Dreamworks Animation has thrived as a smart-ass, pop culture savvy alternative to more innocent kiddie fare. Many of the jokes in films such as Shrek and Madagascar are designed to fly right over children’s heads and get a few chuckles out of the adults forced to accompany them to the theater.

Contrast that to the films of Pixar, which are powerfully heartfelt and human (even when about toys, car or rats) and more interested in character development and story than in-jokes and alternative soundtracks.

There is certainly a place for the films produced by both of these studios, but when it comes to true quality, it’s no contest.

However, in recent years Dreamworks has tapped into something new and special with at least two of their releases — 2008’s Kung-Fu Panda and this year’s How to Train Your Dragon. These movies aren’t in Pixar’s league, but they are wonderful examples of animation done right. Neither film relies on the easy anachronisms that make for quick laughs in the Shrek movies. Instead the humor is more organic, the characters more honestly drawn.

But where they really earn their keep is with astonishing visuals and action choreography that should be the envy of live-action filmmakers the world over. There are flying scenes in How to Train Your Dragon that feel like the closest thing to real flight I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater. And I didn’t even see the thing in 3D, which must take it to a whole other level (as an aside, I’m totally against this 3D thing… 100 years of wonderful cinema was able to get by in two dimensions and I’d be perfectly content if the next 100 followed suit).

This movie is by no means the “new E.T.,” as the ads promised, but it’s an exciting and funny diversion that paints a clever world where Vikings battle dragons in Scottish accents while their teenagers speak like Californians and train to join their elders in battle. Hiccup, our hero, decides instead to befriend one of the fire-breathing beasties, and life lessons ensue.

I know Shrek Forever After is due out this summer, and you can’t blame Dreamworks for wanting to pay the bills, but I hope How to Train Your Dragon and Kung-Fu Panda signal a new direction for the studio. As a film lover with two young kids, I want movies out there that are worthy of their attention, and mine.