Animated Film Grabs Best-Picture

[BluLobsta]

Well...that could quite possibly be the headline come the morning after the 82nd Academy Awards this year. Given the quality and sheer number of choices that animated films offer this year, it's quite possible. Could Pixar's "Up" walk away with a Best Picture Oscar, a first for an animated film? Could it also make history by picking up a double nomination, Best Animated Feature and Best Picture? Twenty animated films have been submitted to the Academy this year, opening up the possibility of qualifying sixteen releases, granting five slots for nomination, increasing the likelihood of some fantastic competition in the genre. Every major studio besides Warner has an offering this year. Sony is in there with "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs", Focus with "Coraline" and "9". There's even a classic hand-drawn piece, "The Princess and The Frog" thrown in for good measure, as well as a Japanese animated film "Ponyo". Wow. Well, the eligibility list will be announced in the next few days, so we'll have a better idea what surprises Oscar night holds in store. Do you think an animated film is capable of winning Best Picture?

[MOONPHASE]

I want Ponyo to win

[P@t_Mtl]

I wonder why they would, afterall a category was specialy created for them a few years back.

So if a animated movie can be in the regular movie Best Picture category, why not have a regular movie in the best Animated Picture category? Why bother setting up categories if it's going to work like that?

[OrlandoEastwood]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

I want Ponyo to win

I would too, but I doubt it.

[groove93]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

I wonder why they would, afterall a category was specialy created for them a few years back.

So if a animated movie can be in the regular movie Best Picture category, why not have a regular movie in the best Animated Picture category? Why bother setting up categories if it's going to work like that?

While you have a valid argument, you can't deny some of these animated films being just as good or even better than standard films during a given year. "Up" for example, when I took my son to see this in the theaters, I still can't remember seeing such a wide demographic of people in the seats. The movie touched everyone for one reason or the other. IMO it deserves to be respected not only as an animated film, but a great movie as a whole. Pixar is the gold standard for these types of movies.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by groove93

While you have a valid argument, you can't deny some of these animated films being just as good or even better than standard films during a given year. "Up" for example, when I took my son to see this in the theaters, I still can't remember seeing such a wide demographic of people in the seats. The movie touched everyone for one reason or the other. IMO it deserves to be respected not only as an animated film, but a great movie as a whole. Pixar is the gold standard for these types of movies.

Oh no argument from me on this. Some recent animated movies (and I am thinking PIXAR here like you and so many others I am sure) have put too shame many movies in the last decade. But it come's down to what I said, why have categories then? Let's have them all in one category, Best Picture and that is it. They are all movies and judge them all on that fact alone. The reason they setup categories is that so many feel a animated movie should not be look upon in the same fashion as a "real movie". The real movies required more work, have actors and directors, are more difficult to setup for cinematography and scripts.....you get the picture. They will argue to their last breath that a animation movie will never be fit to lick the boots of a real movie.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

So if a animated movie can be in the regular movie Best Picture category, why not have a regular movie in the best Animated Picture category? Why bother setting up categories if it's going to work like that?

Well, y'see, that was just it:
They originally created the Animated category literally just to SHUT UP all those gushy LA voters who wanted another Disney movie to be nominated for Picture (just like Beauty/Beast, wasn't that neato, wasn't it, wasn't it, huh?), who kept trying to draft "Aladdin" and "Lion King" for the next year's competitions.
When they tried twice as hard to draft "Toy Story 2"...well, they had a point there. Which is why the Academy felt "Giving the babies their bottle" at least had some award merit.
(As for B&B, I remember reading from one Foreign committee member, back when anime fans were pressuring them to let "Princess Mononoke" make the Foreign cut, that the Academy had had quite enough of major-nominating animated Disney for the moment, thank you very much, after the Mouse's showboat spotlight-grabbing for their one nomination, which had essentially been an accidental end-of-the-year fluke to begin with.)

And since you can't keep a Gushy LA Voter down, the West Coasters have been trying for the past eight years to escape their "ghetto" and say "Well, just 'cause it's Animated, doesn't mean you couldn't nominate it for BOTH, couldja? "
Normally, they'd be slapped back down, but...things have changed a bit since then: It's just beginning to dawn on the Academy that it's been the nominees that have been the "mysterious" force driving down the ratings; nobody wants another "Crash" or "Slumdog", and right now, a Pixar movie being briefly in the top Five doesn't seem like such a darn bad idea at that. Just to break up the danged monotony.

And this year's Ten Picture Nominee stunt has the battle-cry of "Remember Wall-E!" rebelliously spray-painted all over it, and "Up"'s invitations have practically already been printed.

[Foggy]

I have a bet going with a friend that up will be nominated for best film next year, I think the odds are playing in my court also, as 10 noms mean more room, and I think the oscars will try to suprise us this year, so I believe that they will look at pixars work and consider it as a piece of higher calibre work, therefore not making the awards predictable, and to be honest, the best animated film awards are a joke because of pixar.

but obviously the one thing you need to consider are the academys invisible rule book, and wether or not they have the balls to break them.

[GLaDOS]

Originally Posted by bdlover

I am hoping the same here, however, It would be very difficult to pull it off.

However, it IS a Hayao Miyazaki film. It's still a strong contender. However, I think UP has more momentum with the critics than Ponyo, no offense, MOON.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Foggy

I have a bet going with a friend that up will be nominated for best film next year, I think the odds are playing in my court also, as 10 noms mean more room

Again, it's not a "bet", since the motivation is clear up front:
So many Academy members this year seem to be ruing whatever motivation made them pass up Wall-E for Picture last year--in addition to their own finally boiling frustration over the last five years' winnners--they are pulling out literally EVERY SINGLE RULE IN THE BOOK that will get a Pixar film into the Picture noms this year.
And even if they know it can't be Wall-E this year, then Up is at least their plausible excuse, but it is an organized movement on the part of the Academy, to both show penitence and throw a deliberate pipebomb into the system:
This year's entire contest is being custom designed on a silver platter for ONE nominee, and they don't even know what the other nine are at this point...It would have to be a pretty good film for them to even care.

The best animated film awards are a joke because of pixar.

Last year's ceremony gave us the two jokes that let you know for certain they're in a mood to start breaking up the monotony:
One was "I haven't seen The Reader" (looks like Miramax/Weinsteins is going to be off their A-list again, and they may stop cribbing the Golden Globes a little less blindly), and the other was Jack Black betting against his own Dreamworks movies.
"It's still an honor to be nominated" isn't always true for some recipients.

[RBBrittain]

It's been obvious from the beginning that one of the motivations behind going to 10 nominees was to get around the folks who shut WALL-E out of the race last year. Not only do WALL-E and Up appeal to animation fans, but they also appeal to silent-film aficionados for their lengthy dialog-free sequences--possibly the longest such sequences in Hollywood films since the days of Charlie Chaplin. (Not to mention that the writing branch has always loved Pixar.)

That, and with one major critic (Time's Richard Corliss) putting out a top-10 movie list (as part of the magazine's Top 10 Everything of 2009 list) in which his top THREE films are all animated (The Princess and the Frog, Up, and Fantastic Mr. Fox), the Academy will lose credibility if they don't nominate at least one animated film, probably Up--though PATF may have a shot due to Academy old-timers nostalgic for old-school Disney animation (like Beauty and the Beast, the only one to do it so far).

Ponyo doesn't have a chance at a Best Picture nom, but with five slots in Animated Feature Film it's a shoo-in for one of the five, especially since the only time that's happened before was 2002, when Spirited Away won. Ever since the Academy announced sufficient submissions for 5 nominees, nearly everyone has had Up, PATF & Ponyo written in as nominees; Disney also had three noms in 2002 (Spirited Away, Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet), even though there was no Pixar film that year--and Treasure Planet was such a bomb that it helped lead to Disney abandoning 2D until John Lasseter insisted on bringing it back for PATF.

An animated film actually WINNING Best Picture? That's another question altogether; I doubt it will happen this year. More than likely, not only would both Up & PATF have to be nommed, but they'd also need acting noms for their leads (Ed Asner & Anika Noni Rose) to have much of a chance; though it appears voiceover roles CAN be nommed for acting (they appear as actors on the Academy's official "Reminder List" each year), I doubt Disney will even seek those (unlike Robin Williams in Aladdin).

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

I wonder why they would, afterall a category was specialy created for them a few years back.

So if a animated movie can be in the regular movie Best Picture category, why not have a regular movie in the best Animated Picture category? Why bother setting up categories if it's going to work like that?

I usually agree with you, but I have to disagree here. Just because a film falls into the animated, foreign film, or documentary category doesn't mean it should be excluded from best overall picture. If that was the case, then there should be categories for best comedy, best action movie, etc. and those films shouldn't be allowed to win best picture. If a film is the best overall picture, it's the best overall picture, regardless of whether there are other categories for it. I'm not sure what the issue is.

For instance, The Lives of Others won best foreign film and I think it should have won best picture too. Should it have been excluded from that category just because it was the best foreign film? No, and its exclusion was not due to that.

As for this year, I find it highly unlikely that an animated film will win. That's not to say that there aren't deserving ones. There are, especially in a year as weak as this on great films. But I just don't see them giving it to one.

[Foggy]

I hope they do, I have a bet that it will get nominated for best picture

[toef]

Originally Posted by RBBrittain

It's been obvious from the beginning that one of the motivations behind going to 10 nominees was to get around the folks who shut WALL-E out of the race last year. Not only do WALL-E and Up appeal to animation fans, but they also appeal to silent-film aficionados for their lengthy dialog-free sequences--possibly the longest such sequences in Hollywood films since the days of Charlie Chaplin. (Not to mention that the writing branch has always loved Pixar.)

That, and with one major critic (Time's Richard Corliss) putting out a top-10 movie list (as part of the magazine's Top 10 Everything of 2009 list) in which his top THREE films are all animated (The Princess and the Frog, Up, and Fantastic Mr. Fox), the Academy will lose credibility if they don't nominate at least one animated film, probably Up--though PATF may have a shot due to Academy old-timers nostalgic for old-school Disney animation (like Beauty and the Beast, the only one to do it so far).

I don't get the feeling that as many people consider Up a Best Picture kind of movie, as did Wall-E last year. I'm sure they exist, but maybe the difference is due to the 10 nominations, so people expect it to get nominated anyway, and don't have to get excited.

But I wouldn't use Beauty and the Beast as an example of why PatF might get nominated because the Best Animated Feature category only started in 2001, so it's not like Beauty and the Beast had an alternate award to be nominated for. And I think it's nomination has more to do with Disney's campaigning for it (combined with the weak year of movies), than from the voters liking Disney animation.

I'm not sure the Academy is worried about losing credibility for disagreeing with a Time magazine critic, especially if they think their current award set-up is fine (essentially having a Best Picture for animated movies, and a Best Picture for non-animated movies).

If you let an animated movie into the Best Picture category, do you also let documentaries, or foreign films in? If Up is nominated for Best Picture, can it also be nominated for Best Animated Feature? If not, how can the winner of that category really be the best?

If they wanted to make drastic changes, I imagine they could make a Best Picture category for each genre, and then take the winners of each, and have them square off in an overall Best Picture category. But that would be difficult to do because in order for the voters to vote on that Best Picture category, they'd have to know the winners of all the others, and the results are bound to be leaked. If people know the winners ahead of time, they won't bother watching, which is what the Academy is trying to fight by expanding to 10 nominations for BP.

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by toefer

I don't get the feeling that as many people consider Up a Best Picture kind of movie, as did Wall-E last year. I'm sure they exist, but maybe the difference is due to the 10 nominations, so people expect it to get nominated anyway, and don't have to get excited.

But I wouldn't use Beauty and the Beast as an example of why PatF might get nominated because the Best Animated Feature category only started in 2001, so it's not like Beauty and the Beast had an alternate award to be nominated for. And I think it's nomination has more to do with Disney's campaigning for it (combined with the weak year of movies), than from the voters liking Disney animation.

I'm not sure the Academy is worried about losing credibility for disagreeing with a Time magazine critic, especially if they think their current award set-up is fine (essentially having a Best Picture for animated movies, and a Best Picture for non-animated movies).

If you let an animated movie into the Best Picture category, do you also let documentaries, or foreign films in? If Up is nominated for Best Picture, can it also be nominated for Best Animated Feature? If not, how can the winner of that category really be the best?

If they wanted to make drastic changes, I imagine they could make a Best Picture category for each genre, and then take the winners of each, and have them square off in an overall Best Picture category. But that would be difficult to do because in order for the voters to vote on that Best Picture category, they'd have to know the winners of all the others, and the results are bound to be leaked. If people know the winners ahead of time, they won't bother watching, which is what the Academy is trying to fight by expanding to 10 nominations for BP.

In 2001, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won best foreign film and was nominated for best picture. The only negative of that is that you know who won the best foreign film category before the award is even given out.

I really have no idea why ppl think this is such a big deal?

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

I usually agree with you, but I have to disagree here. Just because a film falls into the animated, foreign film, or documentary category doesn't mean it should be excluded from best overall picture. If that was the case, then there should be categories for best comedy, best action movie, etc. and those films shouldn't be allowed to win best picture. If a film is the best overall picture, it's the best overall picture, regardless of whether there are other categories for it. I'm not sure what the issue is.

For instance, The Lives of Others won best foreign film and I think it should have won best picture too. Should it have been excluded from that category just because it was the best foreign film? No, and its exclusion was not due to that.

As for this year, I find it highly unlikely that an animated film will win. That's not to say that there aren't deserving ones. There are, especially in a year as weak as this on great films. But I just don't see them giving it to one.

I am just thinking, why any categories, there is no need for them if you will start shuffling movies around. If Up is good enough as a movie to be think in terms of best picture then so be it and don't have a special category for animated features. I am just don't see the need for a animated category. I know why it was created, because of Beauty & The Beast and more because of what PIXAR as been doing in the last 20 years, creating animated movies that are very often way superior then the best pictures send out by the rest of Hollywood. If Up deserve to be a best picture movie, then place it there and kick out one of the others that don't belong there in their opinion.

As for actualy giving best picture to an animated movie, I think you are right, it won't happen. Probably not anytime soon. I think many years will have to past before many voters start to realize that just because it's an animated movie it does not mean there is less work into it or less deserving. Maybe in a decade when some who have now grow up as the PIXAR generation and know just how much talent and work goes into making some of these movies and are in a position to make it happen.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by toefer

...If you let an animated movie into the Best Picture category, do you also let documentaries, or foreign films in? If Up is nominated for Best Picture, can it also be nominated for Best Animated Feature? If not, how can the winner of that category really be the best?...

Sony are campaigning to get This is it a best picture nomination

[dvd_mazter]

If Up wins...I would be so happy, Pixar deserves that Best Picture Award finally

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Sony are campaigning to get This is it a best picture nomination

Interesting but no chance of it happening.

[zombie63]

As good as Up is I still think it will take something extra special to pull the best picture oscar .