According to DreamWorks Animation, Rat Nation is the brainchild of the creative team behind Shrek and Madagascar, and will create a new art form that has never been seen in the field of animation.

The perfect combination of computer CG and clay animation!

In the words of Jerif Katzenberg, it has a fascinating story idea and a lot of emotion, but also a lot of imagination and creativity, as well as top-notch computer technology.

DreamWorks has big ambitions to make "Wanderings of the Rat Country" a new "Shrek" series, and even a new "Madagascar".

The film introduces a world that is almost entirely made up of rats, just like human society, except that rats walk there.

The overall plot still follows the consistent style of DreamWorks animation spoofing other movies, and the characters are exaggerated and realistic.

But the Shrek series has taken spoof to the extreme, and spoof is no longer a new element.

Moreover, DreamWorks introduced the British Aardman Studio as a partner in "Wanderings in the Rat Country", and the banner of promotion was computer animation, but in fact it was an animated feature film made of clay and computers.

Frankly, clay animated feature films are not likable.

Ronan also couldn't understand why Jared Katzenberg, with his years of experience in animation production, would make such a bad choice.

If "Wandering in the Land of Rats" were a pure computer animation, it would never look as awkward as it appeared on the big screen, and even if it was as rough as the first part of "Shrek", the effect would be ten times better.

It can only be said that Aardman Studio invested a lot of money in this project.

As we all know, one of the most critical parts of the success of DreamWorks Animation Studios today is cost control.

DreamWorks Animation's past animated feature film projects, especially the first non-sequel, have basically had production budgets of around $60 million or $70 million.

This can effectively reduce the investment risk and reduce the difficulty of capital recovery.

But since the successive successes of the "Shrek" series, it is inevitable that Jared Katzenberg will want to wrestle with the industry's recognized leader in the industry, Pixar Studios, and later develop a number of animation productions with an investment of around $150 million.

This is also a big reason why Ronan Ken negotiated terms with DreamWorks and gave up the distribution rights of DreamWorks Animation Studio's animated feature films in advance.

If DreamWorks Animation insists on completing Jared Katzenberg's big-budget and big-production schedule, the next few years will be an incredibly difficult time for DreamWorks Animation.

Frankly speaking, "Wandering in the Rat Country" is no worse than "Shrek 3", which was a huge success under the release of Embassy Pictures this summer, and is even much better.

The film is similar to other animated feature films, mainly inspirational, supplemented by humor and funny, although the story takes place in the "land of rats", try to make it as real and believable as possible.

The protagonist here is, of course, a rat, a high-end pet rat who once lived in high society, but is actually very lonely, he lives alone in a huge estate, representing the highest level of consumption in the country, and he once thought that he was living a so-called "good life".

But he has no family, no real friends, and has to talk or play games with the toys, like a poor old man living in a lonely castle.

Since he has never been to the outside world, the pet rat never yearns for it, and he lives in a beautiful and colorful bubble...... However, when he is washed into the sewers of London and taken to a completely different world, he finally realizes how boring his previous life was.

The story is set in a consistent Hollywood style.

It's a pity that the combination of clay and CG used in the movie is really not good for the audience.

On the first day of its release in North America, "Wandering in the Land of Rats", which pinned on many of DreamWorks' ambitions, released a squib, and only received $4.71 million in a single day, not only did not win the North American box office list on the same day, but was also crushed by "Saw 4" in the second week of release, which collected $6.71 million in a single day.

This weekend, the market is relatively deserted, and the films that are really fiercely competing at the front end of the film market are "Wandering in the Land of Rats" released in the first week and "Saw 4" released the next weekend.

The former was given a bonus on Saturday's rest day, and the box office skyrocketed that day, snatching the top spot from the latter with a score of $7.42 million.

But this is just a flash in the pan of "Wandering in the Land of Rats".

After the first weekend in November, "Wandering in the Rat Country" only received $17.81 million in 3,890 theaters in North America, compared to the production cost of up to $150 million, DreamWorks wants to recoup its original cost is far away.

This box office result can only make "Wandering in the Land of Rats" fall into the second place in the box office list when it opens.

"Saw 4" topped the North American box office list this weekend with $18.91 million, achieving the first time that the "Saw 4" series won the North American box office for the first time.

Coupled with the harvest of the previous four working days, this bloody torture horror film has been released in North America for ten days, and the box office has reached a total of 58.99 million US dollars.

Although it is very difficult to exceed 100 million at the North American box office in the end, it is no problem to exceed 80 million US dollars.

And after another week of screenings overseas, the global box office of the film has now exceeded $100 million.

Relying on the box office alone, "Saw 4" has already achieved huge profits.

The days of "Wandering in the Land of Rats" are not so easy, and the most important thing DreamWorks needs to do is to break the wrist of a strong man so that he can stop the loss in time.

DreamWorks Animation's first animated feature film away from Relativity Entertainment, although it has only been released in North America for one weekend, but both DreamWorks itself and other companies in the industry know very well that "Wandering in the Land of Rats" has failed.

"Why is this happening?"

In his office at DreamWorks Industrial Park in Glendale, Spielberg looked at Jared Katzenberg and wondered, "Isn't this an animated feature film built in the Shrek model?

Jared Katzenberg was silent for a while, "Wandering in the Land of Rats" hit him very hard, and the first top-of-the-line production involving $150 million in production since the founding of DreamWorks Animation Studios ended in failure......

Spielberg sighed softly and said nothing more, he could see that Katzenberg was very remorseful.

After a long moment, Jared Katzenberg slowly spoke: "Steven, the responsibility for the failure of the "Rat Wandering" project lies with me, and I made the wrong decision. I shouldn't have saved $70 million in investment by bringing in Aardman Studios and using their clay animation technology. ”

Hearing these words, Spielberg still didn't mean to interject, after all, he also agreed to the introduction of funds for Aardman Studio.

At the beginning, working with Aardman Studios was a great way to reduce the risk and bring together the best of both worlds.

Jerever Katzenberg continued, "I only thought about reducing investment risk and neglected market research. The results of the release of "Wandering in the Land of Rats" are very clear that the audience is quite resistant to the form of clay animated films......"

Spielberg nodded slightly and said, "This form of expression of clay animation is really not suitable for the large-scale animated film market, and the contract with Aardman Studio later?"

Jared Katzenberg was decisive enough: "I've called out all collaborations with Aardman Studios, DreamWorks Animation Studios will no longer work with Aardman Studios, and the rest of the planned animated film projects will completely abandon clay animation technology." ”

"You're more professional than me in the field of animation. Spielberg said sincerely, "Jerevor, it's up to you to decide. ”

"Don't worry, Steven," Katzenberg said. I will never allow DreamWorks Animation Studios to fail a second time. ”

Spielberg sighed softly and said, "I always believed in the strength of DreamWorks Animation Studios. ”

"I don't know why, but I feel uneasy. "DreamWorks Animation Studios has had a smooth ride with Relativity Entertainment, the Shrek series, the Shark Gang, and Madagascar have all been hugely successful, but the first film failed without Relativity Entertainment," said Jared Katzenberg suddenly. ”

As soon as these words came out, Spielberg's face changed instantly, and he couldn't help but think a little: Is Katzenberg accusing DreamWorks of having problems with its publicity and distribution capabilities?

Seeing the change in Spielberg's face, Jared Katzenberg immediately guessed that he had misunderstood what he meant, and quickly explained, "Steven, I don't mean anything else. ”

The balance of power between the two giants of DreamWorks is actually fragile, and Katzenberg does not want to easily upset this hard-won balance: "I just wondered, is Ronan Anderson willing to end his cooperation with DreamWorks Animation Studios early because there are problems and risks in the next few animation projects that I don't understand?"

Spielberg thought about it for a moment: "In my 40 years of experience, no one, including investors, directors and producers, can clearly judge the prospects of most film projects. Maybe DreamWorks Animation Studios projects are risky, but which film is less risky?"

Jarev Katzenberg's confidence is piled up with one successful animated feature film after another, in which there are too many famous works and too many movies in the history of celebrity film.

These words quickly made Jerry Katzenberg abandon that doubt, and since the plan of DreamWorks Animation Studio has been formulated, it must be unswervingly implemented, at most with some appropriate adjustments.

Both Spielberg and Katzenberg are characters with enough execution to not see DreamWorks Animation's plans as a problem, and the failure of "Wanderings in the Land of Rats" is just an isolated case.