Saturday, January 13, 2007

Penguins: More Vulnerable Than They Appear

For at least a month it has seemed like everyone assumed that Happy Feet would trounce its animated competition for this year's Animated Feature Oscar. If they did, it'd be the second year running that penguins captured a specialty division Oscar (they won the documentary prize last year with March of the Penguins) But is the assumption a safe one?


Though Cars took in more money, Happy Feet's loot has been remarkable securing it a solid place smack dab in the middle of the year's top ten hits. In terms of critical reception the story is also a good one. For the animated films of '06 it's second only to A Scanner Darkly on critical top ten lists. So what's with the ANNIE Nominations? It scored only 2. That can't be a good sign... that tally is easily bested by a number of titles including Ice Age, Open Season, Monster House, Flushed Away and Over the Hedge. Maybe I should change the rankings on my animated predictions page? Might Carzzz win this after all?

11 comments:

Glenn Dunks said...

Those Annie nominations were strange. Flushed Away was like the They Shoot Horses, Don't They of them. It got something like 9 nominations yet not Best Film. Or I may be wrong. I dunno. But they're strange.

And of all the people to be left off the Best Director list leaving off George Miller seems incredibly odd.

I have a sneaking suspicion it may be because they're not a fan of live action directors turning to animation. Happy Feet got 2, A Scanner Darkly got none and The Polar Express only got one a few years back. Doesn't that sound like lunacy?!?

I hope Happy Feet wins. If only to encourage more deranged lunacy and maybe a few more animated musicals? Who knows. Plus, I want George Miller to have an Oscar.

John T said...

I think you're dead-on with this category Nathaniel. Cars and Happy Feet made a mountain of cash (and we all know how much Oscar likes his Box Office at the end of the day), and Monster House is the easier critics darling to honor (that is, over A Scanner Darkly). All of the other animated films seemed to actually be the same film (I'll admit I didn't see any of the Open Season/Flushed Away/Over the Edge style movies, but I couldn't tell them apart from previews I've seen, even from reading about them). With those three in tow, I have a suspicion this could end up being the most competitive year for this category.

On a completely related note, does anyone else think they should just always limit this category to three. I know a lot of people think that they should scrap it altogether, but as long as animated films keep raking it in, that's not going to happen, so why not at least tighten the category by only having three nominees?

NATHANIEL R said...

yes, as i've said before it should never be more than 3 nominees (i'd rather it not exist but whatever)

any more than 3 and you're talking 33% of the animated films being released are getting nominated and that's just silly.

Poli said...

I prefer Monster House and Over the Hedge myself.

Paxton Hernandez said...

If I had an Oscar ballot and I was allowed to vote for Best Animated Film, it would look like this:

1. Over the Hedge
2. Flushed Away
3. Paprika

Sorry guys no Cars nor Penguins for me. =(

Glenn Dunks said...

For me, it'd probably be Happy Feet, Cars and... I dunno. Over the Hedge, Flushed Away and Renaissance were all pretty good by my standard. So, one of them.

NATHANIEL R said...

monster house and over the hedge were my favorites but i missed a scanner darkly -- just got the dvd from my netflix queue but it was unwatchable.

Glenn Dunks said...

The movie or the disc itself?

RC said...

the animated race is one of the races that has been sort of fun this year...hasn't it.

Crazy penguin moves...here here for Surf's Up in 2007.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

NATHANIEL R said...

oh sorry the disc itself ;)

Glenn Dunks said...

Oh okay. I wasn't too sure. :)