The Alternate Animated Oscars pt.3

Wednesdays and Sundays in December I will be looking at the Animated Oscars. What was nominated, what was overlooked, and what would be my nominations and winner?

As I write this Moana 2 is blowing up the box office, and was just nominated for a Golden Globe. It seems inevitable that it will be nominated for an Oscar. Moana 2 is not a great movie. At a late date Disney decided to make it a movie from a planned television show, and despite Herculin efforts by some incredibly talented and overworked animators the seams show. The question is, what down ballot worthy animated film will not be nominated? What worthy film could use the attention that an Oscar nomination brings? An Oscar nomination can bring attention and build careers. With this in mind, here’s how I looked at the Oscar races from 2010 to 2012.

2010 

The nominees were How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, and the winner was Toy Story 3. 

I think that How to Train Your Dragon is one of the most important mainstream American animations ever. It is a perfect movie. There is not one character I would change, one little moment out of place, or one set piece that does not amaze. The island of Berk and all of its inhabitants feel fully real and fantastical, and Toothless is one of the most charismatic creatures in animation. I don’t understand why they are remaking it, but that’s an argument for another day.   

The Illusionist is directed by Sylvain Chomet and based off a screenplay by filmmaker Jacques Tati.  If animation is giving life and character to drawings then Chomet is one of the greatest animators ever. Despite largely being wordless each character feels real through their gestures both big and small. It's a film of small quiet moments with the odd dash of absurdity (Chomet's film before this The Triplets of Belleville is very loud and absurd, so the quietness of this film is surprising). It's a very touching story for those who like to be immersed in a meditative film. I’m glad to see it nominated. 

Toy Story 3 is a movie that takes characters we already love and deepens our relationship to them, gives a satisfying ending to Woody’s arc, and scares the s**t out of us in the process. I think it benefited from low expectations because who would think lightning could strike three times(?), but other than not really having a purpose for Buzz or Jesse I have little complaints about Toy Story 3. Brilliantly this sequel ages in maturity with the audience while still being endearing enough for children. There’s just one movie I love more this year. 

For Your Consideration (Not nominated, but deserve a look) 

I suppose there’s no way anyone could have known Despicable Me would start a little yellow Empire, including a never-ending line of ever middling sequels and the worst ride at Universal Florida (I said it! Minion Mayhem is lame.). Look at the original and it’s a funny concept well told and at the time the humor was less predictable. It won’t make my 5, but it is better than most family fare. 

My most significant failing as a fan of animation is how little I care for most of the young adult melodramas. The extreme shifts in behavior, the need for shocking moments, and the overall character designs are not something I find appealing. There are exceptions, like The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The emotions are elevated but not to an extreme, and a subtle melancholic air hangs over the film. There is a magical realism which adds to the story. Most of all I appreciated the subtle attention to character and the staggering details of the animation. I first saw the movie before I saw the show it was based on, and while it would help to know the characters better, I felt it could be watched on its own.  

The Secret World of Arrietty is Ghibli’s version of the Borrowers. It is the story of little Arrietty and her family who live in a dollhouse because they are the size of dolls. This is a beloved movie and I find a lot of it works, especially the adventurous elements, but I also find the central relationship between Arrietty and the full size Sho dull. He's just such a drip I wanted to get away from him and have more adventures with Arrietty and her family. 

Tangled had middling reviews upon release and I think it was because reviewers didn’t know what to compare it to. It had a bit of the Disney classic Princess romanticism, a bit of Shrek’s satirical bent, a bit of Pixar’s ambition, and perhaps that mixture meant viewers couldn’t see it for the slightly caustic heart wide open rollicking lark that it is.  Three years later Frozen will become a cultural juggernaut with this exact same mix, but Tangled did it first.   

My Nominees and Winner (from least to most deserving) 

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya 

The Illusionist 

Tangled 

Toy Story 3 

The award goes to the quintessential How to Train Your Dragon. 

2011 

The nominees were A Cat in Paris, Chico and Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, and the winner was Rango. 

A Cat in Paris is a family film from France. France has a very strong animation industry and much like the U.S and Japan they have their own tropes and art styles. Children's films tend to be a little darker, characters tend to move fluidly almost like their bones are made from Jello, and design trumps realism where a colorful art deco style flat background is heavily stylized.  

A Cat in Paris is about a cat who has a double life. He lives with a family during the day and at night roams the streets of Paris with a cat burglar. Eventually the two worlds get mixed up. It's a family film but there are guns and light danger. A Cat in Paris manages to be dramatic while also being effervescent.  

Chico and Rita is a lush romantic film about two Cuban musicians and their affair, plus tragedies that get in their way. It follows their relationship over decades from Havana to New York. It also spends a great deal of time detailing the Cuban jazz scene. The music is fantastic and the story is an involving adult drama spanning decades. It’s refreshing to see the academy rewarding Chico and Rita with a nomination.  

Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots are both slightly above average family entertainment. By now the tropes and quality of mainstream American movies reached the level where everyone will be entertained, and nothing is surprising. Kung Fu Panda 2 is the better movie of the two. It has better directed action scenes and a much better villain. Puss in Boots will be far more ambitious with its sequel.     

Rango has always stood out by being very different, and while it was a modest hit the audience never knew what to make of it. It was a talking animal cartoon where all the animals are kind of ugly, the location is a barren desert, and the humor is dark and dry. It is very telling that Rango centers around amphibians and the designs are 90% realistic looking, 10% cartoon, where in other movies cartoon animal designs are typically 90% cartoon, 10% realistic. I spent a great deal of time admiring the textures of the reptiles. It has an anxious tone through much of it and at times expects patience. It is referential to the spaghetti westerns it is influenced by. It is also expertly directed by Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Caribbean fame), who brings his knowledge of cinematic language into the film, especially during the electrifying action scenes like the Wagon chase. At a time mainstream American animation was suffering from familiarity, Rango stands out. 

For Your Consideration (Not nominated, but deserve a look) 

A Letter to Momo is a movie I also recommended last week in my “After Ghibli” post. It is a movie clearly aiming for Ghibli vibes and one of the most successful. It is a wonderful heartfelt movie that is also very funny in parts. A girl who is mourning is visited by three Yokai who are trying to get back to their world. They have several amusing adventures together. At this point no other anime that wasn’t a Ghibli had been nominated, and this would have been a perfect candidate.      

In The Rabbi’s Cat the titular cat eats the family parrot and gains the ability to speak. As those with us with cats might imagine, what he has to say is rude and caustic. While it might look like a kid’s movie, the film tackles difficult issues like racism, antisemitism, and religion.  It’s a very talky slightly chaotic film discussing philosophy between a sarcastic cat and a Rabbi. Heady stuff, but I wish it were less disjointed.  

My Nominees and Winner (from least to most deserving) 

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya 

A Letter to Momo 

Chico and Rita 

Kung Fu Panda 2 

A Cat in Paris 

My winner would be Rango. While some of the other choices on my list are more effortlessly entertaining, Rango deserves points for its prickliness and distinctive tone. 

2012 

The nominees are Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Wreck it Ralph, and the winner is Brave. 

Frankenweenie was a fantastic short when Tim Burton made it in 1984. Burton made the short which contains all his best qualities when he was frustrated by feeling constrained at Disney. An obvious homage to Frankenstein, the original Frankenweenie had all the macabre humor, strangeness, and love of misfits that Burton would build his career on. Unfortunately, by 2020 Burton was spinning his creative wheels, and the full-length Frankenweenie feels like a desperate attempt to capture the past, There’s simply not enough story to make a full-length movie on and much of it feels like padding. The original looks like its shot on a shoestring (it’s live action), but it has spunk. The stop motion remake may have top of the art stop motion, but it’s as dead as the dog at its center.

Laika’s ParaNorman captures a lot of the edge that late career Burton had lost. A children`s horror comedy, ParaNorman is a zombie movie of sorts about a boy who can talk to the dead. The stop motion is unique, the scares just creepy enough for young children, and parents will appreciate the deeper family dynamics. ParaNorman is the first in a long line of quality Laika projects that are better than you think but do just O.K. at the box office.      

The Pirates! Band of Misfits is an Aardman film directed by Chicken Run director Peter Lord. Somehow it was a movie I had not seen before preparing for this list.  It is hard to pin what is off about it. It has a lot of high-quality jokes and exciting set pieces. The Claymation is as high quality as other Aardman pictures, but there is an element missing. Personally, I never connected to any of the characters, especially when compared to Wallace or Shaun the Sheep,  which makes it difficult to connect emotionally to the adventure, no matter how jubilant and propulsive it is.  

Wreck it Ralph on the other hand understands the advantage of having instantly iconic and recognizable characters. We associate with both Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz, who could have easily become unlikeable if the script wasn’t so well done. Then there is a world building, which doesnt overplay its easter eggs or fan service, and has every reference and plot point be character driven first. I think Wreck it Ralph is the best movie out of the five nominated. 

Brave is a movie I never understood the appeal of, and it feels like academy voters just automatically checked off next to Pixar at this point. I wish I liked it more. It looked incredible and romantic. The plot was just too leaden and uninteresting. I did like Merinda`s hair.  

For Your Consideration (Not nominated, but deserve a look) 

Approved for Adoption is an autobiographical documentary about being adopted and his complex feelings growing up. It starts with the protagonist as a child homeless is Korea after the Korean war, and then he is adopted into a family in Belgium. It is an unflinching look at his loving but imperfect adoptive family and his desire to explore his roots. It has a lot of gentle humor and drama. Some of the movie is painful, some of it is heartfelt (especially Jung's relationship with his siblings). I will admit that the animation style took some getting used to, but once I got used to it, I was absorbed into the story. 

Consuming Spirits is an experimental film that combines many different animation techniques, mostly stop motion, pencil drawings, and paper cutouts all animated. It is a gritty, often grotesque drama which very slowly and abstractly follows three characters stuck in a delipidated city. Anyone who has been in a town obliterated by a factory closing will recognize the setting. It’s partly autobiographical and an obvious passion project, taking 15 years for director Chris Sullivan to complete. I believe that the tedium and the long runtime are to make the viewer feel the anguish of the people often forgotten about by society. It isn’t for everyone, but if you want to argue that animation is a pliable medium capable of telling a variety of stories, this very human drama is perfect evidence.   

Hotel Transylvania stood out from all the family-oriented films at this time thanks to secret weapon, director Genndy Tartakovsky. The premise may be fun, the script average, and the quality of animation good if not exemplary for the time, but what makes Hotel Transylvania and the two Tartakovsky sequels stand out is his love of slapstick, physical humor, and the retro feel of the1930’s Fleischer cartoons. Many scenes are made better by an unexpected flourish or gag. Tartakovsky overstuffs his movies with unexpected character beats and flourishes. Even though I would consider essential Tartakovsky his television shows Samurai Jack and Primal, where he is unconstrained, Hotel Transylvania is still a wonderful example of what happens when you let a singular iconoclast helm a franchise.    

It’s Such a Beautiful Day was made by Don Hertzfeldt mostly in his basement. Hertzfeldt takes his stick figures and fills them with humanity and emotion. It's such beautiful day combines 3 shorts by Hertzfeldt but once you see it it's hard to imagine them apart. Using animation mixed with live action footage and experimental techniques, it tells the story of a man with an unnamed mental illness trying to traverse through life as his illness progresses (it isn't dementia or Alzheimer's, but anyone with an afflicted loved one will recognize the behaviors). It's masterful the balance of emotions he achieves. In the end it is devastatingly and thrillingly poignant and hopeful. 

Wolf Children is affecting and heartfelt. Some of it is saccharine and hits common anime tropes but it also has a central truth about family. The entire movie is beautifully animated. The only complaint is that the middle section is so strong (when they are kids) the rest of the movie suffers in comparison. Director Mamoru Hosoda will later get a nomination for Mirai, but I feel this is his strongest film and his deepest meditation on family in his career. 

My Nominees and Winner (from least to most deserving) 

Approved for Adoption 

Consuming Spirits 

Wreck it Ralph 

Wolf Children  

I would give the Oscar to It’s Such a Beautiful Day, truly a life changing original piece of art. 

Next Wednesday December 18th for Oscar December we look at 2013 to 2015. If you are enjoying this content please subscribe and share.