Forum - View topicZootopia Wins Animated Feature Film Oscar
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Anime films don't need to win an Oscar, but Oscar nominations in and of themselves are great boons to films, especially smaller/indie/foreign films. Its frustrating that Your Name. wasn't nominated because without a nomination its unlikely to be seen by as many people in the United States. I'm chomping at the bit to see it, but I only know about it because I pay so much attention to the anime news bubble.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Occasionally, Dreamworks will get one too, and they became a major player in Hollywood animation by winning the Best Animated Feature award with Shrek. (And I would say the Disney/Pixar output in 2001 was definitely well above Cars 2 in quality.) The reason behind the Disney/Pixar and occasional Dreamworks favoritism is because a lot of the Oscar voters simply don't watch animated films and let their kids or grandkids decide. Hence, this category becomes more of which movie the children of film buffs liked.
Somehow, I thought Moana would win out of it being more classic Disney.
If it's any consolation, Kubo and the Two Strings got 8 nominations and 3 wins at the Annie Awards. For animation fans like myself, I hold the Annie Awards with greater significance than the Oscars' Best Animated Film, as it's actually nominated and voted upon by people who watch and enjoy animated works.
A LOT of effort was taken into making the entire movie look immersive, believable, and relatable. Disney may be doing 3-D CGI now, but their reputation as the producers of the best animation in the world still holds. Zootopia also won the Annies' best special effects in an animated film. What I found really neat was the extra mile taken to make sure all of the animals' fur looked like that of their real-life counterparts. It's easy to overlook the fact that different animals have different textures of their fur. On the other hand, the merchandise for Zootopia was awful. I got one of those Funko Mystery Minis and found Nick inside, but it was the worst Funko product I had ever seen, and I've literally seen thousands. The plushes were terrible too. I usually get at least one plush for a Disney movie I've seen, but I passed on Zootopia despite the characters lending themselves so well to plush toys.
Well, Your Name did make the rounds at international film awards, and Makoto Shinkai was nominated for (but didn't win) the Annies' best feature-length director category. The Oscars are a different beast completely. It's an extremely high profile set of awards intended for extremely high profile movies. It was also created in Hollywood, voted in Hollywood, and presented in Hollywood. I don't know how much of a factor money is, but I know for a fact clout is. Though frankly, I'm more surprised nothing from GKids made it on, as those guys manage to put something up there most of the time. I can't help but think that if GKids did Your Name and not FUNimation, it would've gotten the nomination because the people at GKids DO have the clout to put it on the ballot, whereas FUNimation, by comparison, is a group of nobodies in Texas who translate cartoons for some group of people somewhere.
It's not a problem of "Which movie is the best one made in this year?" but a problem of "I have to vote in these categories I have no interest in." They're requesting people to vote in categories of things they're not really into, which means they'll pass them off to those they figure ARE into it (that is, their kids), they abstain, or they pick recklessly. Regardless of what the awards are about, that's going to cause issues. There's also the problem of many of these voters being upper-middle-aged to elderly, coming from an age where all animation WAS for kids, or at least a large enough part that adult-oriented cartoons could not catch the public eye (namely Ralph Bakshi's work). A few of them are former decision-makers of the time reinforcing that notion, for that matter. They've spent so much of their lives in the Animation Age Ghetto that they might have a hard time comprehending what it's like outside of it. |
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peno
Posts: 349 |
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Call me naïve, but I think this is the reason why, eventually, the Animated Feature category may be split to something like best domestic animated feature and best foreign animated feature, wherein the foreign category will have the same nomination rules as Foreign Language Film category, meaning the nominations will be on foreign countries, not US distributor. I am afraid if we want better foreign access to Oscar nomination and eventual award, this is the solution for that. |
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Chrysostomus
Posts: 335 |
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It was just not a good film, but merely a stock exhibition of the most blatant Shinkai-isms. It had all the same ingredients but nothing that came from it was better than his previous entries, not to mention the incredibly messy plot of half the film comes down to magical spit wine, shooting stars, time traveling yarn, and/or some family bloodline thing. |
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EricJ2
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[quote="leafy sea dragon"]
It didn't really have as much of a STORY as much as classic Disney. (Who was the Disney Villain of the story, the lava monster?...Yeah, see what I mean?) Which particularly worried me coming out of John Musker & Ron Clements, who'd practically invented the Disney Renaissance singlehandedly. (Beauty & the Beast and Lion King are the "classics"? I'd argue that our going nuts over them at the time was in fact a delayed reaction of finding out it was okay to say that you were an adult and liked Little Mermaid and Aladdin. That was a big issue at the time, like not coming out about being a Pixar fan until Nemo.) Up to Princess & the Frog, they'd literally never done a bad movie yet (rent Treasure Planet if you don't believe me), and now they've come up just short of the wire twice in a row. Princess & the Frog was a bit of a shambles for story, which is usually their strongest points. Even worse is that we got would-be-deconstructive "digs" at the 90's Disney/Princess formula in Moana, like it was the publicly Shrek-guilty Eisner 00's all over again ("If you have a dress and an animal sidekick, you're a Princess." "I'm going to sing my evil plan!"), which made me worry about whether the 90's Renaissance "Nine New Men" are getting tired of the new post-Tangled 00's-10's Renaissance. When they really shouldn't, you know. M&C got their first big break as new co-directors boosting "The Great Mouse Detective" out of the Ron Miller 70's-80's (rent that one too, if you don't believe me), and the fact that THEY had co-directors helping them out this time makes me worry about whether retirement is on the horizon. And 10's-20's Disney Without Musker & Clements might have a better chance of survival than Ghibli Without Miyazaki, but you can understand my concerns after coming out of those poor, troubled early-00's years as a Disney fan. The studio'll be losing a LOT, and "Frozen"'s Jennifer Lee isn't going to make up for it.
I remember when Laika's entire campaign for the obnoxious and insufferably Simpsons-headed "Paranorman" consisted of "We did Coraline, and this is sorta spooky too!", and "We're old-school stop-motion, so true animation fans should be loyal!" Well, I liked Coraline, Paranorman was stop-motion, and dear gods, it was physical pain to sit through. And that was before the butt-ugly Boxtrolls, whom even their mothers wouldn't love. Laika's got one chance left to keep from being an official One-Hit Wonder, like BlueSky with the Ice Age movies, and frankly, we'd already had our official 90's-Sentimental Samurai Jack Nostalgia when "Secret of the Kells" was up for the artsy-animation Oscar. Last edited by EricJ2 on Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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I came out fairly disappointed by the movie. I know it has a more serious underlining theme but I just don't think the movie was done that well, just felt mediocre |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13758 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Considering all major movie company advertising, Hollywood Accounting, and lobbying for longer copyright terms, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the results were rigged.
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Zootopia was probably the best movie of 2016, full stop. Of course it was going to win the Oscar in the animation category. And no, it wasn't just because it was Disney and conspiracies and the Freemasons and whatnot. Let's stop being silly. We all know that Disney makes a very high quality product. Most, if not all anime can trace it's ancestry back to Japanese animators being inspired by Disney back in the olden days. Disney continues to be a paragon of excellence in this field, although they have had their ups and downs.
What Disney has been able to perfect over the years is the art of storytelling. Zootopia was a masterclass in storytelling, from the characters, settings and overall themes to the more simple nuances. For example, I was reading a review the other day where the reviewer focused an entire analysis just on the framing of the scene where Judy turns in her badge and walks away from her dream job because of her mistake, and the camera shifts down to show the wording on her badge that reads "integrity." It was a powerful moment and everything going into it flowed perfectly, including the music and even the smallness of Judy compared to the huge door as she's letting her dream die. You could really tell with Zootopia that so much thought went into every scene. Everything had meaning. That's when you can tell there is superior writing. And when we see that kind of effort consistently in Anime, I guarantee that more anime will win Oscars. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Thought it suffered too much from the Dumbo Factor (ie., we must sympathize with Judy because every other character in the universe is a nasty horrible bully being mean to her), which gets a little depressing for when there's no escape from it for most of the first half-- Which was also the main problem that animation analysts couldn't understand was the fault that sank "Atlantis: the Lost Empire", in that we still didn't really care about Milo as the hero of the story, even though he was surrounded by a barking-insane mob of school-bullies. But, finally giving Nick some Lasseter-esque backstory of his own allowed us to show some actual interest in more than one character, and pulled it out of the fire at the last minute--Still, given a choice between this and "Meet the Robinsons", I know which one I have on disk. |
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Jonny Manz
 Posts: 22 Location: California |
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A hearty congratulations to Zootopia on the win! It certainly earned it (definitely one of the finest animated films, as well as films in general, if I'm gonna be perfectly honest, I've ever seen). I do definitely think the correct film won this year, and that it has nothing to do with the whole Disney/Pixar angle. For the first time in a looooooooooooong time, I actually cared about something going on at the Oscars (and hey, because of that, I got to see the hilarious Best Picture mixup live... well, almost live, haha).
I frankly agree wholeheartedly with your entire post, but especially this part.
Yeah, I can see why - certainly a lot more specific categories (and at those awards, as an aside, Zootopia was nominated for 11 and took home 6 [or 5.5 if you want to be mean and count Jason Bateman's award for "Outstanding Achievement, Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production" as a half since he tied with Auli'i Cravalho of Moana], including the Best Animated Feature award there too - that was also pretty exciting, haha, since the Golden Globes and most of the other major awards took place before I had watched the film, I believe, considering I only watched it on January 21st)
Just a minor quibble, but it's no fan theory about the status of their relationship - the co-director confirmed on Twitter that they're a married same sex couple (and it seems like it'll probably stay that way, considering Disney seems content to do the ol' "We neither confirm nor deny" song and dance).
You are a very funny person. (Of course, I'm assuming that you're kidding, but in case you're not, because I honestly couldn't tell, I can say that I've seen all three films, and I think we'll have to agree to disagree about Wreck-It Ralph being better than Zootopia). Still need to watch Kubo (now that the awards are, essentially, over, I feel comfortable with watching it, now that I feel I won't be able to jinx Zootopia in any major awards  )
Also, to shift gears a little, to talk about your name - rather, Makoto Shinkai. Was he the one who did that Children Who Chase Lost Voices film that aired on Toonami a while back? I swear I've heard his name before, but I can't remember from where, and that's the only thing that comes to mind when I think of it. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Yup! Makoto Shinkai is behind Children Who Chase Lost Voices. He mostly does low budget, independent films that are known for their beautiful, incredibly detailed backdrops and art. Before Your Name., his most recent film was the stunning Garden of Words. His Wikipedia page has a good overview of his history and movies. |
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Pierrot.
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How about a no? Because there were plenty of other great animated movies in 2016 like Kubo and the Two Strings or the Chinese animated film Big Fish and Begonia. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Yeah, that's true--Zootopia did get the most recognition at the Annies, though Kubo and the Two Strings was the runner-up. I just see a lot of sour grapes that Kubo was snubbed, but it was one of those movies that appeals more to older viewers than younger ones, and so it'd be disadvantaged at the Oscars. It is pretty much the pinnacle of stop motion animation at this point, using the cutting edge of technology that can help, such as multi-color 3-D printing. With most of it animated on ones or twos and having some really impressive-looking scenes (like Kubo creating his leaf ship or his duel against the Moon King), I'd say it's the bigger snub that Kubo wasn't nominated for any of the Oscars' special effects or technical achievements awards. (But it did win some of the Annies ones.)
Well, the statement wasn't that Zootopia was the only great animated film of 2016. I saw all of the domestically produced nominees for this year, however, and I'd say Zootopia was the best-written one among them. |
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Chiibi
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Looks like somebody forgot about Home on the Range.
Brother Bear wasn't that great either...I would say Chicken Little was definitely "bad". |
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EricJ2
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THEY--ie. John Musker & Ron Clements--didn't do those. (M&C's were, in order, Detective, Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Planet, Frog and Moana. One black mark, one gray one, and two video-generation paroles, working on a third.) Chicken Little, particularly, was Disney trying to make "Emperor's New Groove" lightning strike twice (to create the new studio that was going to "crush" Pixar) with Mark Dindal, and only reminded us why "Cats Don't Dance" isn't the Warner-martyr "classic" fans think it was. Brother Bear, from a pair of just-promoted animation-short directors, was most definitely bad, and Range, like "Groove", was a last minute 180-degree revamp of a failed serious project (after Dreamworks already sneaked in and stole their "animal western" idea) from two other directors who moved on to Dreamworks' Netflix "Dragons" series... And we'll have to agree to disagree on Range's "badness" at that. If Disney could magically make David Spade and Sarah Silverman funny for the very first time in their movies, Roseanne was a piece of cake. |
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They need to do more advertising....get their stuff out there so people notice it!
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