Rise of the Guardians flopSaying it's the hardest thing they've ever had to do, DreamWorks studio exec, Jeffrey Katzenberg announced yesterday that the studio is not only going against company culture by furloughing 350 employees, but is in the midst of a complete restructuring following the commercial failure of Rise of the Guardians, the studio's most recent animated offering.

DreamWorks Animation SKG reported its first quarterly loss in almost six months as it had to write down nearly $165 million from the abysmal performance of the film in the world box office. The animation studio behind the wildly popular Shrek and Kung Fu Panda franchises had bet the farm on a grand 2012 holiday performance from the animated adventure featuring the voices of Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, and Jude Law. But with only $102 million in domestic draw ($302 mill worldwide) on a $145 million budget, plus heavy marketing and promotion costs, the company felt it was the right thing to do.

About 350 employees will leave the studio over the course of the coming year (most of them in production groups) as part of a company-wide restructuring. And if that weren't enough bad news, the company yesterday also said it has stopped production on its animated 3D fantasy film Me & My Shadow about a shadow taking control of its owner. This puts all the more pressure on the company as its next release will come on March 22 in the form of The Croods, an animated comedy adventure that tracks a prehistoric family on a road trip and features the voices of Nicholas Cage and Ryan Reynolds, among others. DreamWorks says its full-year 2013 results are expected to be driven primarily by the performance of The Croods and another animated offering Turbo, which is slated for release on July 19. Good Luck!

Read our review of Rise of the Guardians to discover how and why it managed to come off as more of a holiday-themed cash grab than a delightful kid-friendly reason for the season.