Comments (14)

While I agree that Dark Knight should have gotten a nod for director, I can't imagine what you're thinking with Wall-E. It was lightweight kid's faire, entertaining, but with no real depth. While we're on the subject, Oscar should dump the animated feature award all together. There are almost never two films (let alone three) worthy in a given year. While Grave of the Fireflies should have gotten best picture in 1988, no animated film since has deserved much if any credit.

Of Course Frost/Nixon was nominated. Langella's performance aloe was enough for that. The shock, the fucking weird shit what were they thinking moment came when Gran Torino was totally ignored, but The Reader (the fucking reader, for christsake) got a best picture nomination. I what the hell man, what the hell.

The problem is that there are no set criteria for nomination.

I don't know what your criteria are, but I think there are several animated films worthy from the 90s.

Iron Giant - One of my favorite family oriented films. Most animated movies avoid any difficult themes, or rely on fancy animation to amaze kids into liking it. Brad Bird made a film that isn't candy-coated for kids. Iron Giant doesn't rely on being animated. It just happens to be animated.

South Park: Bigger Longer Uncut - This movie is a brilliant piece on several levels. Satire at its best.

Nightmare before Christmas - Tim Burton revived stop motion with this one. As much as I love Aardman Studios, Stop Motion deserves better. If it hadn't been for Burton's work, I don't think we would have seen Templeton's Peter and the Wolf.

Those are just three off the top of my head.

I'll give you Iron Giant (deeply underapreciated) and I'll waffle on SP: B,L,U (genius, but gratuitous). Still, though, that gives us three, maybe four Oscar worthy animated films in 20 years...

I don't care about the oscars. I do care about animation. I think that the best animated feature category lends validity to the genre that has been missing for a long time. If that means another mean-nothing award gets handed out, I'm fine with it.

and while we're at it... why do you never see adult films nominated. If animated films get their own category, why can't we lend a little validity to another genre that's been missing for a long time. Sure, they rarely bring one to tears, but body fluids are body fluids right?

If the films were relevant, I would be behind that. Unfortunately, adult films aren't meant to be relevant. There are some NC-17 films that are overlooked and/or avoided for awards. If we allowed a special category, maybe directors wouldn't re-edit for R ratings as they so often do.

Some relevant "adult movies"

"Tie me up, Tie Me Down"
"Henry and June"
I haven't seen "Lust, Caution", but I hear it's good.

"Langella's performance aloe was enough for that."

A great performance (or perfomances) does not a "Best Picture" make. That has its own award. "Best Picture"s are made with Kate Winslet's boobs.

I really think you need to rewatch (or watch, maybe) WALL-E, and look past the parts distracting you towards lightweight kid's faire commentary. There's a lot more going on in this movie than robot adventures, and it speaks directly to your political ideals.

I know that Wall - E Speaks to my ideals, but it speaks them to kids and in the end doesn't say anything important about humanity or what it means to be human. I'm denigrating it, mind you, it was a great kid's film, but I was neither edified nor moved by it. Should it win best animated film? Yes, it should. It is miles beyond the other nominees...

"A great performance (or perfomances) does not a "Best Picture" make. That has its own award. "Best Picture"s are made with Kate Winslet's boobs.
"

Titanic was maybe the largest mistake in Oscar history, and one driven by politics. The academy gave it all those awardss simplpy because it made the most money. This was done due to the bruhaha over the previous year's awards going to deserving, yet more obscure films.

"If the films were relevant, I would be behind that. Unfortunately, adult films aren't meant to be relevant. There are some NC-17 films that are overlooked and/or avoided for awards. If we allowed a special category, maybe directors wouldn't re-edit for R ratings as they so often do."


I have long been in favor of an "A" rating for ffilms that are patently adult, yet not pornographic in nature.

Edit above: should be I'm NOT denigrating it.

Yeah, its a shame about The Dark Knight. That movie was just well done.

As for Wall-E. It is deeper than it seems on the surface, but it only goes so far. I do really like that movie though.

I wish I had a nice HDTV and a Blu-Ray player though.

Wall-E is above the other nominees, but what about the snubs. Waltz With Bashir at least has a nomination for best foreign language film. What about $9.99? These films aren't technically groundbreaking, but they raise the genre to a higher class of storytelling. They prove that animation doesn't have to be cute or funny. Dramatic animation is usually represented in the best animated short category, yet ignored in the feature category.

As for silly, funny, cute cartoons, the nomination for "Presto" is well deserved. It was the best part of Wall-E.

Noah had similar thoughts to mine, apparently.

I just could not disagree more.