"Australia's always been very family-friendly. We've had immense success here," DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said of the studio's decision to open "Dreamworks Animation: The Exhibition" at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which opened April 9. The exhibition features more than 400 items from the studio's history.
Gromit from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The exhibition runs through Oct. 5.
A character maquette from The Prince of Egypt.
A wall of never-before-seen concept art from Madagascar.
Concept art from Kung Fu Panda.
Circus posters created for inspiration by production designer Kendal Cronkhite during development of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
Visitors are treated to projections of characters being sketched before their eyes, including an early rendition of Grug from The Croods.
Melman the giraffe from Madagascar peers into the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
Maquettes for Madagascar's characters Gloria, Marty and Alex.
From left: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Heidi Victoria, minister for the arts of the state of Victoria, and ACMI director and CEO Tony Sweeney.
"The curatorial idea was looking at the craftsmanship and the creative dialogue that goes on at the studio," said Sweeney at the event, which was also attended by visual effects supervisor Doug Cooper and production designer Christophe Lautrette.
From left: Bill Damaschke, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Australian comedian and composer Tim Minchin enjoyed each other's company during the exhibition's opening night. Minchin will be writing music and lyrics for the studio's upcoming film Larrikins, while Damaschke told THR that DreamWorks Animation is meeting with other institutions about touring the exhibit.
Composer and comedian Minchin with Alex from Madagascar.
Guests partied with Shrek at the opening.