24 replies to this topic

[Peter T Chattaway]

“Space Jam” Producer Says Mo-Cap Isn’t Animation and Why He’s Wrong
Last July we posted the amended Oscar rules that stated motion capture would no longer be eligible for the best animated feature Oscar. The rule changes pose a challenge for Steven Spielberg who may want his upcoming film The Adventures of Tintin to be considered for an animation Oscar. In an op-ed piece in last weekend’s LA Times, Steven Paul Leiva, the animation producer of Space Jam, argued that motion capture doesn’t qualify as animation and suggested the Academy should disqualify Tintin.
As much as I personally dislike the aesthetic effects of motion capture films, I feel that both the Academy and Leiva are dead wrong on the matter. However ugly and unappealing a Robert Zemeckis film or the upcoming Tintin might be, they are still animation in my book, as is Happy Feet and even James Cameron’s Avatar. . . .
Amid Amidi, Cartoon Brew, June 7

OSCAR SHOCKER! Academy Builds Surprise & Secrecy Into Best Picture Race: Now There Can Be 5 To 10 Nominees
Beverly Hills, CA — The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on Tuesday (6/14) to add a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition, and a new element of surprise to its annual nominations announcement. The Board voted to institute a system that will now produce anywhere between five and 10 nominees in the category. That number won’t be announced until the Best Picture nominees themselves are revealed at the January nominations announcement. . . .
Other rules changes approved by the Board include:
In the animated feature film category, the need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated, though a minimum number of eligible releases – eight – is still required for a competitive category. Additionally, the short films and feature animation branch recommended, and the Board approved refinements to the number of possible nominees in the Animated Feature category. In any year in which eight to 12 animated features are released, either two or three of them may be nominated. When 13 to 15 films are released, a maximum of four may be nominated, and when 16 or more animated features are released, a maximum of five may be nominated. . . .
Press release, Deadline.com, June 14

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 24 January 2012 - 08:52 AM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The original Cars lost to Happy Feet, and many Pixar fans were upset at the time because they felt Happy Feet had "cheated" by using motion-capture, at least for the dancing.

Does anyone think the critically-reviled Cars 2 has a ghost of a chance of winning this category this year?

- - -

Will mo-cap pics join toon pack?
The live-action awards race has been slow getting started, but the toon category is already highly animated. There are plenty of contenders but, as in live-action, also plenty of questions. . . .
It's been a strong lineup so far, with Disney-Pixar's "Cars 2" as of today joining DreamWorks Animation-Paramount's "Kung Fu Panda 2," Paramount's "Rango," Fox's "Rio," Disney's "Gnomeo and Juliet" and Weinstein's "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil."
Toons for the rest of the year include Disney's "Winnie the Pooh" (July) and "Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods" (fall); DWA-Par's "Puss in Boots," Sony's "Arthur Christmas" and WB's "Happy Feet 2" (all in November).
That's 11 clear toons, and there are at least five added films with questions. According to AMPAS rules, "Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture's running time."
Talks are ongoing how to classify Paramount's "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," because it involves motion-capture. The Steven Spielberg pic opens in December through Sony and Par, but bows two months earlier overseas. Many are confident it will be classified as animation, since so much of what is seen onscreen is animated.
The mo-cap question also is a factor in Disney's "Mars Needs Moms."
Universal's "Hop," "The Smurfs" (Sony, July) and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked" (Fox-Regency, December) blend live-action and animation. They will have to meet AMPAS' quota of animation and the rulings will mean the toon category could feature anywhere from two to five contenders. . . .
Variety, June 24

[pete]

I think it is great the Academy is presenting the best picture nominees between five and ten.

Ten seems too much anyhow. Movies get nominated that don't deserve to be there in movie years that offer little choice.

Inception should not have been nominated for best picture, for example. But in keeping with pretense ... Inception makes the grade.

Best Picture is just that and it requires the best quality films so five nominations is more than enough.

I think people will be looking very hard to come up with possible suitors for best picture which are more than five.

[Peter T Chattaway]

OSCARS: Animation Feature Race Heats Up – But Will Spielberg’s ‘Tintin’ Make The Cut?
There is always controversy about what is true animation, particularly with the motion capture process which uses real performances by actors and then essentially animates the scenes. I’m told that key members in the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’s animation branch conferred Tuesday night for a meeting which lasted 4 hours. Among the topics said to come up was the issue of motion capture (aka performance capture), and an insider with knowledge of the situation told Deadline that they “apparently” have decided to send a letter to the filmmakers of Mars Needs Moms, Happy Feet 2 and Tintin asking them what their “intent” was in the use of the Mo Cap process before deciding whether those films qualify. In its formal rules, the Academy states that “motion capture by itself is not an animation technique” and that the films must be done in frame-by-frame animation. . . .
Many animators have questioned the purity of the Mo Cap process as it relates to their art form, and although such Mo Cap films as Zemeckis’ The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol have qualified for Oscars in past years, none were nominated. In fact, no film using Mo Cap either fully or partially has made the final list since 2006, when both Monster House and Happy Feet were contenders, with the latter actually winning.
Though some animators have their doubts, those behind Tintin certainly do not. Paramount sources who have seen Spielberg’s film swear it qualifies in every way, and they tell me that despite use of Mo Cap it is strictly frame-by-frame in terms of its animation. One person working on the film said, “10 years ago animators were complaining that the CGI process was not pure animation. I think when they see how this form has developed, particularly with Tintin they will start to accept it more readily”. . . .
Overall the animation feature race is more wide open this year after Pixar has rolled over the competition the past 4 annums straight. Cars 2 is not the kind of slam dunk potential nominee or winner that Disney/Pixar has released in the past. With today’s announcement that GKIDS (under the banner of Luma Films) will release Oscar-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba’s animated musical Chico And Rita for a qualifying run before the end of the year, the list of potential films is now 15 by my count. That’s just short of triggering 5 nominees in the category and definitely enough to make way for 4 nominees. . . .
Pete Hammond, Deadline.com, September 28

[Peter T Chattaway]

Eighteen films are in the running. Here they are, with links to the threads we already have on them:

• "The Adventures of Tintin"
  
• "Alois Nebel"
  
• "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked"
  
• "Arthur Christmas"
  
• "Cars 2"
  
• "A Cat in Paris"
  
• "Chico & Rita"
  
• "Gnomeo & Juliet"
  
• "Happy Feet Two"
  
• "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil"
  
• "Kung Fu Panda 2"
  
• "Mars Needs Moms"
  
• "Puss in Boots"
  
• "Rango"
  
• "Rio"
  
• "The Smurfs"
  
• "Winnie the Pooh"
  
• "Wrinkles"

If all of these films get their qualifying runs in L.A. theatres by the end of the year, I believe there is a very good chance we could see five nominees this year, rather than the three we sometimes get.

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 04 November 2011 - 10:51 PM.

[Tyler]

Peter T Chattaway, on 04 November 2011 - 10:49 PM, said:

If all of these films get their qualifying runs in L.A. theatres by the end of the year, I believe there is a very good chance we could see five nominees this year, rather than the three we sometimes get.

Which five do you anticipate getting nominated?

[Peter T Chattaway]

Tyler wrote:
: Which five do you anticipate getting nominated?

Dunno. I'd say Rio was the best of the ten I've seen so far, but that's just me; I don't expect the Academy to vote that way, necessarily.

I'm actually wondering if Cars 2 will even get nominated here. Everyone agrees it's the lamest Pixar film ever, and not just because most of the other Pixar films have been very very good. But if nominees get picked for technical achievement rather than storytelling etc., then it might be a shoo-in. And -- who knows? -- maybe Academy voters will vote for the Pixar film out of sheer laziness.

Similarly, sequels and prequels to other previous nominees -- films like Kung Fu Panda 2, Happy Feet Two and Puss in Boots -- might be shoo-ins because they are "familiar" to the voters in this category. But I don't think sequels have generally done all that well in this category. Shrek 2 was nominated (and lost to The Incredibles), and Toy Story 3 actually WON the award (not surprisingly, given all the acclaim it got, plus the fact that the first two Toy Storys came out before this category even existed -- so the award was arguably for the entire trilogy and not just the one film), but I'm not sure any other sequels have scored big here. (Okay, there was also the Wallace & Gromit movie, which WON the award, and which could sort of be regarded as a sequel to their earlier short films, but it WAS the duo's first feature-length movie, so...)

Winnie the Pooh is kind of a sequel, too, though it feels like a very slight film to me (and I say this as one who has already watched it on Blu-Ray with his kids a few times; it's a fine film for what it is, but it IS what it is), plus it found almost no love at the box office, which might marginalize it in voters' minds.

The Adventures of Tintin has the Spielberg pedigree going for it, and it might be a very accomplished film indeed, BUT it's a motion-capture film, and the controversy over whether mo-cap films "qualify" as animated films is still not settled in some people's minds.

Oh, and Rango is another wild card, what with the Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski and all. And it DID do all right at the box office: not phenomenal, but all right, and it certainly has more of an authorial/directorial "vision" than most of these other films do.

So I guess I just narrowed the list down from 18 to 8 (keeping in mind that I've seen only 6 of those 8). That's not quite 5, but it's close.

(And I guess we certainly can't rule out the possibility of a Book of Kells-like surprise from one of the other, more minor films, i.e. the films that I hadn't even HEARD of until the Academy posted its list.)

[Peter T Chattaway]

FWIW, of the five people who have commented on this so far on my Facebook page, three have singled out Rango for praise (one of them also praised Rio, and another also praised Winnie the Pooh), while, of the other two, one dissed Cars 2 and the other simply asked how The Smurfs qualifies.

Can we declare Rango a front-runner, then? I called it a wild card in my previous post in this thread, but it might have broader appeal than I thought...

[John Drew]

Tyler, on 04 November 2011 - 10:55 PM, said:

Peter T Chattaway, on 04 November 2011 - 10:49 PM, said:

If all of these films get their qualifying runs in L.A. theatres by the end of the year, I believe there is a very good chance we could see five nominees this year, rather than the three we sometimes get.

Which five do you anticipate getting nominated?

I think it may be easier to whittle away some of those films that don't have a chance, or don't merit one. I for one am not going to be surprised if Cars 2 becomes Pixar's first feature that doesn't find a slot in this years race. Here's what I'd leave off, at the moment...



"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" (Why is this "combined form" film considered animation, and something like the more deserving Stuart Little not?)

Cars 2

Gnomeo & Juliet

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

Mars Needs Moms

The Smurfs (Same question as above)

[J.A.A. Purves]

Peter T Chattaway, on 05 November 2011 - 10:34 AM, said:

FWIW, of the five people who have commented on this so far on my Facebook page, three have singled out Rango for praise (one of them also praised Rio, and another also praised Winnie the Pooh), while, of the other two, one dissed Cars 2 and the other simply asked how The Smurfs qualifies.

Can we declare Rango a front-runner, then?

My vote would go for Winnie the Pooh this year.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Baal_T'shuvah wrote:
: (Why is this "combined form" film considered animation, and something like the more deserving Stuart Little not?)

Good question. I was also wondering why Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Smurfs made the cut but a movie like, say, Hop did not.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Incidentially, re: the four films that we don't have any threads for at the moment:

• "Alois Nebel"
  
• "A Cat in Paris"
  
• "Chico & Rita"
  
• "Wrinkles"

The first film is Czech -- indeed, it is also the Czech nominee for Best Foreign Language Film! -- while the second film is French and the other two are Spanish.

[David Smedberg]

FWIW, in case anyone else was having trouble finding info about Arrugas (Wrinkles), here is some info at Cartoon Brew.

Edited by David Smedberg, 07 November 2011 - 10:49 AM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Los Angeles Times makes an interesting point (which I haven`t fact-checked yet, FWIW):

Critics may have little to say about how well an animated film does in the broader marketplace, but a critical consensus means everything at Oscar time. Since the animated feature category was launched in 2001, 10 films have taken home the trophy — none of them having earned less than a 74% Rotten Tomatoes score. And even that score, registered by “Happy Feet” in 2006, was something of an outlier. Since “Shrek” won the first statuette, no other film, other than “Happy Feet,” has won with a score lower than 96%.

And recall, when Happy Feet won the Oscar, the Pixar film in contention was the original Cars, which ALSO has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 74%. (I say `has`, present tense, because I assume these ratings could have been affected by new reviews in the past five years.)

And FWIW, about that Shrek reference, it has 89% at RT, while the Pixar film of that year -- Monsters Inc. -- has 95%.

That establishes a minimum critical quality requirement for any animated Oscar winner, which leaves “Cars 2” out in the cold, especially since 2011 is shaping up to be an especially strong year for animated films. Leading contenders include “Rango,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Puss in Boots,” “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Happy Feet Two.” The films already in release all topped the 75% mark at Rotten Tomatoes, with the upcoming “Happy Feet Two” and “Tintin” expected to be critical favorites as well.

So ... how do THIS year`s contenders line up? Of the sixteen films in contention, ten have been released in North America so far, and their current Rotten Tomatoes ratings are ...

• Winnie the Pooh -- 91%
  
• Rango -- 88%
  
• Kung Fu Panda 2 -- 82%
  
• Puss in Boots -- 82%
  
• Rio -- 72%
  
• Gnomeo & Juliet -- 56%
  
• Cars 2 -- 38%
  
• Mars Needs Moms -- 36%
  
• The Smurfs -- 23%
  
• Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs Evil -- 11%

So if RT percentage is anything to go by, either the little-seen quasi-sequel Winnie the Pooh will win the Oscar, or one of the films that hasn`t come out yet (e.g. The Adventures of Tintin, which is motion-capture, or possibly Happy Feet Two, which is a sequel to the lowest-rated Oscar winner so far...) will win the Oscar. (FWIW, The Adventures of Tintin currently has an RT rating of 85% based on its foreign reviews, but most American critics haven`t had a chance to weigh in yet.)

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Annie Awards have announced their nominees (I'm skipping the TV and straight-to-video nominations):

12 nominations in 8 categories:

• Kung Fu Panda 2 – Best Animated Feature, Directing, Animated Effects (x2), Character Animation (x2), Production Design, Storyboarding (x2), Voice Acting (x2: Gary Oldman, James Hong), Editing

9 nominations:

• Puss In Boots – Best Animated Feature, Directing, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Character Design, Music, Storyboarding, Voice Acting: (Zach Galifianakis), Editing

9 nominations in 7 categories:

• Rango – Best Animated Feature, Directing, Animated Effects (x2), Character Design, Storyboarding (x2), Writing, Editing

8 nominations in 7 categories:

• Rio – Best Animated Feature, Directing, Character Animation (x2), Character Design, Music, Production Design, Voice Acting: (Jemaine Clement)
• Winnie the Pooh - Directing, Animated Effects, Character Animation (x2), Music, Production Design, Storyboarding, Writing

7 nominations in 6 categories:

• Cars 2 – Best Animated Feature, Animated Effects (x2), Character Design, Production Design, Storyboarding, Editing

6 nominations in 5 categories:

• Arthur Christmas – Best Animated Feature, Character Design, Storyboarding, Voice Acting (x2: Ashley Jensen, Bill Nighy), Writing

5 nominations:

• The Adventures of Tintin - Best Animated Feature, Animated Effects, Music, Writing, Editing

4 nominations:

• Gnomeo & Juliet - Directing, Storyboarding, Voice Acting (Jim Cummings), Writing

1 nomination:

• A Cat in Paris – Best Animated Feature
  
• Arrugas (Wrinkles) – Best Animated Feature
  
• Chico & Rita – Best Animated Feature
  
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Animated Effects

It's interesting to see how most news articles have touted Kung Fu Panda 2's 12 nominations in their headlines... but 4 of those nominations are duplicates (i.e. there are 4 categories in which the film was nominated twice), so the film that has been nominated for the most actual AWARDS is Puss in Boots, which is nominated in 9 categories.

FWIW, ever since the Oscars created the Best Animated Feature category in 2001, the film that wins Best Animated Feature at the Annies usually wins it at the Oscars, too -- though there have been three exceptions: in 2006, the Annie went to Cars and the Oscar went to Happy Feet; in 2008, the Annie went to Kung Fu Panda and the Oscar went to WALL-E; and in 2010, the Annie went to How to Train Your Dragon and the Oscar went to Toy Story 3.

FWIW, my pick for Best Animated Feature is still Rio, though I haven't seen Tintin yet or any of the one-nomination-only movies.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Producers Guild of America has revealed its nominees:

• THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
  
• CARS 2
  
• KUNG FU PANDA 2
  
• PUSS IN BOOTS
  
• RANGO

No Rio? Cars 2 gets a nomination, but not Rio? Seriously?

Anyhoo. The winner will be announced January 21 ... three days before the Oscar nominations are announced.

[Timothy Zila]

Peter T Chattaway, on 05 November 2011 - 10:34 AM, said:

FWIW, of the five people who have commented on this so far on my Facebook page, three have singled out Rango for praise (one of them also praised Rio, and another also praised Winnie the Pooh), while, of the other two, one dissed Cars 2 and the other simply asked how The Smurfs qualifies.

Can we declare Rango a front-runner, then? I called it a wild card in my previous post in this thread, but it might have broader appeal than I thought...

Rango is definitely the front-runner in my mind. At least, it's without a doubt the best animated film I've seen this year. I guess you could make a case for Winnie the Pooh, but I think Rango has way more going for it (as much as I enjoyed Winnie the Pooh). I haven't seen some of the indie ones, though.

[Peter T Chattaway]

For what it's worth, the Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for its own awards. The theatrical animated nominees:

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

• Arthur Christmas
  
• Kung Fu Panda 2
  
• Puss In Boots
  
• Rango
  
• The Adventures of Tintin

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

• Puss In Boots - Puss
  
• Rango - Rango
  
• Rio - Nigel
  
• The Adventures of Tintin - Tintin

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

• Puss In Boots - The Cloud World
  
• Rango - Main Street Dirt
  
• The Adventures of Tintin - Bagghar
  
• The Adventures of Tintin - Docks
  
• The Adventures of Tintin - Pirate Battle

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

• Arthur Christmas
  
• Cars 2
  
• Rango
  
• The Adventures of Tintin

[Peter T Chattaway]

For what it's worth, the American Cinema Editors have weighed in with the nominees for THEIR awards:

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:


• The Adventures of Tintin, Michael Kahn, A.C.E.
  
• Puss in Boots, Eric Dapkewicz
  
• Rango, Craig Wood, A.C.E

I have no idea how the ACE awards have compared to the Oscars over the years, but one thing I do know is this: it has been over 30 years since a movie won the Oscar for Best Picture without at least being NOMINATED for the Oscar for Best Editing. Does a similar relationship exist between the ACE and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature? I have no idea.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Motion Picture Sound Editors have announced the nominees for their Golden Reel Awards; the animated candidates are:

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in an Animation Feature Film

• The Adventures of Tintin
  
• Cars 2
  
• Kung Fu Panda 2
  
• Puss in Boots
  
• Rango
  
• Rio
  
• The Smurfs

The winners will be announced February 19, or one week before the Oscars.