Since 2016 DreamWorks Animation has been owned by NBC Universal. Although the studio's founder Jeffrey Katzenberg remained head of DreamWorks New Media, the studio was now controlled by Illumination Entertainment's CEO Chris Meledandri. NBC Universal hoped that the popularity of DreamWorks Animation particularly in China would be beneficial especially as they were constructing a Universal Studios theme park in Beijing.

Also mentioned is whether the films pass the Bechdel Test. This can be summarised as whether the film involves two or more female characters who have a conversation together that does not focus on men in general or specific male characters.

38. Trolls World Tour (2020)

Originally intended to be released in April 2020 in time for Easter, its release was affected by the Covid-19 outbreak which had closed cinemas worldwide. The film attracted controversy when Universal Pictures announced they would stream the film online on a pay-per-view basis and not release it in cinemas. This led to many cinema chains across the US and Odeon in the UK boycotting Universal films and have announced they have no intention of releasing further Universal films in their cinemas in the near future, although the film became the most successful digital-rental film that Universal have released, setting new records for films purchased to watch for one day only. The stars also were reported as pursuing legal action against Universal for loss of income as by the film bypassing cinemas they were not entitled to get box office bonuses.

Director Walt Dohrn replaced Jeffrey Tambor as King Peppy, with Tambor having been accused of sexual misconduct in 2017 and 2018.