Despite winning Best Animated Feature at the Annies, usually a good indicator of who will win at the Oscars, Pixar’s ‘Cars’ lost to ‘Happy Feet’ (which didn’t win anything at the Annies) for best animated feature tonight. Having not seen ‘Happy Feet’ I can’t comment on the quality of that film, but I got the feeling that the Academy wants to send a message to Pixar/Disney that they don’t have a corner on the market anymore and that the soft-in-the-middle reflective pieces like ‘Cars’ aren’t to Hollywood’s taste (despite being the second biggest box office earning in ’06). Not that John Lasseter, or anyone, should make films with the tastes of Hollywood or the MPAA in mind, but I’m betting the vote is intended as a shot across the bow.
Speaking of ships, major congrats to the FX crew on ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ for their Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Their motion capture work with Bill Nighy and Davy Jones, was amazing. Wonder how they feel about Disney’s recent move to acquire Zemeckis’ Motion Capture company.
Congrats to Helen Mirren and the folks at Miramax for her win as the Title role in The Queen. It did not win for Best Director nor Best Picture. The Academy ended its trend of separating director from the film.
Randy Newman didn’t win for ‘Cars’ either. That is always a tough category so to expect a second Oscar for Randy was perhaps a bit too much.
Btw, can they make this Oscar show run any later for us folks on the east coast? I realize it’s a show about movies, but how about some interesting stage direction, dancing, performances, and the like? (see Dreamgirls’ best song performance for something in the right vein – although they should spring for some more dancers and a set.) Enough of the 5 minute clips of movies we’ve all seen. At least some of the commercials were entertaining (although it will take more than that to make me want to shop at JC Penney’s again).
What did you think?
I don’t know if the Academy members were sending a message. The Animation Guild blog has a perfectly valid reason…
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/oscar-upset.html
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I think Happy Feet won because it has a 30 minute propagandafest about not eating fish and other liberal stuff that Hollywood loves to pretend is their idea.
The only reason Happy Feet won was because of politics. Do you think it is any coincidence that the Al Gore-like film about conservation and the like won the same year the Oscars so called “went green.” The politics during the whole show were unbearable (if I saw or heard ‘Al Gore’ one more time I’d strangle someone). The show itself I really liked (Ellen was great, all the comedy bits (especially the Jack Black/Will Ferrel one) were hilarious and I was especially happy they didn’t rush the ceremony.
I was, however, INCREDIBLY disappointed at their choice for Best Animated Short. The Little Matchgirl DESERVED to win. I haven’t been that mad at an Oscar choice since last year’s “Pimp” song won for Best Song. The only 3 choices I was happy with were Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor, DMC for best VFX & Helen Mirren for Best Actress.
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