Award archives...

[Adam]

Well this is a truly historic day for animated feature films. Countries have been submitting animated features for Best Foreign Language Film since the days when Japan submitted Princess Mononoke, but one has never managed the nomination until now. I'm so glad Waltz With Bashir made the finalist list, even though Persepolis should have had that honor last year.

I'm really glad that Bolt made it in as well. I don't think it's anywhere near the technical or artistic achievement of Waltz With Bashir, but I'm always happy when all the good stuff gets a piece of the pie.

I'm glad Kate Winslet ended up with one nomination. I don't see how anyone could construe her Hannah as a supporting character in The Reader; her placement in lead is a huge step forward in putting studios in their place in trying to campaign lead roles in the supporting categories.

The Best Picture category I'm neither hot nor cold. Last year was one of the rare years that all five nominees were wonderful movies in their own right. This year, all five are good efforts, but I would have preffered VERY GOOD movies to be in the running, as the category BEST PICTURE suggests. Milk is truly excellent, but I don't particularly love anything outside of that. For me, The Reader was a better movie that The Dark Knight, but neither approaches the greatness of last year's winner (or four co-nominees for that matter). Oh well, at least there won't be a travesty this year in the winners.

Here's hoping Wall-E takes Best Animated Feature as it rightfully deserves!

[Jafar]

"Jai Ho" is a beautifully written song...kind of poetry you don't get to hear very often and I'm glad to see its getting the recognition it deserves.

I'm also glad to see "Waltz with Bashir" in the foreign film category and I won't be surprised if it wins. A very powerful film, indeed.

[Whippet Angel]

I don't know why I bothered getting my hopes up when I learned that WALL-E was being considered for a BP nom. After all, I can always count on the Academy to give a nom to a sub-par Drama as opposed to a very good comedy/action/animated/comic book/insert other film genre that isn't "serious" enough to be awarded an Oscar.

Some things never change.....

Me? Bitter? Maybe just a little bit...

[eddievalient]

The Dark Knight should have been nominated for best picture and Speed Racer really deserved to be nominated for the visual effects and Michael Giachinno's (sp?) excellent score. Speed Racer really deserves more attention from both filmgoers and critics because of the fact that it truly is groundbreaking. The Wachowski's have rewritten the rulebook for what can be accomplished and they need to be recognized for it. It's likely that The Dark Knight being snubbed will, in the future, be almost as legendary as Star Wars losing best picture to Annie Hall (which Entertainment Weekly once ranked the worst Oscar snub of all time).

[droosan]

Star Wars was a huge financial success, and a true 'landmark' pop-culture phenomenon which has rarely been equaled since.

.. but BEST PICTURE material it most certainly is NOT.


Come on, now.
(search your feelings .. you know it to be true!)


The same goes for The Dark Knight, AFAIC. It's a Batman movie. A very good, very enjoyable Batman movie .. but still: it's about a guy who dresses like a bat in order to fight grotesque misanthropes.

That's just not what the Motion Picture Academy is gonna go for.

--------------

All that said, I did enjoy Speed Racer more than just about any other film I saw last year. But I'm also not very surprised it hasn't gotten more recognition, from either the audience at-large or the Academy. Speed Racer has always been a 'cult classic' .. even back when it originally aired.

I'm quite surprised a big-budget movie version of Speed Racer was even made. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that it was made well .. being simultaneously a loving tribute to the original series, and a breathlessly-paced exercise in creative storytelling through clever editing.

But SR's appeal to mainstream audiences -- especially in the U.S. -- was limited. The lack-luster trailers didn't help it much, either.

[Meg]

I actually didn't like the Speed Racer film, despite enjoying the original series quite a bit (for less than serious reason, but still). Thought it was an absolute visual mess.

It is a shame, though, that TDK and Wall-E were snubbed in the Best Picture category. It would be nice to see the Academy nominate the highest quality films instead of the most pretentious once in a while...Bah. Still, nice to see them get nods in many other categories. Also pleased to see Hellboy 2 got a nomination in Best Makeup, I really hope it wins there.

[Ben]

For all the reasons stated above, I'm feeling pretty good about what's been honored and such.

I started to write more here, but decided it would make for better front page comment instead, so check out our front page:

www.animated-views.com

...in a short while!

[Once Upon A Dream]

The animated feature nominations are perfact.
Persto shouldn't be there.
I saw very little of Dark Knight and I thought it's boring,Batman Begins was much better.
And for as for Waltz with Bashir-Go Israel! .

[Ben]

"Persto shouldn't be there."

Um..."Persto" <I>isn't</I> there.

[Once Upon A Dream]

Oh,really? what's this?:

Animated Short: La Maison de Petits Cubes, Lavatory - Lovestory, Oktapodi, Presto, This Way Up

[Ben]

That's <B>Presto</B>, not "Persto".

I did see Persto, actually. Wasn't as good as Presto.

[Once Upon A Dream]

So that's why you thought that Persto was good,you saw the wrong short .
You should see Presto,it's better then a short with a bunny throwing a ladder on a magician that I wonder how come he can't bleed.

[Ben]

No, I saw both of them and said that Persto wasn't any good. You better read that again.

As for why the bunny can't bleed? Um, it's because he's a <I>cartoon</I>.

[Jafar]

So Nick park's "A matter of loaf and death" didn't make it to the shortlist?

[Bill1978]

I believe it was ineligible as it made it's appearance on TV and not in Theatres.