“Brave,” “Paperman” win the 2013 animation Oscars

Feb 262013
 

BraveA bit late, but thought I’d note that this year’s Academy Award animation winners are:

  • Animated Feature Film: “Brave” by Pixar.
  • Animated Short Film: “Paperman” by Disney.

Looks like I guessed right (as vague as my guesses were), and it’s a sweep for Disney this year. This year also marks a strong showing for women in animation, between “Brave” being Pixar’s first film with a female lead and “Paperman” produced by a woman named Kristina Reed.

The low point of the evening, of course, was Seth MacFarlane hosting the ceremonies. While I opted to watch “The Amazing Race” instead of the Oscars, I did keep up on goings-on via Twitter, and wasn’t pleased with what I read. Between MacFarlane’s usual bottom-feeding humor and “The Onion”‘s inappropriate tweet about one of the child actresses, this must easily be one of the worst Oscar ceremonies I can recall. Maybe next year the Academy should offer this year’s Golden Globes hosts (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who I heard were quite popular) twice whatever the Globes-folks paid them to host. That, or just stick with Billy Crystal.

The 2013 Oscar animation nominations

Jan 112013
 

Bugs Bunny with his OscarThis year’s Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday. For animation, the nominees (and my guesses who’ll win) are below:

Animated Feature Film

  • Brave
  • Frankenweenie
  • ParaNorman
  • The Pirates! Band of Misfits
  • Wreck-It Ralph

Will win: A tough one. I’ll go with “Brave” (it’s Pixar), “Ralph” (it’s Pixar-like), or “Frankenweenie” (by a well-known-to-Hollywood-types live-action director). Going against my choices: “Brave” stars female protagonists (Hollywood sexism), “Ralph” is about video games (too low brow and/or the “competition” media-wise to movies), and “Frankenweenie” might be too odd for Hollywood, though per “The Artist,” they’re OK with black-and-white.

Should win: “Brave” or “Ralph.”

Animated Short Film

  • Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
  • Paperman
  • Adam and Dog
  • Fresh Guacamole
  • Head Over Heels

Will win: Not sure, only having seen “Paperman.” It won’t be Maggie’s short—it’s A) based on a TV property, and B) it’s actually comedic; unlike Bugs Bunny’s day when “Knighty Knight Bugs” won, the Oscar folk nowadays seem allergic to comedies for animated shorts, instead favoring arthouse-type fare. Thus I’ll assume it’ll be one of the other four nominees, though given “Paperman” is from Disney, it might be too mainstream.

Should win: Again, can’t really say, though I did enjoy “Paperman.”

This year’s awards are being hosted by Seth MacFarlane of “Family Guy” fame, which removes any interest in my watching this year. Well, even moreso than usual. Of late, I’ve only flipped to the Oscars to see the animation and best picture categories before changing channel back to something else, so I suppose it doesn’t matter. Besides, I have Twitter and YouTube in case something goofy or interesting happens…

2012 Academy Award animation winners

Feb 272012
 

Bugs Bunny's Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject in 1958 (picture from "Tiny Toon Adventures")On Sunday night, the winners for the two top Academy Awards animation categories were announced…

Best Animated Picture: Rango

Best Animated Short: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

My previous prediction was right for animated picture.

No, I didn’t sit through the Oscars…the few minutes I did see were awful enough (Billy Crystal’s Sammy Davis Jr. routine…ugh), plus “The Amazing Race” was on. Thank goodness for Twitter.

And yes, it looks like Pixar’s been completely shut out this year. Maybe they’ll fare better next year with the (inevitable) nomination of “Brave,” a film that doesn’t scream “merchandising” like “Cars 2″ does.

2012 Oscar nominations announced for best animated feature, short subject

Jan 242012
 

Bugs Bunny's Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject in 1958 (picture from "Tiny Toon Adventures")The nominees for this year’s Academy Awards were announced today. Here’s the nominees for Best Animated Feature:

  • A Cat in Paris
  • Chico and Rita
  • Kung Fu Panda 2
  • Puss in Boots
  • Rango

Looks like Disney and Pixar (despite “Winnie the Pooh”) got completely snubbed. Guess even Hollywood award voters aren’t tunnel-visioned enough to vote for “Cars 2.” At least Pixar has a (non-Cars-related) short up for the best animated short category; the nominees there consist of:

  • A Morning Stroll
  • Dimanche/Sunday (a National Film Board of Canada short)
  • La Luna (Pixar’s entry)
  • The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
  • Wild Life (another NFB of Canada short)

A strong showing this year from our northern neighbor.

My guesses for animated feature:

  • Will win: Rango or Puss in Boots.
  • Should win: Not seen any of the nominees, so can’t say. Would be nice to see them show imagination and not pick either of the two sequels/prequels (Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 2).

As for animated short, can’t really say, though the Oscar voters seem more willing to vote for “arthouse” fare in the short category than the feature one, so this might be a year without anything from Pixar winning.

2011 Oscar animation nominees

Jan 252011
 

Here’s a list of the nominees for this year’s Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short Subject:

Best Animated Feature

  • “How to Train Your Dragon” (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois)
  • “The Illusionist” (Sylvain Chomet)
  • “Toy Story 3” (Lee Unkric)

Will win: “Toy Story 3.”
Should win: Not seen “Dragon” or “Illusionist,” so can’t say.

Best Animated Short Film

  • “Day & Night” (Teddy Newton)
  • “The Gruffalo” (Jakob Schuh and Max Lang)
  • “Let’s Pollute” (Geefwee Boedoe)
  • “The Lost Thing” (Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann)
  • “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” (Bastien Dubois)

Will win: My guess is “Day & Night.”
Should win: Not sure, only having seen “Day & Night.”

In addition, “Toy Story 3″ is one of the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Though after “Brokeback Mountain” got snubbed in favor of the likes of “Crash,” I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over the Academy’s choice in this category. I also guarantee the winner won’t be a “lowly cartoon,” especially with tough competition from “The Social Network,” “Black Swan” and “The King’s Speech.”

A full list of nominees is available here: http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/83/nominees.html

2010 Oscar nominations: “Up” and “Avatar” for best picture?!

Feb 032010
 
Today, the nominations for the Oscars were announced. In a surprise, Pixar’s “Up” has not only been nominated for best animated feature, but also for best picture. *Not* surprising, of course, is “Avatar” getting the nomination for best picture:

Oscar Nominations 2010: Full List of Oscar Nominees – Moviefone

Between the stiff competition and Hollywood voters still considering animation as “for children,” I’ll assume “Up” doesn’t stand a chance for best picture. The likely winner for that category will be “Avatar,” given it’s raked in record levels of Hollywood’s favorite color (green) as well as attention. Only possible reasons not to give it to “Avatar” would be Hollywood’s aversions to giving such awards to either special-effects-laden features or to sci-fi in general (given to them it’s just either something to put butts into seats during summer months, or is “just for nerdy losers”).

Best director likely will be James Cameron (see: the “raked in tons of cash” reason above).

Best animated feature will probably be either “Up,” “Princess and the Frog” or “Coraline.”

Granted, given it’s Hollyweird we’re talking about (the same Einsteins who chose “Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain” for top picture a few years back), who knows what could be running through their minds…

Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha… that’s the Oscar nominated song

Feb 252008
 

With tonight being the annual Academy Award hand-outs (this year, there’s nothing of interest being nominated that I really care about), thought I’d link to this YouTube posting of 1947′s “Wet Blanket Policy”, the Woody Woodpecker short that introduces in the beginning the now-famous “Woody Woodpecker Song,” as well as the introduction of Woody’s nemesis Buzz Buzzard. More importantly, this is also the only animated short subject to have a song nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Song.”

I’ll assume the copy included on the first volume of the “Woody Woodpecker and Friends” DVD box set is nicer, but anyway, here it is:

(EDIT: video deleted)

2008 Oscar nominees for best animated feature, shorts announced

Jan 232008
 

The Oscar nominees for this year’s best animated feature and best animated short subjects have been announced: Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation » 2008 Oscar Nominees

For best animated feature, I’m surprised that “The Simpsons Movie” wasn’t nominated (nor was “Shrek 3″ or “Bee Movie”). I suppose its television roots (and resultant lack of originality compared to the nominated films) probably hurt it.

My predictons on how this category will turn out:
Should win: not sure, probably between Persepolis or Ratatouille
Will win: Ratatouille

Admit I haven’t seen Surf’s Up or Persepolis yet.

For best animated short subject (a category whose “winners” historically has included the likes of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and Speedy Gonzales), not seen or heard of any of the films on the list, though apparently none of them area American-made according to the article.

No idea who should or will win for the short subject categories.

I do assume (barring some sort of writers’ strike hijinks) we’ll see continue the recent trend of the Oscars having some (sometimes poorly done) CGI characters show up to “announce” the winners of the animation category, then the winners being given all of six seconds to make a congratulations speech before being shoved off-stage by the orchestra music for a more “important” category such as Best Makeup or something…