Is it too early for Oscar season? I’m sorry. Perhaps this sort of thing should wait for the new year. And this is also probably the least inspiring list in the lead-up. On the other hand, it also seems to me to be a way to really examine the state of the year’s film, though it’s only a single genre.
You guessed it—the list of films eligible for Best Animated Feature has been announced. It’s everyone’s favourite moment of the Oscar season!
Okay, yeah. It’s often a list full of “wait, that was this year?” And “that existed?” It’s just every film the Academy considers to meet its exacting standards of “being both animated and feature length.” It is, however, also about the first list of the Oscar season, before everything but the submissions list for Best Foreign Language Film. And unlike Best Foreign Language Film, your odds are pretty good of actually getting to see most of these before the ceremony. Except, sigh, those that are both animated and foreign.
I must confess a certain amount of frustration with how Americans treat animation, which is why I actually do look forward to the release of this list. Every year, at least one movie makes the list which sounds intelligent, thoughtful, and intended for adults, not children. Often, these are foreign. They almost never make the list of nominees. Chico and Rita, okay, but it’s unusual. However, I find them from the list, and I seldom regret watching them. I even managed to see The Illusionist crowded into the frankly uncomfortable seats at the Olympia Film Society!
There are a lot of books that I think would be best adapted into animation, if they’re going to be adapted into film at all, and I know that isn’t going to happen. Animation, so far as we are concerned in this country, is for children. So I’m probably never going to get the animated Eyes of the Dragon that I want, because who would animate Stephen King? Animation is for kids, and even if Eyes of the Dragon is probably one of the closest things he’s ever done to children’s literature (the pop-up book of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon notwithstanding), it’s like all those people who thought Watchmen must be for kids because it’s superheroes. We don’t just typecast actors; we typecast genres. It’s kind of weird.
Do I seriously think Planes: Fire and Rescue is going to be nominated? Gods, I hope not. Certainly that adaptation of The Wizard of Oz won’t be. This is not a list of good animated films, and I don’t pretend it is. More a starting point for several different conversations. Here’s another conversation we can start—from what I can tell, Foodfight! wasn’t even eligible. I assume this has something to do with not really getting a proper theatrical release, but we can also pretend that the Academy, having once nominated Norbit for an Oscar, was just joining the rest of us in pretending it didn’t exist.
