April Foolish Oscar Discussion: Animated Features
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 12:16PM These two specialized categories can be perplexing from the outside, documentaries moreso, as to what is eligible, why it's eligible, and what motivates people to vote as they do. The official eligibility lists don't arrive until later in the year but for now on the new charts we'll add documentary titles as they make some kind of mark and we'll dive right into animated features, which apart from the foreign produced entries, are much easier to track.
Pixar vs Pixar this year?
This upcoming Oscar season, Walt Disney Studios Animation will be out of the mix after two consecutive wins. Their next features Zootopia and Moana, which both look quite promising, aren't due until March and November of 2016. To fill that giant vacuum, Pixar will likely come roaring back after an uncharacteristic absence last year with two titles Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur.
But the contest that's most curious might not be a contest... at least in terms of Oscar. We have two features that are trading on collective international nostalgia for 2D classic properties: The Little Prince and Peanuts Movie. But they're both getting the CG or mixed media approach. That's not so odd since contemporary cinema loves to regurgitate and "update" (shudder) but what's unusual is that both films are clearly trying to mix the endearing flat linework and visual style of these beloved gems into newly three dimensional worlds. A safe bet: these films, particularly The Little Prince which looks "schizophrenic", will be divisive.
Check out the charts! Which of these films are you most curious about and do you agree with the April Foolish guesswork?
Reader Comments (19)
both IMDB and BOM has Kung Fu Panda 3 as a March 2016 release?
Thanks. I guess it got pushed back after the article i read (sigh). so much to keep track of.
I'd expect:
1. Inside Out
2. The Good Dinosaur
3. Shaun the Sheep the Movie
4. Ratchet and Clank (This almost certainly will be coming out, it's a more likely push for Sony than Hotel Transylvania 2, and it would be really cool to see a film with a cast primarily comprised of noted voice actors in the running. And when the closest we've seen to a voice actor driven project get nominated here is Jimmy Neutron? That should change.)
5. Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.
This post does not inspire much confidence in the upcoming animated season. :-/
Don't discount When Marnie was There so easily. Disney does have distribution rights to all of the Studio Ghibli films in America and could do another unexpected big push ala The Wind Rises if they wanted another "Oscar Nominated" label for DVD sales.
Both of those Pixar movies look ugly.
I've recently seen Shaun the Sheep and When Marnie Was There. Shaun is very charming and fun, if slight and familiar (it borrows a lot from previous Aardman works). The "no dialogue" thing should help it stand out and we know the animation branch loves Aardman. I don't think Marnie will be a serious contender for a nomination, but it's worth watching because It's quite odd: a ghost story mixed with what intermittently seems *very* much like a lesbian coming-of-age story, but then there's a twist in the end which is disappointingly convoluted and soapy.
Jan: I'd almost want to give Inside Out a pass for wanting the emotions to be representational and cartoony (the actual human characters actually look more realistic as a conscious contrast), but the plot for The Good Dinosaur has always given me a massive "just for kids" vibe and the poster pretty much cements that viewpoint. And here's something they've added that is just rich to me. "In November 2014, it had been revealed that new elements had been added, such as treating NATURE ITSELF as the film's antagonist." Um...guys...you do know how "Yes, this movie WAS funded by Hoggish Greedly" that idea comes off as, right? I know the 90s Hyper Environmental movies like Ferngully could be irritatingly self-satisified, but that didn't mean there heart wasn't generally in the right place.
*Their. Darn it.
I think you might be selling SpongeBob: Sponge out of Water a bit short. Good reviews, a beloved property full of superstar voice actors, it does the mixed media thing well, and it was a big hit. Top tier is definitely pushing it, but I'd have to think it's at least as likely as Home.
I also feel like Sony is starting to get close to a "thanks for being so reliable" nomination, though both Hotel Transylvania 2 and Ratchet & Clank (which looks good on paper, but it's a video game adaptation) feel "wrong" somehow.
Also, Minions is almost certainly going to be the highest-grossing animated film of the year, so inasmuch as that's something that needs to be factored in...
And having just found that out, I'm now guessing that The Good Dinosaur is probably the studio's first genuine disaster. So, predictions?
1. Inside Out
2. Shaun the Sheep: The Movie
3. Ratchet and Clank
4. Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
5. Peanuts: The Movie (Hey, at least they don't have an announced plot detail that sounds like it could have been ripped from the mind of a Captain Planet villain.)
Tim Brayton: As far as Ratchet and Clank goes? Yes, it's a video game adaptation, but it has basically NO way to really go wrong. It's overseen by the game studio, the writer OF THE GAMES is writing the film AND they have the original voice cast. And "basically no way to really go wrong" is more than I can say about The Good Dinosaur with that stupid concept that got revealed.
THIS IS NOT THE APRIL PREDICTIONS WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.
shawshank -- dude. you have to suffer through ALL categories. eat it up. every time.
I'm hoping Inside Out is good, but it's adds bug me. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but Pixar used to rarely, if ever, make a big deal about its celebrity voices in the trailer. I know marketing doesn't equate quality, yadda yadda yadda. Still...
I have this feeling that The Good Dinosaur will be Pixar's worst reviewed movie to date but will still be their biggest box office hit since Toy Story 3. The kids will love it, and what's more, they'll still be excited about dinosaurs after Jurassic World. Plus the November release will work in its favor. But yeah, I fully expect it to get negative reviews based on what I know so far.
Edwin -- which begs the question: what do you know so far?
BrianZ -- yeah, i'm worried about it. I also don't love how gendered the emotions are. Pixar is so relentlessly conservative when it comes to gender politics.
Specifically, the fact that the director was replaced and the story was apparently changed upon the switch occurring. That's usually not a good sign. And the animation that's been revealed looks so much more cartoony (not in a good way) than what one expects from Pixar.
Edwin: Well, plus there's HOW the story has been changed sounds like it's REALLY stupid. I mean, "ripped from the mind of a Captain Planet villain", level stupid.
It's all about The Little Prince for me. I'm getting such good vibes from that trailer and every frame I've seen so far looks about as perfect as I'd imagine that story would be, outside of an ideal Terry Gilliam retelling.
And Ari Folman's version of The Diary of Anne Frank is already high on my list for the next (few) years.
I'll just let Pixar continue on this current path they're on and if they happen to surprise me at one point soon, great. That said, I won't watch those two next movies unless they get raves.