Dreamworks-animation posts

It wasn't all bad news in THQ's announcements on Monday. The publisher revealed that it has signed a deal with Dreamworks Animation to create a game for PCs and other platforms based on Master Mind (working title), a fall 2010 CGI movie that sends up the super hero genre. The film's plot is that a super villain must find a new role after accidentally killing his arch rival super hero in the opening sequence of the film.

This announcement is more interesting than what is just on the surface of the press release. This new deal between THQ and Dreamworks Animation represents a bit of a break with Dreamworks' previous deals with THQ rival Activision. Previous to this announcement, Activision has been developing and publishing nearly all of the games based on Dreamworks' previous CGI films such as the Shrek series, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over The Hedge and this year's Kung Fu Panda (Activision will also publish a game adaptation of Madagascar 2 this fall). Perhaps Dreamworks wanted a change of pace and choose THQ for Master Mind thanks to the publisher's mostly solid results for games based on Pixar movies such as The Incredibles, Cars and this year's upcoming film WALL-E.

Jack Black's next movie won't have him playing a funny slob with a heart of gold. No, in the Dreamworks Animation film Kung Fu Panda it looks like Black will voice the role of a funny slob of a panda bear with a heart of gold. Oh, and he can (maybe) do some serious Van Damage if he feels like it.

Activision has had a long time game license with Dreamworks Animation to create games based on their movies (all three Shrek movies as well as Shark's Tale (which also had Jack Black's voice work), Madagascar and Over The Hedge). So it's a no brainer that an Kung Fu Panda game is in the works as well. In an unusual move, Activision has released a new PC only demo for the game well ahead of the movie's mid-June release date. In the demo you can control Black's character Po in a portion of the full game as he fights not just with weapons but also unique special attacks, including one called the Panda Quake.It sounds like a tasty dessert to us.