The Academy dgafs about animation, what else is new

[Calamity Panfan]

I think part of it may have to do with distribution. Looking through the foreign/"obscure" animated movies that have been nominated they're either distributed by Walt Disney Pictures (Miyazaki's films), Sony Pictures Classics (The Triplets of Belleville, Persepolis, The Illusionist) or GKIDS (The Secret of Kells, A Cat in Paris, Chico and Rita, Ernest & Celestine). These distributors probably either hold more clout with the Academy (perhaps have connections?) or simply push for Oscar consideration more than other, smaller distributors. Probably a combination of the two.

[CaptHayfever]

Any film also has to run for a week of paid admission in an LA theater with "proper" promotion to be eligible--the first part of that isn't too hard to pull off, but the promotion criteria requires a lot of money. :(

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Apollo the Just]

Wow this started off as "the judging panel couldn't even be arsed to watch the nominees" but now I'm having trouble naming a single part of the entire process that is even a remotely reliable reflection [rrrrr] of the 'best' animated movies

this is depressing, i kind of had an inkling before but wow

[Calamity Panfan]

Yeah, that's the problem with any award show or search to list or rank the "best" of anything because even if you tried to watch/listen/experience as much as you can you're always going to end up missing out on something that could possibly be better.

And I'm saying this as a fan of awards shows and ranking/listing things I think are "the best" because even when an award show is laughably wrong about everything (The Grammys) or a list is terribly ranked (most things done by Complex.com) it helps open a discussion of fans on what they personally liked the most of what they saw or listened to or ate or drank or whatever and more people can find out about dope stuff through those discussions

[Apollo the Just]

^ That's actually a pretty cool perspective. I never thought of it that way.

I mean, for example, we wouldn't be here talking about how boss Satoshi Kon is without the Academy Awards bs.

and i wouldnt have the chance to gripe about how much better httyd was than toy story 3

[Deepfake]

Remember that time How to Train Your Dragon didn't now you all know why i dont think the academy awards are to be trusted

I really liked Toy Story 3 of course but almost all of the punch it packed was due to meta nostalgia and timing; as a stand-alone movie it really wasn't as good IMJUSTSAYING

I saw Toy Story 3 and it didn't really pack any punch for me. Not that it was as big of a mislabel as Frozen. They telecasted the whole stupid plot from start to finish in that and it was very boring to watch them go through the motions without saying much of anything at all about the characters or developing them in any remarkable way.

[Apollo the Just]

Don't get me started on Frozen, I enjoyed it fine but the fact that it is being celebrated as the bestest most feministest movie 5evar makes me nope sooo hard

No one was even remotely developed and easily the least likeable character in the film is the protagonist [who, in addition to being a literal Rapunzel reskin, also had her exact personality, with some added clumsiness for added quirky fun. no thx]. And all she does the entire time is stupid **** that gives something resembling development to other people.

I would have really liked that movie for what it is, except that it is being sooo overhyped as something it really wasn't.

[Calamity Panfan]

but the main characters are girls so its feminist obvi.

and yeah i really like frozen but it's really not god's gift to animation. It's the best not-pixar disney film in a very long time and i really love the soundtrack but compared to other animated movies that have come out in the past few years it's not that special.

[Apollo the Just]

Yeah exactly! Heck I downloaded "Let It Go" because that's one of my favorite Disney songs to come out of a movie in aaaages and I mean I still give it like a 7/10 it was definitely enjoyable but the way it is being heralded as a messiah or some **** makes it hard to appreciate as just the good Disney movie it was

[Calamity Panfan]

I liked it a little bit more than that but yeah i feel ya homie. It definitely was still the best animated movie I saw last year (though I only saw that, Despicable Me 2, and Monsters University)

also it's interesting for like the first time ever these past two years the regular disney film (Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph) was more enjoyable than the disney pixar film (Monsters U and Brave)

[Apollo the Just]

I think I gave it a "7-8" when I first saw it. The 8 probably got killed by the extreme opinions of those around me

I actually really liked Brave (which managed to be more feminist than frozen and the media's reaction to it was "IS MERIDA A LESBIAN????/") but I do think Wreck it Ralph was better. That movie was sooo much better than I was afraid it would be due to trailers

[Calamity Panfan]

I really liked Brave too. I'm kinda surprised that it wasn't incredibly well-received for reasons that basically felt like IT ISN'T AS GOOD AS UP OR WALL-E SO IT'S BAD.

[CaptHayfever]

Heck, Brave is better than Cars, & Cars is still pretty good.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Auron]

The only reason the bets animated category exists in the first place is because the Academy liked the movie Shrek, but didn't have the respect (or balls) to nominate it for best picture. So it basically just exists as a cop out in the first place. No surprise everything afterwards is basically a joke.

[Deepfake]

Well-made comedy isn't allowed to be "Art" according to the Academy.[DOUBLEPOST=1394430004,1394429192][/DOUBLEPOST]

I think I gave it a "7-8" when I first saw it. The 8 probably got killed by the extreme opinions of those around me

It's objectively worse than many Disney films, mostly because there is usually still some grain of a borrowed classical story structure to support their dumb singing lamps and crap. Frozen just has very poor pacing and doesn't handle elements like magic in a way that gives them gravity. The townspeople, etc, are shocked by Elsa's abilities in Frozen but we're never shown in any way how they might be, so there's no emphasis to the reveal. There was no emphasis to much of anything.

People just like it because Disney made a very late jab at the "I just met you it's love at first sight let's get married by the way what's your name?" logic that basically only they made a problem out of in the first place. They made their terrible writing and logic the norm by quaffing competition for so long, they're now getting butt-pats for fixing it. It just rubs me wrong.

The film was technically excellent on many levels, and it's nice that they wanted to depict things like "the normal guy has good character" but it's not a free pass into best-film-of-all-time land.

And stylistically speaking, as far as appreciating art goes, I'm still just seeing bratz dolls who maybe aren't working the corner today in terms of makeup.

[Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds]

I fell asleep watching Frozen, right around the time whats-her-face makes the magic snow castle. By then, I'd guessed everything that would happened (as confirmed the next morning by AI who watched it through).

[b l a n k]

I really liked Toy Story 3 of course but almost all of the punch it packed was due to meta nostalgia and timing; as a stand-alone movie it really wasn't as good IMJUSTSAYING

The whole nostalgia/timing factor is probably why it's the only animated film on record to be nominated for Best Picture.[DOUBLEPOST=1394433911,1394433760][/DOUBLEPOST]

I actually really liked Brave (which managed to be more feminist than frozen and the media's reaction to it was "IS MERIDA A LESBIAN????/") but I do think Wreck it Ralph was better. That movie was sooo much better than I was afraid it would be due to trailers

I'm surprised Wreck-It Ralph didn't win. I mean, I love all things Scottish, but it got 11% more of a fresh rating on the Tomatometer!

[Calamity Panfan]

^ Beauty and the Beast and Up were also nominated for Best Picture.

[b l a n k]

^Touché, but still, if an animated film gets nominated only three times in 80-something years, that tells you a lot about Hollywood, no?

[ZeldaGirl]

^ Beauty and the Beast and Up were also nominated for Best Picture.

Auron nailed it - only two films have ever been nominated for best picture, but the animation category was originally created to be a consolation prize because the academy just didn't want to 'waste' a space. And really, I doubt we'll ever seen an animated movie win the biggest prize; same reason we've never seen voice actors or directors nominated to the big categories for their work in animation. It's just not as valued.