Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles highlighting the major awards leading up to the 2010 Oscars. Check back for more each week!
The year 2010 is officially off and running/filming, which means a whole new award season is upon us (whether we like it or not). For this portion of the 2010 Oscar Preview, the nominees for Best Animated Feature will be blasted to your computer’s screen, your iPhone, your Android or that pathetic excuse for half-a-laptop “cleverly” titled the iPad. My loathing attitude for the iPad aside, let’s refocus the attention on the good, the better and the fantastic (Mr. Fox) that exist thanks to creative genius fused with countless hours of work on balloon designs, fox whiskers and making a princess smoochy-smooch with a frog worthy of the silver screen.Conventionally and predominately, the animation studio Pixar walks away from the red carpet with countless gold statues in wheelbarrows; it just wouldn’t be right not to have a repeat event. In their latest creation titled Up they literally go above and beyond the call of duty. With the fuse of simplified storytelling, atypical characters, and the masterly of kinetics: the branch of mechanics concerned with the forces that cause motions of bodies, there’s no reason why director Pete Docter (Wall-E, Toy Story) shouldn’t ask for gold grills in his teeth bearing the Oscar logo. Smile Pete Docter… you’re an animated genius.
But don’t think Pixar is the only studio that produced an animated masterpiece this year – Wes Anderson brought to life a fox on the rocks, who comes to the shocking realization that directing his life away from crime to journalism might be the right path to peruse. Anderson’s animated feature debut, which includes the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and the great Bill Murray, shows us of his ability to shy away from peculiar adult films (no not porn) and test the waters of the animation world. With his uncanny ability to deliver a story that sticks until you pry it from your mind, Wes Anderson and The Fantastic Mr. Fox might be the only contender to compete with Pixar’s nominated UP.
Coraline (Henry Selick), The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clements), and The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore) all had solid stories, impressive animation and prominent studios (minus Kells) behind them . Yet not one stands out as a contender for Oscar. But still, I’d advise you to check out these films when you have some downtime with children below the age of eleven accompanied by a Sunny D (or two)…
NOMINATED FOR BEST ANIMATED FILM:
The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clements)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)
Up (Pete Docter) [will win and should win]
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Who do you think should win/will win?