DreamWorks' 5 Best Animated Movie Sequels, Ranked

DreamWorks Animation has garnered a reputation as, fairly or not, a sequel factory. It’s a lot less distinctive in this regard in a modern era of Illumination films or endless Pixar legacy sequels. Still, DreamWorks was one of the first pioneers of ceaseless theatrically-released sequels to hit movies. Shrek 2 proved these films didn’t have to just go directly to home video or flop in theaters like An American Tail: Fievel Goes West or The Rescuers Down Under.

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That phenomenon has proved so inescapable that summer 2025’s big DreamWorks Animation release is The Bad Guys 2. This follow-up to the hit 2022 film will follow in the footsteps of not only a bunch of box office juggernauts, but even the occasionally inspired film. Not all DreamWorks Animation sequels are created equal. The five very best sequels ever created by DreamWorks Animation prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that these can also be strong motion pictures. Game on, The Bad Guys 2.

5) Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted saw the creative team of this franchise finally throw caution to the wind and get zanier than ever. Advancements in computer animation’s capabilities, not to mention eschewing the rampant sentimentality of the second Madagascar, opened the door for lots of shockingly amusing wackiness. Jokes about Penguin’s “college fund” or a psychedelic musical number set to Katy Perry’s “Firework” were on a whole other level of spectacle compared to the previous movie in the series. Perhaps that’s just what happens when you bring on indie cinema specialist Noah Baumbach as a co-screenwriter.

4) How to Train Your Dragon 2

Part of what’s so exciting about How to Train Your Dragon 2 is how it eschews many of the impulses of typical American computer-animated family films, including many from DreamWorks Animation. Instead of a rapid-fire, hyperactive pace, Dragon 2 takes its time marinating in quiet character moments, like Stoick the Vast dancing with his wife shortly after they’ve been united. It also isn’t afraid to go dark, chiefly with elements related to a manipulated Toothless. Throw in some of the most vivid and brightly-colorful animation DreamWorks has ever attached its name to and How to Train Your Dragon 2 soared highly as sequel cinema done right.

3) Shrek 2

It’s reductive to chalk up a movies quality solely to its opening needle drop. Still, Shrek 2 kicking off its story with the excellent Counting Crows ditty “Accidentally in Love” certainly starts the film on a great foot. From there, the inspired gags and surprisingly engaging plot points don’t let up. Shrek 2 is a fiercely confident feature in its comedy, including each joke centered on new character Puss in Boots. Plus, the grand “Holding Out For a Hero” third-act set piece is still a magnificent creation in every department, from the pacing to the editing to how every action on-screen registers as either suspenseful or sumptuously cathartic.

2) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Arriving more than 11 years after its predecessor, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish totally should have been a classic cash grab with minimal redeeming creative traits. Instead, The Last Wish was a terrifically vibrant adventure that took the visual sensibilities of the Shrek world ot excitingly new, stylized heights. Impressively, it also embraced a nuanced tone that juggled extremes in both enthralling action and frank discussions of mortality, anxiety, and death. This was an audacious motion picture rather than just a reheat version of the first Puss in Boots. The Last Wish shattered all expectations and the world was so much better for it.

1) Kung Fu Panda 2

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s filmmaking sensibilities for Kung Fu Panda 2 were reamrkable. While the fun qualities and zippy camerawork in action sequences from the first film remained, Yuh Nelson also made this follow-up into a genuinely moving exploration of generational trauma rooted in genocide. That wasn’t the normal place anyone thought a Kung Fu Panda sequel was going to venture to. That just made it all the more spectacular to see Kung Fu Panda 2 work like gangbusters as both an action feature and an intimate drama.

The latter elements even found inspired ways of reinterpreting the hand-drawn sequences of the first Panda so that 2D animation now represented the flickers of memories Po the Panda has about his traumatic past. Everything from new villain, Lord Shen (deliciously voiced by Gary Oldman), to a powerful score from Hans Zimmer and John Powell, is firing on all cylinder. Kung Fu Panda 2 isn’t just the pinnacle of DreamWorks Animation sequels, it may be the studios best non-Prince of Egypt work, period.

The Bad Guys 2 is now playing in theaters, Kung Fu Panda 2 is now streaming on Peacock and HBO Max.