We woz robbed! (Oscars)

[Dr Legostar]

*studies nanda so that future people will understand this aspect of society*

[Nanda]

*wiggles toes*

[Dr Legostar]

*makes note*

[Yeahduff]

stuff

The only thing we're disagreeing about is whether films outside of the typical getting nominated is something worth being offended about.

But on the note of animated movies being up for best picture. It's happened already. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0101414/awards

didn't win, but it was nominated, thus showing us animated features can make it into the best picture category.

Does no one listen to me? Anyway, I was under the impression that Snow White won Best Picture, but maybe I made that up.

But there is a very real difference between animation and live action.

Irrelevant. It's a film and can therefore be, in theory, the best film.

Don't misunderstand. I'm taking issue with the idea that Best Animated Feature is somehow absurd and nonsensical. Of course I think animated should be nominated for Best Picture if they're good enough.

Why not see it yourself and form an actual opinion of your own? (I mean that sincerely, not in a snarky/sarcastic way.)

Good or not, it's not my kind of movie. Anyway, it's human nature to have absolute certainty about topics you have no experience with.

- Joel Fagin

what Nanda said, but in my case I mean it in an entirely snarky/sarcastic way. People at work have seen it and have good things to say about it.

Uh, yeah, what the fuck. I mean, don't see it cuz a couple dudes on a webcomic messageboard and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences thinks it's pretty good, but don't go on about how terrible it is if you haven't bothered.

Best Animated Feature category came when a whole bunch of really good, really big animated movies were coming out, your Pixars and Miyazaki's etc. There was outcry over why they weren't getting Best Picture nominations, and instead of broadening focus, the BAF category was created. And while it may be a bit of a pigeonhole, it's recognition, and there's little indication suggesting Spirited Away or Ratatouie (um, plenty of adult themes here, by the way) would've gotten BP noms.

[Dr Legostar]

But on the note of animated movies being up for best picture. It's happened already. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0101414/awards

didn't win, but it was nominated, thus showing us animated features can make it into the best picture category.

Does no one listen to me? Anyway, I was under the impression that Snow White won Best Picture, but maybe I made that up.

only thing it got nominated for was Best Music: Score

[Yeahduff]

NO ONE TAKES CARTOONS SERIOUSLY.

[Dr Legostar]

Cartooning is seriuz biznez.

[Mr.Bob]

Oh thank christ. I thought this thread was making an argument for Australia...

What's wrong with that? I mean I haven't seen it but I'm assuming that it's basically Pearl Harbor with Wolverine in it, right?

Jamie! You return to defend the motherland!

Pearl harbour is not a good movie. Now take that and make it doubly patronizing and 4x as mawkish. Now filp it unto the southern hemisphere.

[Yeahduff]

And add Wolverine.

[Dr Legostar]

snikket.

[McDuffies]

True but consider Pixar's movies. Toy Story 2 dealt with the pros and cons of immortality; Wall-E dealt with obesity, computer addiction and surrendering to entropy versus a little TLC; The Incredibles dealt with the culture of mediocrity; and Finding Nemo dealt with parental loss and over protectiveness.

Toy Story 2 and Wall-E were, however, spattered with Disney-esque slapstick to make sure to keep kids interested, and had character designs which were obviously designed with children audience and possible toy merchandising in mind. Finding Nemo was pure and simple fantastic voyage type of story, and theme of parental loss was just incidental, plot device.
Ratatouille is much more mature film than Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo was one of the most kiddie-oriented movies they made.

That's deep stuff for all-ages movies.

Sure, but that's not telling much

Hell, that's deep stuff for mainstream, non-animated movies.

Possibly.

That's deep stuff for a lot of literature.

"A lot of literature" is a vegue term that you might try to twist around if I contradict. I'll just say that if all you ever read is Sci Fi and Fantasy, then Pixar is deep, serious stuff. However, compared to average, say, Paul Auster or Nick Hornby book, Pixar's films are simple-minded.

It's certainly a lot deeper than Slumdog's "It'll all work out because of, you know, destiny or something"* theme.

Theme of Slumdog Millionaire has nothing to do with "destiny or something". I'm sure that trailers tried to put accent to romance and money aspect, but those were less important, obligatory parts of the plot. What film is basically about is, there's this guy who is the least likely to have a life rich with experiences and memories, and when he starts to unravel his memories, you realise that noone's life is really poor.
Plus it's a tapestry of lowlife in India, which is not something you can see in every film.

You do raise a good point though, the movies that win the oscars are exactly a certain type of movie, the type that appeal to the academy, this isn't something lots of people voted on, it's based on the academy, and they're really not interested in our opinions.

It would probably be even worse if people were voting. But academy isn't even a voice of critics, someone dedicated to evaluating films professionally, it's simply a voice of people from film industry, so how objective could it be. Raquel Welch was in the jury, for christ's sake, woman who's famous for her saying that woman doesn't need to know how to act if she's pretty!

[RPin]

I don't see the problem about slumping a movie into a 'kiddie' category when it is primarily aimed at kids. If we were talking about an animation that is indeed aimed at adults and never even got an Oscar nomination, then sure.

But I also don't take Oscar seriously. Awards should be just that, the reward of a well meant effort. But the Oscar has become mainly another venue of advertising large budget movies. Why should anyone regard a tool to serve mainly private economic interests while façading the promotion of art so highly?

[McDuffies]

My sentiments exactly.

[Evil Jamie!]

Oh thank christ. I thought this thread was making an argument for Australia...

What's wrong with that? I mean I haven't seen it but I'm assuming that it's basically Pearl Harbor with Wolverine in it, right?

Jamie! You return to defend the motherland!

Pearl harbour is not a good movie. Now take that and make it doubly patronizing and 4x as mawkish. Now filp it unto the southern hemisphere.

Okay, you got me, I also havn't seen pearl harbor.
But I mean, still,
you know,
Wolverine.

[Rkolter]

[

That's deep stuff for a lot of literature.

"A lot of literature" is a vegue term that you might try to twist around if I contradict. I'll just say that if all you ever read is Sci Fi and Fantasy, then Pixar is deep, serious stuff. However, compared to average, say, Paul Auster or Nick Hornby book, Pixar's films are simple-minded.

Harsh. There is a lot of very deep, serious sci-fi and fantasy out there. You're making the same mistake the Oscars did - pigeon-holeing a whole catagory based on a false notion.

[IVstudios]

That reminds me, I need to clean out my pigeon hole. It's all full of feathers and more than a few dead pigeons.

[Dr Legostar]

That reminds me, I need to clean out my pigeon hole. It's all full of feathers and more than a few dead pigeons.

i keep telling you, you need to feed them or they die!

[Yeahduff]

It's certainly a lot deeper than Slumdog's "It'll all work out because of, you know, destiny or something"* theme.

Theme of Slumdog Millionaire has nothing to do with "destiny or something". I'm sure that trailers tried to put accent to romance and money aspect, but those were less important, obligatory parts of the plot. What film is basically about is, there's this guy who is the least likely to have a life rich with experiences and memories, and when he starts to unravel his memories, you realise that noone's life is really poor.

Let's not overstate it. Destiny has a lot to do with this movie, though you're right otherwise. Crying "destiny" and "love story" is lazy criticism anyway.

Raquel Welch was in the jury, for christ's sake, woman who's famous for her saying that woman doesn't need to know how to act if she's pretty!

Isn't this true?

The Oscars are as much about the pageantry as the awarding, and its hard to take them too seriously, but c'mon guys, it's not like they're honouring Paul Blart: Mall Cop or something. If it were merely about promoting big movies, The Dark Knight and Wall-E wouldn't have been overlooked (Dark Knight was better than Slumdog, Ben Button, and The Reader, at least). View with skepticism, but let's not mistake this for the Grammies or the Billboard Awards.

[Dr Legostar]

It's certainly a lot deeper than Slumdog's "It'll all work out because of, you know, destiny or something"* theme.

Theme of Slumdog Millionaire has nothing to do with "destiny or something". I'm sure that trailers tried to put accent to romance and money aspect, but those were less important, obligatory parts of the plot. What film is basically about is, there's this guy who is the least likely to have a life rich with experiences and memories, and when he starts to unravel his memories, you realise that noone's life is really poor.

Let's not overstate it. Destiny has a lot to do with this movie, though you're right otherwise. Crying "destiny" and "love story" is lazy criticism anyway.

Raquel Welch was in the jury, for christ's sake, woman who's famous for her saying that woman doesn't need to know how to act if she's pretty!

Isn't this true?

The Oscars are as much about the pageantry as the awarding, and its hard to take them too seriously, but c'mon guys, it's not like they're honouring Paul Blart: Mall Cop or something. If it were merely about promoting big movies, The Dark Knight and Wall-E wouldn't have been overlooked (Dark Knight was better than Slumdog, Ben Button, and The Reader, at least). View with skepticism, but let's not mistake this for the Grammies or the Billboard Awards.

or the MTV awards.

[RPin]

View with skepticism, but let's not mistake this for the Grammies or the Billboard Awards.

Being skeptical would imply that we at least hold some degree of doubt over the validation of the Oscar awards. At least for me it's not the case, it's more of an apathy matter. I don't think they award the best movies that are out there and I don't care about them. It's the attitude I hold for most awards: I don't like people telling me "hey, this is officially the best movie of the year, go watch it".

The Oscars have what I judge to be a very nocive side effect. This is totally anedoctal, but I'm surrounded by people who only see movies that are nominated and awarded by the Academy. Yeah, these would still be idiots had the Oscar never existed, but the point still stands. Awards of this importance should not serve private interests and should not promote clique-ism and close-mindedness.