DreamWorks Face

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Part of a series on DreamWorks Animation. [View Related Entries]

Anny Mation @Mation Miss Before there was the Dreamworks face. Now we are evolving to Awkward Smile. 6:20 AM Aug 10, 2022 DISNEY

Cody @AltHistCody - 23h If Trump doesn't smile in his mugshot it will 100% be the biggest marketing fumble in history 80 1814 Cody @AltHistCody He better give one of these 34.5K ₁1.3M ↑ ...

So you've heard of the "DreamWorks Face" and the "Calarts Face." Now get ready for THE DISNEY FACE!

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About

DreamWorks Face refers to a phenomenon often seen in posters and promotional material created for animated movies made by DreamWorks in which a character is shown smirking with one eyebrow raised and the other furrowed. The phrase "DreamWorks Face" has been noted online as early as the mid-2000s, with artists and internet users referencing the classic smirk in subsequent years.

Origin

The "DreamWorks Face" refers to a facial expression often seen in the posters and marketing material for children's movies made by DreamWorks Animation studios. A TV Tropes^[1] entry from March 24th, 2011, describes it as the "clever, asymmetrical smirk. The similarly crooked eyebrows. The intense stare-down that comes at you from the promo posters. (seen below).

The earliest known joke about the DreamWorks Face is a webcomic from 2009 in which two stick figures compare Disney and DreamWorks (seen below). The earliest appearance of this webcomic online is a March 30th, 2009, post by Flickr^[2] user Zoot Sutra, who gathered over 380,000 views on the post in 15 years (seen below).

PIXAR Let's make a movie about toys! Like, there's an old cowboy figure and he's afraid of getting replaced by a new sci-fi space marine action figure! A rat aims to be a cook in a noble restaurant so it teams up with a boy who works in the kitchen! A family of superheroes is fighting a disgruntled ex-fanboy who wants to make everyone in the world into superheroes! DREAMWORKS Uhh, there are talking animals. And they do things animals normally don't do. A little robot is cleaning up the abandoned earth when suddenly he is visited by a much more modern, female robot and falls in love with her! And they all make this face: Brilliant. Ө An old man ties hundreds of balloons to his house to make it fly and fulfill his dead wife's wish of visiting South America! The monsters in children's closets are actually working for a monster corporation that uses screams as a power source!

The meme was widely reposted online on sites like Reddit^[3] and DeviantArt^[4] in subsequent months.

Spread

Memes and jokes about the DreamWorks Face continued to spread in the 2010s, with a forum^[5] user posting a meme featuring Hurley from Lost making the DreamWorks Face on June 8th, 2010 (seen below, left). On September 6th, 2013, an MLP^[6] forum user posted a storyboard from Regular Show in which Rigby is shown doing the face (seen below, right).

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON WAS BETTER THAN EXPECTED. BUT THEY STILL DID THAT DREAMWORKS FACE, NO ONE DOES THAT IN REAL LIFE... EXECUTIVE PRODUCT ELIZABETH SARNO

3 Sc. 3 122 Pnl. Bg. Page day night ("DREAMWORKS FACE")

On May 10th, 2015, Tumblr^[7] user @absolita responded to someone finding out about the Dreamworks Face with an anecdote about the animators at the studio. The user claimed that all the animators hate the face, but that the marketing teams at DreamWorks insist on using it. The post gathered over 150,000 notes in nine years (seen below, left).

On August 10th, 2022, X^[8] user @MationMiss suggested that the new "DreamWorks Face" may be the "awkward smile," gathering over 11,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).