Award archives...

Post by **ELIOLI** » November 12th, 2009, 5:08 pm

Sounds crazy..but I hope something just wins over UP. Good movie, but I personally believe there were some better ones, or ones as good as it. One shouldn't just win because it has Pixar plastered to it.My opinion though. If anyone bothers to ask me why I think so, go ahea But secretly deep down inside, I am pretty sure some of you guys have thought that..ha!

American_dog_2008 · Post by **American_dog_2008** » November 12th, 2009, 6:12 pm

I think it's the best year for animation since 2006.

All those animated movies lined up for a possible Oscar looks all promising.

And a great year for European animation too!

Post by **ELIOLI** » November 12th, 2009, 8:10 pm

It has been a great year!

Post by **Randall** » November 12th, 2009, 10:02 pm

I'd be fine with Up winning, but I also loved Coraline.

Post by **Ben** » November 13th, 2009, 6:21 am

Wait 'till you see Fox.

For me so far, Up probably will lead the pack, but there are other factors. From the ones I've seen in the list:

Coraline - has a shot of being one of the five, but not a winner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - has a lot of Academy friends, though I hope it succeeds on its own merits
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - let's face it, it's a franchise picture, probably not even nominated
Monsters vs. Aliens - a franch...oops, it just felt like a franchise picture; maybe nom'd as token DWs

Of those I haven't seen yet:

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel - no chance, see Ice Age 3
Astro Boy - might squeeze in a sympathy nod, but poor US exposure leaves this stranded
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - interesting buzz on this, and a disc release at Awards time won't hurt
A Christmas Carol - motion capture; 'nuff said
9 - could be a bit too avant garde, but could secure a nom for the same reasons
Planet 51 - an outsider, but it's a commercial film and less likely
Ponyo - strong chance of nomination, even if this likely isn't Miyazaki's year
The Princess and the Frog - a nomination is a dead cert, and I'd predict a 50/50 chance against Up
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure - despite the good reviews, it's a video picture and a franchise one

Of the final few - Battle for Terra, The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer, Mary and Max, The Missing Lynx, The Secret of Kells, A Town Called Panic - I just don't think they have had the exposure, or the budgets of the big studio pictures, to compete for anything more than a cursory nod in an independents' direction with maybe just one of these being nominated as a "well done, thanks for playing" gesture.

I think it's either Up or Princess' year, though the opening up to ten pictures for the Best Picture prize could offer some surprises. I still categorically believe that a BAF will not go to a Picture winner, and they don't really have the system in place to allow for, say, Princess to win BAF and Up to win Picture. So if Pixar put Up for the Picture award, that will hurt its chances at Picture. This is not my view, just the way it will play out. Which is why Disney is getting nervous at running for that race when a BAF win is in the bag for Up or Princess.

And if they take Up out of the BAF contenders, I don't know if it stands a chance at winning Best Picture. It has all the right heart and emotion, but those live-action filmmakers and actors are a funny bunch: they just don't like the idea of a big studio financed blockbuster, and an animated one at that, taking what they think should be an award for the underdog, or the artistic. Yes, Up is art, of course, but it's a cartoon, and cartoons take away the "real" jobs from the actors, the set designers, the construction people, etc... Again, not my personal opinion, just the way it is.

And are they going to award someone sitting in a comfy Pixar recording studio or computer suite making their movie, or someone who's been out in the wind, rain and smoke battling against the odds to get their movie on screen? Peter Jackson won for LOTR:ROTK exactly for those reasons: his award was a "well done for the achievement" award, even if the film also did deserve recognition.

So the opening of entries for Best Picture may well see more commercial films getting their chance in the nominated sun. But I don't think they will generally win on average, and I still can't see an animated film breaking out of the cartoon ghetto forced upon the medium in 2001 for a good few years yet.

Post by **estefan** » November 13th, 2009, 10:48 am

Well, Academy rules state that animated films are allowed to compete for both categories (unlike the Golden Globes, who do, in fact, ghetto animation to its own category). As for whether they will over-come their own prejudice and nominate Up, I have absolutely no idea.

However, this year doesn't scream as full as Oscar contenders to me. Outside of Up in the Air, Precious, Nine, Invictus and maybe The Lovely Bones, not many films screams out "Oscar" and other ones that do seem to end up bombing (Amelia, for example).

Post by **EricJ** » November 13th, 2009, 11:17 am

Ben wrote:Wait 'till you see Fox.

Yeah, must be pretty good, because all the trailers I've seen so far seemed to give us nothing but the stanadard old default Dr.-Seuss-movie "Children's-book characters acting like neurotic yuppie adults" gags, yuk yuk.
Which is about what you'd EXPECT from a slumming mainstream director who hasn't done an animated children's feature in his life, and barely did this one...In the same year as another Bob Z. movie.

(And yes, I'm going to continue to be snarky about starry-eyed "It's going to be nominated because the stop-motion is so neato and it has a famous director!" buzzers, until someone can convince me the darn thing is actually better than it looks.

)

Coraline - has a shot of being one of the five, but not a winner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - has a lot of Academy friends, though I hope it succeeds on its own merits
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - let's face it, it's a franchise picture, probably not even nominated
Monsters vs. Aliens - a franch...oops, it just felt like a franchise picture; maybe nom'd as token DWs

Like Jack Black joked last year, the category only pretends to give non-Pixar movies a chance.

(The only years a non-Pixar movie won were '01 when we were all hypnotized by Shrek1, '02 and '05, when they didn't produce anything, and '06 when we were all cruelly beating up on "Cars".)

It's pretty much settled down into:
Three noms: Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks (or Miscellaneous/Art if no Disney that year)
Five noms: Pixar, 2 Disney (incl. Ghibli/etc. or overlap with Pixar), 1 Fox/Sony, 2 Misc./Art

Up and P&F are anchors with their invitations already written, Ponyo gets to fill both 2nd Disney and Art, and Coraline fills the other Art slot.
As for the Other Big-Studio Film, Just to Be Polite To the Other Studios, you could pretty much throw Ice Age and Monsters in there interchangeably, as it's only a pity-date anyway.

Post by **Ben** » November 13th, 2009, 1:13 pm

So...pretty much what I'd already written, then.

I agree with you on Fox...I didn't like the look either, but when you see it, it somehow magically all works. Even now looking at the stills I get a slightly "ugly" sense to it. But when the film is rolling, all that goes away. For me - and a lot of other people too it seems - at least.

Post by **EricJ** » November 13th, 2009, 1:48 pm

Ben wrote:I agree with you on Fox...I didn't like the look either, but when you see it, it somehow magically all works. Even now looking at the stills I get a slightly "ugly" sense to it. But when the film is rolling, all that goes away. For me - and a lot of other people too it seems - at least.

No, the animation I can handle (as it already reminds me of the Selick-like "art" indie stop-motion from the old BBC "Grim Tales" series)--
It's just the original Roald Dahl tall-tale of good characters and beastly nasties now being flattened by Wes "Inscrutable Lack of Mainstream Appeal" Anderson into George Clooney acting like a mid-life crisis executive, and his animal pals being like "Office" co-workers...only they're animals, get it?
Again, take away the mock-Selick wire-and-fur figures, and seems like you've got some Sony or Fox/BlueSky "Horton Hears a Who" studio-adult carpetbagger that doesn't know how to hit within a country mile of what appeals to real flesh-and-blood kids.

If it's just badly marketed by the studio, and the real movie has some actual sense of Dahl that can put it up with Matilda, Willy Wonka or even Chitty/Bang (and not just some cheap studio-generated pretender in borrowed clothes like "James & the Giant Peach"), I'll give it more than a rent--
The review keeps talking about the animation, and, umm, yeah, but I'm just not as universally blinded by animation style as some.

Post by **Meg** » November 13th, 2009, 5:12 pm

Has anyone else here seen The Secret of Kells? They had a screening of the film here at SCAD a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it, it's a beautiful and unique movie that's definitely worth watching.

Also, very interested in this year's Oscar awards - there's been many great animated films that have been released this year, and close calls are always more exciting to pay attention to.

Post by **Ben** » November 13th, 2009, 5:17 pm

EricJ wrote:The review keeps talking about the animation, and, umm, yeah, but I'm just not as universally blinded by animation style as some.

Well, I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean by that, but someone truly has, um..."issues".

Maybe, Eric, you should take a break from our forum for a while, until you calm down and can look at things with some kind of perspective...

Post by **estefan** » November 21st, 2009, 8:36 am

The Academy have now announced the ten finalists in the best animated short film category:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/20/aca ... ontenders/

It's excellent to see another Cordell Baker film in the running. If "Runaway" even close to as good as "The Cat Came Back", I would love to see it make it in.

And though I didn't think it was quite on the same level of brilliance as The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and Were-Rabbit, I still think A Matter of Loaf and Death is going to win this in the end.

Wow, Nick Park with five Oscars? Not even Chuck Jones got to that point (though, in his defense, the Academy used to give the animated short award to the producer for some reason. That's why Walt Disney had over twenty of those statues in his office).

Post by **estefan** » January 5th, 2010, 3:33 pm

I'm starting to think that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs might be taking Ponyo's spot at the Oscars.

What does Ponyo have to do to get nominated around here? First, the Annie Awards snub (though they were nice enough to give Miyazaki a directing nomination), then the Globes and now the Producer's Guild. But, it's always nice to see The Princess and the Frog show up. Still, poor Ponyo, which I actually liked more than Up, to be honest.

Post by **Josh** » January 5th, 2010, 3:49 pm

Considering the PGA nominations, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs may not be nominated either, with 9 taking its place. (Despite the PGA snub, though, I still think Cloudy will be nominated for an Oscar.)

Post by **ELIOLI** » January 5th, 2010, 3:57 pm

I would rather have an Oscar I suppose. Well, it's an honor with either award.