So, 15 animated feature films were accepted for consideration for the Oscars for 2010. They are:
- The ones I Saw: Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Megamind, Shrek Forever After, Tangled, Toy Story 3
- The ones I didn’t see: Alpha and Omega, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
- And, the ones I didn’t even hear of until it was on this list: The Dreams of Jinsha, Idiots and Angels, My Dog Tulip, Summer Wars
That last group—none of those have been on any critics lists or been nominated for say Golden Globes or Critics Choice awards. Similarly, the second group—well, those ones haven’t been and won’t be getting nominated for anything either. So, it’s really between the eight in that first group to be nominated at the Oscars. Note: because only 15 animated features were accepted, there will only be 3 nominees.
The obvious in is Toy Story 3. Nominated along with Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist and Tangled, it took the Critics Choice Award tonight. It also was picked as the top animated feature by, in no particular order, the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. And, it’s been nominated as well for Best Feature by the PGA and is expected to get the same from the Academ. Just like the change to 10 nominees sorta guarantees that a comedy (this year The Kids Are All Right) will make the list, it also kinda guarantees an animated feature (read: Pixar film) will make the list as well; last year, that was Up, this year’s it’s Toy Story 3
Golden Globe nominees and Annie nominees for Best Animated Feature, the same as for Critics Choice: Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, Tangled, Toy Story 3
Getting past other people’s nominations, I would argue that Toy Story 3 definitely deserves not only a slot on the Best Animated Feature list but also the Best Feature list. There is arguably no real flaws to the film; much as it is with any of Pixar’s features, taste in the subject matter may differ but the film does what it does well, with a script that works for kids and adults, a storyline that has room for some great laughs (Mr. Tortilla Head, Mexican Buzz, just for a couple examples) and some great drama (the toys grabbing hands as they fall toward the incinerator was probably one of the more tense, sad moments in any film in 2010). Pixar (and most any animated film, in theory) has the benefit of time to get the script put together well, so by the time it gets to the screen, the film should be perfect. Still, many an animated feature comes across a bit too shallow, a bit too simplistic, or simply spends too much time catering only to the kids, neglecting the fact that parents will inevitably be seeing these films as well. Toy Story 3 comes nowhere near to having these problems
Toy Story 3 also doesn’t go too dark, turning off some parents—Megamind (not nominated) and Despicable Me (nominated) both focus on villains, and I’m sure there were plenty of parents who didn’t care for the notion that the central characters here are essentially amoral (or at least start out that way). I think that might actually be the thing that keeps Despicable Me off the Oscar list
(if not its lack of true gravitas, its limited cast, cartoonish (pun not intended but certainly accepted) characters or its over-the-top violence).
How to Train Your Dragon was one of the best uses of 3D in 2010—Toy Story 3 was also in 3D but used it as more of a given, making the toy world as real as ours, while How to Train Your Dragon really used the 3D, just as Avatar did a few months earlier, getting us into the flight, getting movement in the film that still isn’t quite possible with regular cameras (or the usual animation). But, ultimately, the scariness of some of the dragons might turn off some voters and the film was the first released of the ones getting nominated, i.e. it was so long ago, some might not even think to vote for it… of course it’s also on DVD already, so that could get it back in people’s heads (Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me are also on DVD already, as well)
Tangled had some deliberately misleading advertising—focusing on the male rather than the female, not making much noise about it being a musical (at all)—but it still took #1 at the box office. It was the return of non-Pixar Disney animation. And, really, it was a good film, but there was just something about it that didn’t scream, to me, Best Animated Feature. It was almost too generic, despite its own attempts not to be. While its background cast might remind one of some of the variously built Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon (especially visually), they just came across as more real characters and not just silly caricatures in the latter and seemed almost like an excuse for a song and dance in the former. Tangled was good, and certainly deserves any song nomination it might get, but I don’t see it making the cut at the Oscars
So, it comes down to The Illusionist… I’ve ignored Shrek Forever After (which was the best in the series since the first and might have actually had a better-constructed script even than the original) and that owl movie (even though I actually enjoyed it, it has to its detriment a fairly generic plotline that made it so even those who saw it wouldn’t have noticed that it did what How to Train Your Dragon did; it really used 3D well) because these two films have already been ignored by other awards (as noted above). Plus, I only just finally saw The Illusionist tonight and rather enjoyed it. And, what I enjoyed about it was stuff that really sets it apart from every other movie (except Toy Story 3) on the list at the top of this post. It does not have the manic energy of most recent animated films. It doesn’t cram in jokes an quirky background characters… well, it does have quirky background characters but in the world of The Illusionist—1959 when stage performers like clowns, ventriloquists and magicians are being left behind while rock and roll is getting attention—these characters fit in organically, not extraneously, and not simply for extra amusement. The Illusionist is not a comedy, though there are funny moments. It is a slow-paced (for an animated film, anyway) drama, a meditative story that is… well, it’s European, not American, and so it takes its time, lets its characters live rather than be pushed along by a plot. And, it is visually beautiful, stylized like an older animated film, with less vibrant colors, less movement, less eye-catching visuals (except for a few notable exceptions). On the one hand, this film doesn’t even need to be animated, so perhaps it doesn’t deserve to be nominated, but on the other hand, the simple animation, the lack of detail—these make it more universal than, say, Tangled is. The Illusionist is an animated film that isn’t made for children (not to say children won’t enjoy it—Kieran and Saer both liked it) and, while it doesn’t have ennui exactly, it does have a faint odor of entropy, of things ending (even while Alice’s story counters that) and the world moving on. Though the New York Film Critics picked The Illusionist, it is a sad film, which may count against it at Oscar time (and even if it gets a nomination, I doubt it will win over Toy Story 3), but it would be nice to see it on the list, if for no other reason than it will maybe get more people to see it…
- Despicable Me $251 million
- How to Train Your Dragon $217 million
- Tangled $177 million
- The Illusionist $193 thousand
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