you want to wake up and who you would rather be fighting, and we will tell you which world you actually belong in. Four are open to you: an ancient kingdom living through its last good age, an endless sea full of pirates, a continent that pays people to kill monsters, and a summer camp where the Greek gods are extremely real and mostly a nuisance.
💍Middle-earth(Rings of Power)
👒Grand Line(One Piece)
🐺The Continent(The Witcher)
🔱Camp Half-Blood(Percy Jackson)
01
What kind of power do you want? Every one of these worlds runs on a completely different sort of magic.
02
Who is travelling with you? Nobody gets through any of these stories entirely on their own.
03
Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? The best fantasy is usually just somewhere you would genuinely like to live.
04
How are you making a living out there? Even in fantasy somebody has to pay for the horse.
05
There is something in the woods. What do you do about it? All four of these worlds keep something unpleasant out there in the dark.
06
Who is the villain of your story? The enemy tells you far more about a world than the hero ever does.
07
What do you actually believe in out there? Every world hands its heroes one rule and asks them to hold onto it.
08
A thousand years from now, how are you remembered? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your world.
The Map Is Drawn Your World Is…
Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in return.
Middle-earth
You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.
- This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat, fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
- You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
- The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
- You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.
The Grand Line
You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is finding out what is over there.
- One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
- You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
- The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
- You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of it.
The Continent
You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the people are where it all gets complicated.
- Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
- You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
- The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
- You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story got told wrong.
Camp Half-Blood
You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as everybody kept telling you.
- Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners, which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
- You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for something nobody thought to test for.
- The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
- Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.
3 'Forgotten Island' (2026)
The latest entry into the DreamWorks family is its latest cinematic masterpiece, Forgotten Island. The fast-paced fantasy comedy tells the tale of two lifelong best friends from the Philippines, Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), whose lives are about to split apart as Raissa heads off to college at CalTech thousands of miles away. During their fond farewell, they stumble upon a magical sand dollar portal that transports them to Nakali, a legendary island filled with shape-shifting creatures and spirits from Filipino mythology and folklore. Having lost their key to get back home, a were-dog named Raww (Dave Franco) assists them in retracing their steps. Facing off against dangerous creatures like the dreaded aswang-like Manananggal (Lea Salonga) along the way, they soon discover that the price of returning home is losing the memories of their entire friendship. A race-against-the-clock story, Forgotten Island is a powerful story that tugs at the heartstrings.
Brilliantly bringing Filipino culture to animation, the film is one of the most important features released for cultural representation. Directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, Forgotten Island honors Filipino heritage as a fervent love letter. What may seem like magical creatures from the creator's mind are, in fact, fascinating creatures from Pinoy legend. Through a vibrant color palette, extraordinary world-building, and a masterful mix of computer-generated and 2D animation, Forgotten Island is a completely realized product. At its core, Forgotten Island serves as a story about memory and friendship. The bittersweet reality of growing up can be hard, but memories are forever as long as you keep them with you. A supernatural adventure story, Forgotten Island continues the important trend of celebrating all voices in animated storytelling.
2 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' (2022)
There's no doubt how influential Shrek has been on pop culture. The franchise's longevity continues to thrive, especially thanks to a beloved little kitty. In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the sequel to the 2011 film Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), Puss learns he is on his last life. Hunted down by a terrifying bounty hunter claiming to be Death (Wagner Moura), the feline hero is forced to face his mortality as he embarks on a quest to restore his eight lost lives by finding the mythical Wishing Star in the Dark Forest. In a race for a single wish, he is joined by his former flame, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), and Perrito (Harvey Guillén), an optimistic therapy dog disguised as a cat. Shifting away from a simple adventure into a life-affirming story about facing mortality, overcoming panic, and finding true meaning in the life you have, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish combines a profoundly mature story with sensational animation.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish pushed the Shrek franchise to new heights by reminding audiences that it doesn't always have to use cheap gimmicks to entertain. By shifting to a genuinely meaningful story, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish teaches that life is short, but it doesn't have to be wasted. With a comic-book frame-rate style and a remarkably stunning hand-painted visual style, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish forged its own path. The film expanded the character's lore while bringing new, exciting fairy-tale characters into the fold. That meant legendary voices joined the story, including Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, and John Mulaney. Though there is great reverence for the Shrek films, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is up there as the very best of the franchise.
1 'The Wild Robot' (2024)
Grab your tissues; they're required when watching animated perfection: The Wild Robot. A visual masterpiece, The Wild Robot is based on Peter Brown's novel of the same name. ROZZUM unit 7134, lovingly known as Roz (Lupita Nyong'o), is a stranded service robot who crash-lands on a remote, uninhabited island. She programs herself to learn the language of the native animals while adapting to the harsh environment. After accidentally destroying a goose nest and leaving a single egg, she raises the gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor), with red fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), teaching him how to eat, swim, and fly so he can survive and join the winter migration. But everything changes when Roz's company attempts to retrieve her. A brilliant story about found family and the gap between nature and technology, The Wild Robot brings a hand-painted aesthetic to the screen.
A story about animals and a robot may sound like farfetched science fiction, but at its center, it's a beautiful, honest story about motherhood, empathy, and nature. Roz is programmed to serve humans, but when stranded with animals, she adapts and cares for them as she would for humans. It's a hopeful lens on artificial intelligence. A true tear-jerker, the family-oriented tale reflects on the realities of parenting, sacrifice, and letting go. The film doesn't shy away from the inevitability of death in nature. The Wild Robot is a modern fairy tale through a sci-fi lens. The two genres are combined through the power of animation. From the realistic movement of fur and feathers next to the sleek, futuristic imagery of the robot, all living in an organic, natural world, The Wild Robot remains one of the most visceral animated features of all time.
The Wild Robot
9 10
- Release Date
- September 12, 2024
- Runtime
- 102 minutes
- Director
- Chris Sanders
- Writers
- Chris Sanders, Peter Brown
-
Fink (voice)
-
Lupita Nyong'o
Roz / Rummage (voice)
- Producers
- Jeff Hermann
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Studio(s)
- Dreamworks
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Studios
- Executive Producer(s)
- Dean DeBlois
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