Award archives...

[Josh]

I'm surprised Kung Fu Panda received that many nominations over Bolt and WALL-E. I figured WALL-E would receive the most attention. Still, I enjoyed all three films very much, so I'm happy to see them land the most nominations.

I'm also surprised that The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is the DisneyToon project nominated for Best Animated Home Entertainment Production. I assumed that honor would go to Tinker Bell.

[Vernadyn]

I'm quite disappointed that Thomas Newman did not get a nomination for WALL-E. Perhaps the score was too inconsistent and subtle a listen on CD for some, but it worked brilliantly in the film itself. Then again, I am a Newman fan and am used to his unique sounds. I think John Powell is one of the better of the up and coming composers, but I frankly think his score for Bolt is better than those for Horton and Kung Fu Panda (good as they are.)

As for WALL-E not getting a writing nomination, well, that's understandable. When people think of a screenplay, they think about dialogue. WALL-E is a very visual film, and most of the expression is thorugh the animation rather than the dialogue. The screenplay does include in parantheses what the robots are thinking or trying to communicate, but more than ever it seemed that it fell to the animators and story artists to carry this out. Nevertheless, WALL-E is built on a strong story, and I did get a sense of that story in the screenplay. God knows I don't agree with everything William Goldman says, but there is at least some truth in his assertion that dialogue is the least important part of a screenplay. "Screenplays are structure," as he says.

And I don't know about you, but I think WALL-E had a strong structure. Stronger than Madagascar 2, at the very least.

[Adam]

I'm surprised that Wall-E was out-nominated by Bolt and Kung Fu Panda. Not that those two features aren't great, but I just think Wall-E was missing a few nominations, especially in the music and writing departments.

Just an interesting sidenote: The winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar has ALWAYS come from the initial Annie line-up and only ONCE has the Annie winner not won the Oscar. So with that said, I'd say Horton Hears a Who and The Tale of Despereaux are unfortunately dead in the water. A huge boost goes to $9.99 though.

[Dacey]

I'm so glad to see that Dustin Hoffman got a nomination for his performance as Shifu. He really, really deserved that.

But I can't believe that "Tinker Bell" didn't get the nod over TLM III.

[American_dog_2008]

Good luck Bolt!

[Dacey]

Here they are...

http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2009/globes

[EricJ]

And unfortunately, ever since the Academy shortened its Oscar voting by a month (to keep down all those annoying "For Your Consideration" mailings, especially from the "Miramax-bribe" Weinsteins), they haven't had time to think up their own nominations in the past few years, and just end up cribbing the attention-getting favorites from the GG's...

Which means it's harder nowadays to laugh at the "shallow" and "cheap celebrity-obsessed" GG nominations and say "Har, har, the Do-It-Yourself Oscars from the Group That Doesn't Exist, those will never become REAL nominations!"
(IOW, those saying "Nah, the real Academy would never nominate Heath Ledger, they're too classy for that!"...)

[droosan]

AMPAS is primarily composed of actors. I'd be very surprised if Ledger didn't receive a posthumous nomination (and I haven't even seen The Dark Knight).

-----------

Plus, if their goal is to reduce "For Your Consideration" mailings, they aren't doing much of a job; our mailbox is crammed full of 'em, lately.

[GeorgeC]

Heh.

You're not missing much.

The Dark Knight is so overhyped and overblown it makes the advertising for the last 3 Star Wars films combined seem tame.

I also didn't think Ledger's performance was THAT good. His Joker was easily one of the most annoying performances I've had to sit through in a while.

Hate to say it, but I think we're going to see a pity/condolence award.

People are already saying as much within acting circles.

So much for award ceremonies being much more than popularity contests!

[American_dog_2008]

I hope for Bolt to win.

[Adam]

I'm excited that Bolt could actually get nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. It will be the first time since 2003 that an in-house Disney project will have been nominated. With its really good box-office and awards momentum, Waltz With Bashir needs to watch its back. Oh, and I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk on these forums about the possibility of Wall-E being nominated for Best Picture. From the precursors so far, Wall-E is really only one of seven films that could really make it in. Since all of the other pre-ordained contendors have underwhelmed, it could very well be possible that we could see an animated picture nominated for the top prize!

[eddievalient]

Actually I've heard rumors that Dark Knight could be nominated for the Best Picture oscar. Not sure of the chances, but it would be incredibly cool if it was. Maybe then, comic book movies would get a little more respect (currently they get zero). Personally, I think Watchmen is gonna be the movie to beat next year, if they can pull off making a great film out of an essentially unfilmable book.

[Ben]

Dark Knight is being pushed for Best Picture in current trade ads.

WALL-E's Oscar chances have been commented on in our review and front page...the basic thinking being that it may get nominated but won't win, opening up a new debate: is a Best Picture nomination better than a Best Animated Feature win?

And where does that leave the BAF category if so...?

[James]

There is no rule that you can't get both a best pic nod and a best animated pic win.

[Ben]

Nope...no rule, but didn't that knock DreamWorks one year? I remember Shrek being promoted as Best Picture in the For You Consideration trade ads but the buzz was that being "greedy" for that prize would count against it in the BAF category. It was widely speculated that Shrek would have been ostracised from being nominated in the BAF catagory if it wound up being nominated for Best Pic. In the end, the negativity around the choice suddenly saw the ads changed to For Your Consideration with the BAF title, where of course it eventually won.

Alternatively, though, if WALL-E did get through to Best Pic and was also nominated for BAF, the politics suggest it wouldn't win either, so my point still stands. It would be <I>highly</I> unlikely that it would win over the more serious minded live-actioners (or that the "proper" filmmakers would actually vote for it given Pixar's winning streak) but it would be highly <I>likely</I> that trying to break out of the box could peeve off the animation voters, either locking it out of the BAF entirely, or putting their votes elsewhere.

The Annie nominations have proven that WALL-E isn't invulnerable to a certain Panda this year...