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Guile wrote:

Statements like these seem a bit confusing to me. Frozen deserves the win because it, according to you, is unusual and non-standard 'for a Disney Princess story'? This indicates that it's merits lie in the fact it took steps outside of an established comfort zone, but not enough to actually escape the label of said comfort zone.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. It was different enough from what Oscar voters are comfortable with without being *too* different. Upper middle class white Americans generally don't appreciate anything until its interpreted for them, and award shows in particular seem to highlight what they're comfortable with, and the specific ways artists can "innovate" in those areas without alienating anyone.

That said, I love Indina Menzel and I really liked Let it Go, and I was very disappointed that they shortened the song's performance (especially when they had Pink perform the entirety of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for no apparent reason- what was that all about?) But was "Let it Go" really a more catchy or crowd friendly or deserving song than "Happy"? I didn't even see Despicable Me 2, but "Happy" has been *everywhere*, and it's a really fun song. I don't think a song from an animated movie has had this much radio play since "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. But the Oscars love ballads. Even "Man or Muppet" was a ballad.

Though I did not watched the Oscars 2014 last night, something tells me that the fact The Wind Rises did not win may lead to a lot of North America-based Otaku saying, "Lets face it. Japanese Animation is never going to get the respect it deserves from the American mainstream!". And while North America still appears to be a tough place for anime and adult animation in general, what makes matters worse is that nowadays, no U.S.-based film company can ever do a film version of an anime or a manga for the American mainstream audiences (live-action or not) without the risk of provoking backlash from so many North America-based otaku regardless of 1) how the work is done, and 2) how difficult the struggle to gain mainstream success for Japanese Animation in general in North America remains. Sad

By the way, I hope this year will be a better year for animation movies in North American theatres (at least for me anyway) as none of ones that came out in the Canadian theatres last year looked interesting, except for Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion.

ikillchicken wrote:

shiranehito wrote:

While the other nominees... The Croods, it just doesn't have enough appeal. Despicable Me 2, most of people would just watch it because of the overrated minions.

Yeah, no doubt. I really like those movies (especially the first one) but the minions are actually the least funny part of them.

They're still getting a spinoff movie though. Razz

Frozen winner an Oscar has made my day and for Let It Go no less, it is such a great song. Certainly deserved it Very Happy

Eisenmann V wrote:

ikillchicken wrote:

shiranehito wrote:

While the other nominees... The Croods, it just doesn't have enough appeal. Despicable Me 2, most of people would just watch it because of the overrated minions.

Yeah, no doubt. I really like those movies (especially the first one) but the minions are actually the least funny part of them.

They're still getting a spinoff movie though. Razz

I've seen the first Despicable, and have no idea what DM2 is about. None. ZERO. From the trailers and advertising, I don't even know if it has a plot--Universal refused to tell us. I do know the Minions are in it, though, they made that point perfectly clear. (Is Gru in it? They never quite got around to telling us that either.)

Agent355 wrote:

That said, I love Indina Menzel and I really liked Let it Go, and I was very disappointed that they shortened the song's performance (especially when they had Pink perform the entirety of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for no apparent reason- what was that all about?)

I, er, THINK it was supposed to be about Oz's 75th anniversary--At least, that was the reason given up front.
But then, we had Whoopi Goldberg girl-palling it up with Ellen and telling us she's a Friend of Judy, and Ellen coming onstage in a goofy costume...Are we (shudder!) really sure Bruce Villanch isn't writing for the ceremony anymore? Shocked

(We thought he had been sent away into permanent exile, after that James Franco/Anne Hathaway apocalypse made us finally realize what had been wrong with the ceremony for thirty years, and why Whoopi had flopped with her other two hosting gigs...)

Love that Frozen song. Been awhile a song like that had such a pull on the masses.

As for the other nominees and the animated category in general, I found this article to be really depressing about the voters in the animation categories:

How the judges voted

Wish they would take it more seriously and at bare minimum watch all the nominees.

I wouldn't make too much hay about that article. Academy members get deluged with screeners for all categories at the end of the year and they could never have time to watch absolutely everything, especially if they have a day job. Ideally, they'd watch everything before they vote in a category, and you can see that several of them are honest and abstain, but, realistically, yeah, a lot of them are going to vote without watching everything in the category.

Congrats Frozen, you definitely earned those two Oscars! Also, bring on the sequel.

As good as The Wind Rises is, I personally don't see it as Miyazaki's best film because controversy with the setting aside, I really have no interest in seeing it again. Besides, Miyazaki already won an Oscar for his much superior film Spirited Away years ago, so it's not all bad.

Haven't seen Frozen, but quite honestly I don't think another animated film can beat The Wind Rises. This is a film that has stuck with me ever since I saw it, and I'm still thinking about it now. Quite frankly, I did not have much hopes of it winning. As Answerman said in response to my question, Disney has too much influence and too much power to NOT have Frozen win. They own both films in the US, so they obviously wanted their own film to win.

However, the Academy should have at least mentioned Miyazaki and his achievements in animation. Come on, this man is retiring! They couldn't have given him some kind of Lifetime or Honorary award?

Last edited by EricJ2 on Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:27 pm; edited 2 times in total

Haterater wrote:

Love that Frozen song. Been awhile a song like that had such a pull on the masses.

Uhh, yeah. Sure does, don't it. But I still think it's a case of "That song...I do not think it means what you think it means. Confused

"

(Please, would one of the cultists kind step up and explain how "The cold never bothered me anyway" is meant to be "uplifting and empowering", unquote, and not a tragically ironic depiction of rationalization in the face of bitterness, as it's meant to be in the context of the movie scene? Or is that what's so appealing about it?)

Haterater wrote:

As for the other nominees and the animated category in general, I found this article to be really depressing about the voters in the animation categories:

How the judges voted

Wish they would take it more seriously and at bare minimum watch all the nominees.

We learned all we needed to last year:
Nobody except the animation fans went to see Wreck-It Ralph in theaters last year ("What, it's a whole movie about Sonic the Hedgehog?"), but when it came to voting, it's okay--You're always safe voting for Pixar! Go ahead, give your vote to Brave!

((facepalm) Mad

...The freak year Pixar messed up and let the outsider in, and the voters HAD to ruin Disney's chances of getting their real first earned Oscar.)

He's not really retiring, he's only stated (this isn't the first time) that the Wind Rises was the last movie he's personally directing. He'll still be dictating Ghibli's future, writing scripts, drafting storyboards, and harassing his son, but he's not exiting the industry. Maybe when he dies they'll toss him into the In Memoriam, but he's really not a big enough name here otherwise.

Haterater wrote:

Love that Frozen song. Been awhile a song like that had such a pull on the masses.

As for the other nominees and the animated category in general, I found this article to be really depressing about the voters in the animation categories:

How the judges voted

Wish they would take it more seriously and at bare minimum watch all the nominees.

Is that true, Frozen won an oscar because 4 of the critic voters didn't have a single knowledge or passionate love for animation. If this is true, then why put animation at the oscar for?? Who got those voters that didn't have a big knowledge on animation?? Why did they allow them to vote when they didn't watch all the animation?? If this get out, the Academy award is going to be under fire for this.

That's only a few of the voters, not all of them. There's like what, 600 eligible voters for the animator category if I remember right? That image was only a sample. I can understand abstaining if you never got a chance to give all of the nominees a share shot at your vote, like I haven't seen Ernest & Celestine. Only one of those samples was a condescending and humorless prick, but I bet it's not that common.

EricJ2 wrote:

(We thought he [Bruce Villanch] had been sent away into permanent exile, after that James Franco/Anne Hathaway apocalypse made us finally realize what had been wrong with the ceremony for thirty years, and why Whoopi had flopped with her other two hosting gigs...)

I don't know about Bruce Villanch or his writing, but the Oscars were really bland this year, as if they were trying to be super inoffensive to make up for Seth McFarlane insulting everyone last year. Can't say I blame 'em, but it shouldn't have to be boring--maybe they should let Neil Patrick Harris host. He always makes the Tonys a lot of fun. They filled up the show with a lot of too serious movie clip montages ("Heroes" as a theme? Really?) And in the animation montage, I couldn't spot anything foreign/anime related at all. At least they included animation for adults in the form of Roger Rabbit.

The interviews from the original The Hollywood Reporter series on Oscar voting were interesting and pretty much confirms that some voters see animation as the "for kids" category, and nothing will change their mind anytime soon. Also, people voted for Matthew McConaghy for True Detective as much as they did The Dallas Buyers Club.

Agent355 wrote:

Also, people voted for Matthew McConaghy for True Detective as much as they did The Dallas Buyers Club.

Nah, it was totally his scene from Wolf of Wall Street that won him the statue.

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