Nominees for Best Animated Feature
Perspeolis (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Ratatouille (Walt Disney) Brad Bird
(Ratatouille also got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.)
Surf's Up (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Nominees for Best Animated Short
I Met the Walrus
A Kids & Explosions Production
Josh Raskin
Madame Tutli-Putli (National Film Board of Canada)
A National Film Board of Canada Production
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven) (Premium Films)
A BUF Compagnie Production
Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
My Love (Moya Lyubov) (Channel One Russia)
A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production
Alexander Petrov
Peter & the Wolf (BreakThru Films)
A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production
Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman
I have seen all of the feature nominations this year and I hope that Perspeolis wins. I have great admiration for Ratatouille, but Perspepolis points in a direction that I would like to see animated features follow. An Oscar win would certainly help that. Also, Perspepolis has yet to get a wide release, so an Oscar win would benefit the film economically in theatres as well as on DVD. The other two features are no longer in theatres and they've already made the majority of their DVD sales.
Some may argue that Persepolis could win for animated feature and Ratatouille would get the award for screenplay as compensation, but I highly doubt that an animated film will ever get the award for screenplay. However, it is a tribute to Ratatouille and Brad Bird that the script was worthy of a nomination.
I've seen three of the five shorts nominations. I won't name which ones because none strikes me as a truly great film. As a result, I don't have a rooting interest in this category. If people have comments about the nominations (and the shorts category in particular), I'd be happy to hear them.
I sincerely too hope that Persepolis will wins for best animated feature. Out of the 3 feature films nominated, Persepolis left the greatest impression on me after watching.
ReplyDeleteI think the three feature choices are the best we've seen. I do hope that PERSEPOLIS wins, but I would expect Hollywood to vote for their own.
ReplyDeleteAs for the shorts, it was a surprise to see THE PEARCE SISTERS not among the nominees. I would have liked to see one of the living masters, Georges Schwizgebel get a nomination for JEU, but it's too abstract for the members. The preference is for the pedantic as in MY LOVE.
For some reason my heart isn't in it this year.
"The preference is for the pedantic" - I agree! Where is "Goofy: How to Hook up your Home Theater" ??? Too much fun? Not "serious" enough? I thought it was the most hilarious film I have seen in years...
ReplyDeleteBeing on the subject of personal opinion, I do love Ratatouille...
Re: the shorts list-
ReplyDeleteThe Goofy short--which I finally saw!--really should have been nominated.
I found a couple of the best-known of the nominees that are there very beautiful to look at and obviously painstakingly done in terms of technique, but ultimately too long and (to me) unmoving. In any case, my eyebrows were hitting the roof that the Goof short wasn't chosen. It's tops in all departments.
I'm as happy to see what's not on the Best Animated Feature list as what's on. Conspicuous by their absence: "Shrek the Third" and "Beowulf". Good to see the Academy members had better taste this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely rooting for "Peter and the Wolf".
ReplyDelete"Also, Persepolis has yet to get a wide release, so an Oscar win would benefit the film economically in theatres as well as on DVD."
It would but I hope people don't vote with this in mind. Economics over quality?
I've only seen a couple of the nominated shorts as well, but all of the features. Though I enjoyed Ratatouille I find it to be one of Pixar's weakest. Beautiful animation, loveable characters, fantastic visuals, even a great idea... but somewhere along the line the chain of events got jumbled and cluttered and felt like they were just rushing to conclude everything, like a shopping list. But maybe that's just me. All this to say, my vote definitely goes to Persepolis. What a wonderful film.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who are rooting for Persepolis on the merits. I cried a few times and bought it hook, line and sinker.
ReplyDeleteWhereas Ratatouille strained disbelief on many occasions, like with the marionette-by-hair thing and also some tired old sitcom cliches such as the Chef thinking he's seeing things with the rat.
What was the third one again?