Margie Cohn's Television Influence On DreamWorks

[SweetShop209]

Margie Cohn worked at Nickelodeon for over 2 decades. She moved to DreamWorks Television Animation during the mid 2010s before she became the president of DreamWorks Animation in 2019. This helps to explain why DreamWorks movies cost less to make, why more TV people are involved with the movies, and they're only now making movies based on their TV shows. She's applying a television mentality for the big screen.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I absolutely loved her work, especially her work for streaming. Really great stuff.

 

[harry580]

this is why I wish disney television animation legends should have influence Walt Disney animation studios & pixar

 

[SweetShop209]

https://www.animationmagazine.net/2026/03/leave-it-to-beavers-hoppers-director-daniel-chong-team-discuss-the-pixar-films-natural-evolution/

In discussing Hoppers, Daniel Chong said how he brought the TV mentality of We Bare Bears, being able to make big decisions quickly, over to the movie. That's probably why Margie Cohn is having TV people more involved with movies so that they can make better movies under tighter deadlines and cheaper budgets. I mean, Spirit Untamed, based on Spirit Riding Free, was co-written by series developer Aury Wallington, and has Elaine Bogan (from Trollhunters and the 2012 How To Train Your Dragon series) as the main director, not a co-director. Kung Fu Panda 4 was co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine. While she didn't have the creative freedom Mike Mitchell had, she took the lessons she learned from The Adventures Of Puss In Boots and She Ra And The Princesses Of Power, and helped create a movie that has the fast, frenetic action you'd see in a TV show. I mean, many of the story artists are from DreamWorks shows. Dog Man really takes this to the next level by having Peter Hastings as writer, director, and lead voice actor. He was personally recommended by Dav Pilkey because of his work on the Captain Underpants show. That's some serious string pulling for a movie that's basically a one man act that paid off. Gabby's Dollhouse The Movie improves on Spirit Untamed by having the creators by executive producers, and getting some preschool show writers, and a director (Ryan Crego) who knows how tv and movies work since he's done both, and has a kid who's a fan of the show veing a consultant. The result is a movie that knows its audience, and gives them what they deserve, a love letter to the fans. This definitely wouldn't have happened before she came onboard.