Originally Posted By Anatole69 ^^ What if something like Maus were made into a movie, and it truly was the best picture of the year. I don't see that argument holding water... just in the same way Maus was read by people who would never read comic books up until that point, or "Jimmy Corrigan" won a prestigious British award for best novel of the year, or Watchmen was named one of the 50 best novels of the 20th Century by Time magazine... never say never. - Anatole
Originally Posted By u k fan Every article I've seen seems to have some mention of Disney/Pixar really wanting to win Best Picture. If I were voter I may well think one of two things: 1)Why vote for it for Best Animated Feature if the makers don't want it? 2)Great, I'll vote for it for Best Picture (which IMHO it has zero chance of getting) and I'll vote for Movie X for Best Animated Feature. In either scenario I believe it will come out empty handed. I'm not saying they can't campaign for whatever they like (Where's the campaign for Timothy Dalton for best supporting actor?), I just don't think they'll get it and they're appearing churlish!!!
Originally Posted By mawnck >>What if something like Maus were made into a movie, and it truly was the best picture of the year.<< The Academy couldn't care less. If it's animated, it's cabbage. People who read Maus or make lists for Time do not make live action movies for a living. The Oscar voters do. They don't LOSE money when an animated feature thrashes its live action competition. The Oscar voters do. So you can go ahead and say never. Spirited Away WAS the best movie of 2001, and it didn't even get a nomination. They generously upped the best picture nominees to 10 movies so you could get your token little animated film in there, now quit being so greedy.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Why vote for it for Best Animated Feature if the makers don't want it?<< I don't think real people think like that, at least not most of them. They'll look at the list of 3 films and pick the one they think is the best. And the one most people picked? That'll win. Anyway, the Academy members' KIDS are the ones really casting the votes in the animated feature category. I'm SURE they won't care what the makers want. I wonder if this whole Best Picture full court press is another example of PIXAR pitching a preemptive fit because they're afraid Dragon, or -gasp- Tangled might get Best Animated Feature. Cause I'd be afraid of that if I were them.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 ^^ You missed my point. Those comic books changed peoples minds in the same way an animated feature might. People read Maus who would never read comic books, and it was taught in college classes by professors who may have thought they would never use comic books as a text book. And Jimmy Corrigan won the Guardian first book award, the first time a graphic novel won an major UK literary prize, and the argument could also be made that by giving it to a comic book, business was taken away from real writing, but it still won the award. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I like Spirited Away, but I don't feel it's better than Amelie, Ghost World, The Fellowship of the Ring, Metropolis (by Rintaro), Moulin Rouge or Waking Life, films that I also enjoyed from that same year. - Anatole
Originally Posted By mawnck >>You missed my point. Those comic books changed peoples minds in the same way an animated feature might. << No, I got your point. I just think it's not applicable to Best Picture, for the reasons I stated. No movie is going to be good enough to make Academy voters forget where their paychecks come from. Moulin Rouge and Waking Life better than Spirited Away? SERIOUSLY? ;-)
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Yes, I really like them. I like Spirited Away, but I don't see it as any better than those movies.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Have you seen Metropolis? It's an interesting anime and well worth watching if you haven't seen it yet. - Anatole
Originally Posted By cheesybaby Anatole - the Academy doesn't care about comic books. Who is the Academy? Who are these people that vote for the Oscars? The largest group of them are actors. Live-action actors. They live and breathe acting, the hang out with and marry other actors, their whole lives are about getting acting jobs. They are never going to vote for animators over other actors. They don't know any animators and they sure don't understand what they do.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 It doesn't matter. Actors still do the voices, and if a film comes along that is strong enough, it will sway them in the same way a series of masterpieces swayed people to rethinking their opinions of comic books in the 1990's. For many people Maus was the one that got them reading their first comic book because it meant they were learning about the holocaust, so for them it was "different" than reading a superhero comic book. I suspect for animated movies it will be the same, it may take a series of films to change minds, or it may take one unique one about a special topic that triggers a lot of emotion. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Ursula <<<Who is the Academy? Who are these people that vote for the Oscars? The largest group of them are actors. Live-action actors. They live and breathe acting, the hang out with and marry other actors, their whole lives are about getting acting jobs. They are never going to vote for animators over other actors. They don't know any animators and they sure don't understand what they do.>>> Not true exactly. Actors do make those voices one hears in animated features. You'd be surprised how much they know and enjoy about the craft.
Originally Posted By mawnck Zowie ... The Illusionist is REALLY good. If you held a gun to my head, I'd now go with: Toy Story 3 How To Train Your Dragon The Illusionist but since you aren't close enough to my head to get a clean shot, I officially give up. Tangled and (I guess) Megamind could just as easily get in, depending on what kind of mood the nominating committee is in that day. The only thing I'm pretty darn sure of is that TS3 has its slot - and the win - locked up. Deserving or not. And I hope this year will FINALLY make TPTB at the Academy realize that the 15/16 rule is DUMB DUMB DUMB. Once again this year we lost two nomination slots just because one of the exactly 16 submissions (Yogi Bear) had just a tad too much live action according to the Academy's official Longines stopwatch jockey. Besides, when was the last time there WEREN'T at least 5 worthy nominees in this category? Meanwhile, I have four movies to go before I can officially make my annual declaration of being one of those no-life insufferable know-it-alls who has seen the whole dang list.
Originally Posted By Christi22222 ^^^^you're killing me! lol! I am so excited to "know" one of those "no-life insufferable know-it-alls who has seen the whole dang list." Excellent for good conversation.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Nominations should be Ts3 Despicable Me Dragons My vote would go to Despicable Me. by far the most entertaining and emotionally touching film, without resorting to the pounds and pounds of melodrama that TS3 had.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>by far the most entertaining and emotionally touching film, without resorting to the pounds and pounds of melodrama<< Naah. It's too hokey (pun not intended), and the animation and art direction are just average. Besides, the Academy just isn't into the cute kid thing (see also: Monsters Inc.). Megamind has a better shot. Have you seen The Illusionist? If you're going for emotionally touching without the melodrama, then that's your movie. And it's hand-drawn.
Originally Posted By lesmisfan See for me even though I did enjoy Despicable me it just didn't tug on my heartstrings the way Toy Story 3 did and because of that, TS3 is my number one pick. I think megamind does have a shot it was very well concieved and brilliantly written with hilerious dialogue. However I can see Tangled, which to me was the suprise hit so far being nominated before megamind, it was funny, emotional and visually stunning!
Originally Posted By mawnck Whoa ... just saw The Dreams of Jinsha (the one I thought I had missed in post 1). It's an (allegedly) big-budget Chinese attempt to make a sort of Studio Ghibli movie. Modern teenage boy gets transported back 3000 years and finds a cute princess girl (is there any other kind?) living in a mystical ancient civilization that's being threatened by an evil something-or-other. They never really explain what it is, but you know it's bad because it kills their magical giant talking elephant. (Oops - that was a spoiler, wasn't it.) It has good-looking, highly detailed artwork with bright gaudy colors, animation quality on par with your typical Anime feature (albeit a bit rough around the edges), and a script so staggeringly inept that it's actually quite entertaining. THAT'S what was missing this year ... fun BAD ones. Suffice to say that Rick Ross isn't losing any sleep over this one.
Originally Posted By mawnck Oh goody ... a trailer! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi3n_TF-UQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...3n_TF-UQ</a> It spoils the entire movie. If such is possible. While finding that trailer, I made the disquieting discovery that this thing was released in China in 3D.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That looked...not so good. At least the backgrounds were pretty. I had a tough time sitting through the 3 minute trailer, so I can't imagine how you did it for the entire film! It's interesting that animated films don't have the same restrictions as the Foreign Language category. One of these days, there will be a really really amazing foreign language animated film that gets a nomination for Best Feature, and the Oscar voters' world will come crumbling to an end, when none of their meaningless rules make sense any more. It really doesn't surprise me that it was in 3D. I went to the Shanghai Expo this summer, and there were several pavilions that featured 3D films. They were all about the things that Fozzy Bear would call "cheap 3D tricks!", yet the crowds went insane for it. From the reactions, I don't think they had ever seen a 3D film before. Now that they're getting the technology, it seems like they're using it for everything, no matter how good or bad it may be. The same thing happened a few years ago in the US (Shark Boy and Lava Girl? Really?), even with the benefit of having 50 years of 3D films being around in select markets.
