Award archives...

[Dacey]

"Ratatouille" (or however you spell it) is going to win.

Seriously, I don't see how any other film--even "The Simpsons Movie"--stands a solid chance against it.

It feels good to be posting here again.

[Daniel]

?? You never stopped, you just posted less frequently, WJ.

Simps stands a chance, but like you said, not solid.

[Dacey]

Okay, you're right, I never "Stopped". But I used to come here like everyday.

[ShyViolet]

Welcome back, WJ!!

I still think back to how well 300 and the Ice Age franchise have done with March releases. Again, I think it all goes back to how well a marketing campaign a film has.

True, Josh. I know I don't have a crystal ball at my disposal or anything, but...I just think it's a different situation.

A.) 300 is a live-action film that probably already had a built-in audience (action movie fans, Frank Miller comic fanboys, etc...)

B.) Ice Age is a "quirky comedy" spring
type of movie with pretty big stars (John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, and Dennis Leary) It is also a pretty simple concept (buddy road trip type movie with prehistoric animals) compared to

"orphan boy travels to the future to meet his future family but doesn't know it's them"

300 and Ice Age were lucky but they both had an uphill battle to go through with the dates they faced.


I certainly agree with you on the marketing thing....both Ice Age and 300 got way better marketing than MTR. Without very good marketing that makes it clear what the subject matter is but in an appealing, resonant and eye-catching way (sorta like the kind Ratatouille got ) a "different, deeper" type of film like MTR is sunk.


Still, dates are important, and if Disney has the power to NOT let their animated films, once thought to be "the jewel in their crown" get put in those slots, than they should USE IT. Ice Age and 300 only got those slots because the studios were still somewhat unsure about the "brands" and whether or not the films would be blockbusters. Hence, the closer to summer a film gets released, the more sure a studio is. March and April scream cold feet. (Hence Ice Age 2 getting a May opening from what I remember--the success of part 1 already having been established.)

No studio WANTS their tent-pole film to be released in January-April. That is generally the off-season for "junk" movies or films that studios don't otherwise know what to do with. The slots that every studio wants are Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas, or, barring that, somewhere in the vicinity of those periods. If the makers of Ice Age were given the choice of March or Thanksgiving, I'm sure they would have picked the latter. March is a tough month to sell a film. They were lucky that they at least had the studio's support.

As for Robinsons' old release date, keep in mind that it would have then faced Night at the Museum, which, domestically, was the second biggest film of 2006. Charlotte's Web competed against Museum for family audiences and ended up with about $15 million less than what Robinsons earned.

True but....we don't know what would have happened. I'm sure NATM was great and all, but then how would that movie have fared if, say, there had actually been an animated Disney Christmas extravangza-type push on the part of Disney where Robinsons was conerned? Disney can't keep getting cold feet when promoting its own stuff. It's time to do it the way they used to do it....otherwise why do it all?

[EricJ]

As for Robinsons' old release date, keep in mind that it would have then faced Night at the Museum, which, domestically, was the second biggest film of 2006. Charlotte's Web competed against Museum for family audiences and ended up with about $15 million less than what Robinsons earned.

True but....we don't know what would have happened. I'm sure NATM was great and all, but then how would that movie have fared if, say, there had actually been an animated Disney Christmas extravangza-type push on the part of Disney where Robinsons was conerned? Disney can't keep getting cold feet when promoting its own stuff. It's time to do it the way they used to do it....otherwise why do it all?

Disney already HAD a Nov.-Dec. Christmas-family film to compete with Charlotte/Museum...Just that nobody saw "Santa Clause 3". (And for good reason.)

But Disney knows better than anyone how the rules of Nov.-Dec. Christmas films work nowadays, after they learned the Five Bitter Lessons of "Treasure Planet":
Lesson #1, "The after-Christmas school-vacation week is sacred above all"
(Ie., don't pull your film out of theaters before then, and if you can't open November, aim as late in December as possible, and don't even bother with Thanksgiving),
#2, "Parents don't have time, money or patience to take their kids to more than one family film between Black Friday and Christmas vacation." (And that one in '07 was "Museum"--Sorry, Charlotte.)
#3, "Never, ever underestimate the first family film out of the gate in the first weeks of November." (Which they later learned on "Brother Bear" and "Chicken Little", after "Treasure" found itself crushed by the "Santa Clause" sequel they thought would be out of theaters in two weeks.)
#4 "Leave the 007 and Harry Potter movies alone, and give them plenty of breathing room." (No, really, Disney, that one was just dumb..Fortunately, "Casino Royale" had Nov. '07 to itself.)
And #5, "One Disney animated per year is plenty". (Ironically, "Lilo & Stitch" was the one they thought they were "dumping" in summer '02, and we'd all forget about that weird lil' thing in time for that big Thanksgiving-classic weekend.)

So: Don't tell Disney how to release Nov./Christmas films--
They paid the price, they got the scars, and they ended up showing everyone ELSE how to do it...And it's been the rules of law ever since.
(And they still use the Death March as dumping grounds, but that was back when they thought MTR needed dumping.)

[ShyViolet]

I realize there's "risks" involved in the crowded holiday marketplace, but I think as long as the studio shows the film marketing support (instead of announcing within days that they're writing it down the way they did with Treasure Planet ) then that's the way to go with Disney animated films.

Maybe it seems like March and April are "not that bad" when it comes to releasing these things, but....can you IMAGINE the uproar that would come about if Disney said to Pixar: "Um, yeah, that WALL-E movie you've been working on? We thought we'd release it in March 2008. Yeah, we know you don't usually do March or April, but hey, it's just as good as June or Christmas, right?"

(And they still use the Death March as dumping grounds, but that was back when they thought MTR needed dumping.)

So, if Pixar "fixed" it then why did they dump it in March?

[Ben]

To bring this all crashing back down to the ground...

It will be a five-year race, with Ratatouille the winner.

[ShyViolet]

I wonder how Ratatouille will do in the Golden Globes, as well as the other animated films. (and the Annies too of course. )

Also, wonder if any characters like Remy, Barry Benson, Big Z, or.....The Simpsons will appear at the Oscars!

[DarrenBest]

To bring this all crashing back down to the ground...

It will be a five-year race, with Ratatouille the winner.

As far as I know, there will not be 15 eligible animated films released by the end of the year, which means we'll have another three-title ballot year. Ratatouille is certainly the frontrunner, though. Still, once needs to watch out for Persepolis, given its prestige pedigree and the fact that the graphic novels its based on are some of the most widely read pieces of literature of this decade.

[ShyViolet]

What about Paprika? (AHH, I actually found out it was being shown in my area recently in a special showing, but I MISSED the date! )

There were no other viable options last year other than Over the Hedge, but the goodwill for that film had already died out by nominations time.

I think it was also because it was a "smaller" film and found it hard to compete with bigger stuff like Cars, Happy Feet and Monster House. Ditto Flushed Away. Both films were well-made and deserved at least a nom, but were "forgotten" by nomination time. Both were reviewed in the 70 and 80 percentile on RT (as were the others whow got nom'd that year.)

[DarrenBest]

What about Paprika? (AHH, I actually found out it was being shown in my area recently in a special showing, but I MISSED the date! )

Paprika was submitted last year and made the qualifying list. As we know, it was not shortlisted. Yet another example that if anime is to be embraced, it needs to have a strong fanbase within the animation branch of the Academy and not just critics.

[ShyViolet]

This is separate from the animation Oscars, since we already have a thread for that. I know it's early but I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas of what might or might not be nominated for an Oscar this coming season.


I think that, no matter what you thought of it , Spider-Man 3 deserves at least a nom for VFX (and maybe editing?).

The screenplay is pretty blah , but the film sure looked great.

[Josh]

Spider-Man 3 deserves at least a nom for VFX

I agree that Spider-Man 3 had some nice visual effects. To be honest, though, I think the Oscar nominees in that category will be Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers and The Golden Compass.

[Ben]

I don't think Spidey has a chance at anything.

One of the main complaints was that you couldn't see what was actually going on, never a good sign, and generally the reviews were poor. Then again, Superman Returns got a nod, so who knows?

I think we've had a bad year for Oscar worthy - truly classic Oscar worthy - movies, across the board.

But we've still the Awards Season to come up (the winter, when the big hopefuls come out blazing), so there is perhaps hope. However, I don't think I've seen anything this year that feels like a natural Oscar winner. The ones that have a few thumbs on them for recognition looked, to me, to have been designed from the start with that in mind, not being a decent film that got rightfully recognised.

I agree with Josh's VFX noms, but we'll have to wait on Golden Compass. I think Pirates and Transformers are shoe-ins though.

[Dacey]

"3:10 to Yuma" could get Russel Crowe another nomination. And a well-deserved one at that.

I also think that "The Bourne Ultimatum" should get a nod for Editing.