Since we've been blasted for not having any real news on this board - let's drop a little. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the eleven films that will be eligible for the "Best Animated Feature" Oscar this year. In alphabetical order they are: Brother Bear (Disney) Finding Nemo (Pixar) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Warner Bros.) Millenium Actress (Dreamworks) Piglet's Big Movie (Disney) Pokemon Heroes (Miramax) Rugrats Go Wild! (Paramount) The Jungle Book 2 (Disney) The Triplets of Belleville (Sony Classics) Till Eulenspiegel (Solo Film) Tokyo Godfathers (Sony) The three nominees will be announced January 27 and the Oscars will be held on February 29th. Only two comments. First I noticed that Dreamworks' Sinbad did not make the list. I don't know if this is because Dreamworks did not submit the film, or because whoever in the Academy that puts together this list actualy had some other criteria. I find it hard to believe that Piglet's Big Movie or Rugrats Go Wild! are somehow more meritas than Sinbad (simply on a relative scale). Second, it's interesting that Looney Tunes is eligible here despite it being a live action movie with animated characters and not a true animated feature. This coming from the same group the refused to award any credit to work for Gollum from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers because "it was just animation". You'd never guess actors make up the largest voting block, would you? In the rumor mill it's said that both Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl still have outside shots at a Best Picture nod. The top grossing movie of the year often gets a token nomination; the question is whether the Academy will assume The Return of the King fits this slot. Disney's only real chance lies with the not-yet-released Cold Mountain. It's a Civil War epic love story starring Nichole Kidman and Jude Law. It's been receiving mixed to poor buzz, but there's still hope. The Company's other contender, Veronica Guerin vanished without a trace at the box office and now has no change. On the Miramax front, their Oscar hopes seem to lie with The Human Stain (hobbled by bad box office and generally unfavorable reviews) and Kill Bill, Volume One (hobbled by the fact that it's not really the academy's kind of flick). Still, Harv has made it his life's mission to rule the Oscars like Sauron and will use any tactic to win - or at least prevent anyone else from winning (especially those Hobbits). And yes, Mr. Pirate, there's a pretty good chance that Johnny Depp will receive a nomination for Pirates.
Wow, if Looney Tunes BIA is considered to be an animated film then I would think the Return of the King would be considered one as well. Seriously if the Lord of the Rings trilogy doesn't get some kind of oscar nod then I am going to be so disappointed. What happened to the good old days of special oscars??? Walt got 8 statues for Snow White, maybe Peter Jackson should get 9 (one for each member of the fellowship) Oh, and I also think Capt. Jack Sparrow deserves best actor. Stepping down off my soapbox...
Other than Finding Nemo, and Cold Mountain which i havent seen i cant think of any disney movie that is oscar material(potc was a very good movie but not up to a oscar imho). Master and Commander and Mystic River are two movies i have see recently that come to mind that are much better oscar type of movies than anything disney has done and you still have LOTR/Last Samauri among others that still havent been released.
I think Depp's oscar nod is vulnerable. I've seen many great actors get passed over. Is Sean Penn up for Mystic River? What about Crowe's performance in Master and Commander? Re: the animated features, I don't recall Millennium Actress by Dreamworks?
I was reading this list and it got me to thinking. One way of trying to be successful in the animated feature business (with apologies to 'Sinbad'--what most of my friends say was a great movie--I haven't seen it--yet) is to make a movie with a chance at the Best Animated Movie Oscar. I know, I know that sounds pretty self-evident. But seriously, we're all Disney animated fans here...don't we believe that had it been offered that The Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lilo & Stitch, even Pocohontas and Hunchback and Hercules and Mulan all were of depth and quality and beauty that they would have won the thing? And while I loved Groove, liked Atlantis but the budget cuts hurt the script, and thought Treasure Planet was a great idea that was lost in translation somewhere, I'm not so positive that any of these would have won an Oscar. But every Pixar movie IMHO is Oscar worthy (yes, DB, I'm still on the Pixar bandwagon--and I'll bet deep down you are too). Forget Magic or pixie dust or standards or The Element. Isn't it a simple equation when you are producing what is essentially artistic achievement designed specifically for mass appeal? Make a movie that you really, really truly believe deserves the Animated Oscar. If I were in DFA, and I had a product that was not Oscar worthy (and there have been some-- like Black Cauldron) then I wouldn't let the movie out of Burbank (or Orlando for that matter) until it is ready. I know some don't want to hear Walt, blah blah blah, but I remember there were some movies that he just wouldn't let out until he felt they were as close to perfect as possible. And he always said he had a touch when it came to what the masses wanted in animated features.
