The state and future of animation

[Ben]

…will more non-Disney animated films get live-action remakes?

Disney's own Togo was very little more than a live remake of Amblin's Balto, at the end of the day.

[GeffreyDrogon]

…will more non-Disney animated films get live-action remakes?

Disney's own Togo was very little more than a live remake of Amblin's Balto, at the end of the day.

Albeit a realistic one about one of the actual dogs who participated in the Serum Run to Nome, a dog who really should've gotten more credit than Balto.

[Ben]

Xactly. Balto obviously gets the credit as he was lead dog on the final leg, so he was in the right place at the right time for photo ops and newspaper ink, but the film Togo reminds us that this was a run of, actually, many teams. I wouldn’t say, however, that Togo is a particularly "realistic" film, outside of being ostensibly live-action, since it hues pretty closely to typical "dogs in the wilderness" movie tropes and features a number of certainly non-realistic sequences written purely for excitement's sake. Funnily enough, we are again running it for our movie night crowd this Saturday, after they enjoyed the similar, albeit even more fictional, Call Of The Wild a couple of weeks back.

[GeffreyDrogon]

After the success and critical acclaim of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, is the chance for Shrek 5 more likely now?

[Ben]

Yes, but not as much as Puss III.

[GeffreyDrogon]

I just don't understand all the hype that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is getting.

The Shrek movies never were that great to begin with, and I feel like the Oscars only nominated The Last Wish because it was a Shrek spinoff that looks like Spider-Verse.

It's funny when the Oscars were once so much about representation, but snubbed Strange World. You know that they nominated Ferdinand only because it was directed by a Latino.

If the Oscars cared about diversity, Strange World would've won Best Animated Feature instead of Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio and Bros Best Picture instead of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

[Ben]

Perhaps…if they’d been any good.

I think Puss In Boots' hype train left the station four months ago! Shrek 2 is near genius, but Last Wish did not get nom'd because it looked like Spidey. Apparently it has a great script, and I look forward to running it in a couple of weeks to find out for myself.

Ferdinand was no doubt nominated because it was a solid, honest to goodness slightly old-fashioned breath of fresh air animated movie in a year of otherwise quite brash films. It’s a sweet and underestimated movie that does what it does well, and a reminder of how great Blue Sky could be.

There’s no way Strange World would or could have won, in almost any year. It wasnt a "bad" movie, but wasn’t focused or strong enough and didn’t get enough exposure, even going early to D+, where its reputation as a misfire had already spread. As much as I didn’t like it, del Toro's Pinocchio had the benefit of a *lot* of exposure, intricate handcrafted technique (always an Academy favorite) and a recognisable one-of-their-own name on the ballot.

Bros was not nominated, so obviously didn’t have a chance. I’ve already espoused the excellent qualities of Everything Everywhere elsewhere on this site, and it was the deserved winner, not least for the vast diversity you say you want the Academy to show. That film has diversity to spare!

[Daniel]

You know that they nominated Ferdinand only because it was directed by a Latino.

Carlos Saldanha is Brazilian.

[GeffreyDrogon]

It still amazes me that a Shrek spinoff gets nominated instead of Phil Tippett's Mad God.

[Ben]

Mad Dog was not eligible and, even if it had been, it does not have enough appeal to have won. Not sure why you would be amazed at a Shrek spin-off being nom'd: pretty much a certainty in an American animation awards category for the mainest of mainstream animated films to be represented, as I’m sure you really do know. Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and whatever major releases get enough promo push are all but guaranteed a place in the final picks. I was surprised Bad Guys was not in there, but again, apparently Last Wish has a great script, got a lot of promotion, and franchise recognition.

[GeffreyDrogon]

I'm just amazed that a franchise like Shrek produced a film that is better than many other animated films nowadays, even better than most of Disney and Pixar's current output.

[Farerb]

I thought it was just fine, nothing special.

[Farerb]

Illumination's movies are terrible, yet they keep on succeeding. Unfortunately I predict that other studios will stop putting effort in them and all movies will be like Illumination's.

[EricJ]

Warner only does animation when it remembers to, Disney treats Fox's animation like a senile grandparent, Sony's long since packed Dracula off to streaming, and DreamWorks is now one of Universal's labels.

It's not that Universal will "conquer" third-party non-D/P CGI, they'll just be the only studio who got it to move on from the early 10's.

[Ben]

Disney still even bother with (Fox) 20th Century animation?