Happy Feet beats Cars???? Um.....NO!

[kribit]

CARS was far superior to Happy Feet in every way, shape, and form. But, let's face it, when does the Oscars (or any other award show), give an award to the most popular movie. I can think of Titanic off the top of my head.

 

[fabshelly]

The same can be said of any category. Just because a bunch of movies are made, doesn't mean they deserve to win anything. Did "The Departed" break any new ground? No. It wasn't even original. It was a remake of a Hong Kong film called "Infernal Affairs". They didn't have the animation award around during Disney's day because he was virtually the only one producing animated movies. No competition for the justification.
Just because you feel the "heyday" of animation is over does not make it so. Because there are larger quantities of of animated movies, better movies are being made. The people who produce animated movies deserve to be recognized for their talent and creativity just like their live action counterparts do.
You really don't think politics plays any part in the Academy Awards? Ever heard of a film called "How Green Was My Valley"? Probably not. It beat out "Citizen Kane" because of the politics of the time with Orson Wells. Or how about "Forest Gump" beating out "The Shawshank Redemption"? Politics play heavily in the Academy process. This year is was also Alan Arkin beating out Eddie Murphy because the Academy does not like Murphy. Even Arkin figured he got it because of his age. The Academy likes to make statements and this year was "It's easy being Green". Surprised they didn't have Kermit the Frog handing out Oscars.

Jenny

I have seen both Kane and How Green, and I while I thought Kane was definitely a great film, and stretched the artistic envelope, How Green was my Valley was a better film, a quiet masterpiece.

I think the reason so many of the more vocal protesters are protesting ME's win with song is because of a knee-jerk reaction to anything that they think is "Left-wing". Same with Happy Feet.

 

[exDS vet]

The same can be said of any category. Just because a bunch of movies are made, doesn't mean they deserve to win anything. Did "The Departed" break any new ground? No. It wasn't even original. It was a remake of a Hong Kong film called "Infernal Affairs". They didn't have the animation award around during Disney's day because he was virtually the only one producing animated movies. No competition for the justification.

You really don't think politics plays any part in the Academy Awards? Ever heard of a film called "How Green Was My Valley"? Probably not. It beat out "Citizen Kane" because of the politics of the time with Orson Wells. Or how about "Forest Gump" beating out "The Shawshank Redemption"? Politics play heavily in the Academy process. This year is was also Alan Arkin beating out Eddie Murphy because the Academy does not like Murphy. Even Arkin figured he got it because of his age. The Academy likes to make statements and this year was "It's easy being Green". Surprised they didn't have Kermit the Frog handing out Oscars.

Jenny

You seem to know your Oscar history well. If your knowledge of this thread was the same, you'd see that I never mentioned politics in any of my other posts. So I haven't said whether or not I believe politics plays a part in the Academy Awards.

And since you know so much about movies. Where is it written that a film has to be an original to win best picture. Of the three best picture nominees that I saw, (Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen being the other two) The Departed was by far the best. It deserved everything it won. And yes, the Oscars are political. How else could Al Gore win something?

Sometimes the Academy gets it right like with Scorsese. Sometimes they get it wrong, like with Scorsese. It is what it is. But the one area where the Academy is always consistent is they don't shower films with Oscars because they were the most popular. And thank god for that. I cheered when "Cars" and "Pirates" lost. I changed the channel when "Pirates" won its technical award. I'd love to sit in front of the tv and root for Disney to win something. But first they will have to produce something worthy of my respect and worthy of an Oscar.

 

[Sparx]

I love Happy Feet. Cars bored me to death.

 

[PghLybrt]

Only if they would have also added a domestic partner for the sensitive fire truck.

Hmmm don’t think so after all brokeback mountain didn't win did it?

Cars was just a bad movie.

 

[deekaypee]

On another note, I thought A Scanner Darkly should have been nominated for and won this category. If the Academy has a definite bias, it's in the presumption that animated features are for children. (Luckily, not so much for the shorts.) Unfortunately, it's similar to the understanding of animated films that some members of the general public have.

 

[Feralpeg]

Of the three, I thought "Monster House" was the best. I certainly thought "Happy Feet" was the lesser of the three. After the first 30 minutes, I was bored stiff watching dancing penguins.

 

[mill4023]

Honestly, I was a little disappointed in Cars. I thought it was good, but it just didn't measure up to previous Pixar movies.

Happy Feet on the other hand, was horrible. DW and I absolutely HATED it. It was incredibly boring and just got so depressing and bizarre towards the end. On the way out of the theater, our kids said they liked it, but they certainly didn't act like they liked it and they have zero interest in ever seeing it again.

 

[RayaniFoxmur]

I'm glad "Happy Feet" won. Not because it was a great movie because I didn't see it. But because it beat "Cars". Until Disney/Pixar can produce a film in the spirit of...Disney, I will root for anything to beat Disney. There are some (many) people who will disagree with me, and probably flame me for this, but if you "fans" won't admit it, at least the Academy will keep it real.

Disney doesn't deserve awards just because they are Disney. And you people who talk about "this year must have been a message year" or "it was a green year". Give me a break! The truth is these movies suck, and you all act like Disney should automatically get an Oscar because they produce a film that makes a couple hundred million.

The Academy rewards film for quality. Not for popularity or name. Only 2 Disney/Pixar films have won the Best Animated Feature Film award since the category was created 6 years ago. That means more Disney/Pixar films have lost than won. Monster's Inc, Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Cars...ALL LOSERS! Only Finding Nemo and The Incredibles have won this Oscar, and in my opinion, those were bad years.

I'd like to thank the Academy for being consistent and not selling out to big name, over-hyped, Disney films. Bring back the quality of Disney's great films like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Lion King and Peter Pan and make them actually earn their awards.

I'm sorry you don't like Pixar.

 

[cardaway]

On another note, I thought A Scanner Darkly should have been nominated for and won this category. If the Academy has a definite bias, it's in the presumption that animated features are for children. (Luckily, not so much for the shorts.) Unfortunately, it's similar to the understanding of animated films that some members of the general public have.

Not sure it's just a bias against adult animation. The process they used for that movie would be tough to sell as true animation.

 

[sm4987]

I liked happy feet a little, but it was NOT better than cars, not by a long shot.

 

[deekaypee]

Not sure it's just a bias against adult animation. The process they used for that movie would be tough to sell as true animation.

Not necessarily, although I guess it depends on how you define true animation? The film uses a version of rotoscoping called interpolated rotoscoping; it's a variation, made possible by advances in technology and the use of digital film, of the rotoscoping which Walt and the Fleischer brothers used. The Academy accepts films animated using traditional cel animation, using other CGI methods, in stop motion, or a combination of techniques. All that's required is that the film be animated 75% of the time and that it fit the 70-minute length requirement.

While the status of films like A Scanner Darkly and Linklater's earlier Waking Life are somewhat contested by animators, and even moreso by fans, the film is considered animated. After all, the film WAS one of the 15 films considered eligible for the 2007 short-listnomination (along with the motion capture film Renaissance, the cel-computer animation of Curious George, the the CGI of Ice Age and Flushed Away, among others).

And even the the presumably adult films that are recognized by the Academy--say, Miyazaki's films or Triplettes de Belleville--are centered on more child/family-friendly situations and marketed and promoted as such come Oscar season.

Wow. That was a long response to get to my point, which is that I still think the dealbreaker is that it doesn't fit with conceptions of the audience/purpose of feature animation. Now, you might be right that it doesn't fit with the public concept of what you've referred to as true animation. But I find it equally telling that adult-oriented animation--especially from Hollywood--doesn't make the Academy's short list, even though it's of arguably higher quality.

 

[cardaway]

Now, you might be right that it doesn't fit with the public concept of what you've referred to as true animation.

IMO the key is the film was still shot 100% as live action with the animation added after the fact. If I was making the call, I wouldn't lump it together with the other films that were IMO true animation.

 

[hiwaygal]

I think the reason so many of the more vocal protesters are protesting ME's win with song is because of a knee-jerk reaction to anything that they think is "Left-wing". Same with Happy Feet.

Actually, you would be wrong on that point...at least for me.

I actually like Melissa Etheridge and her music. But, I definitely think that Dreamgirls (with all the awards it has received in its history) was more deserving...a better example of well-written songs.

 

[deekaypee]

IMO the key is the film was still shot 100% as live action with the animation added after the fact. If I was making the call, I wouldn't lump it together with the other films that were IMO true animation.

Yeah, I kinda got the impression that might be your perspective. It's not mine, obviously, especially for this film, because A Scanner Darkly was conceived of as an animated film. So I guess we'll just have to part ways on this one.

 

[chobie]

I love Happy Feet. Cars bored me to death.

Didn't see Happy Feet, but Cars put both my 9 y.o and I to sleep.