The Oscars

I may be a few weeks late to the scene but Oscar season has come and gone yet again.  For me there are only a few categories of note:

Best Picture

Best Animated Short Film

Best Animated Film

This year, best picture didn’t interest me much.  I was ecstatic that the wonderfully charming “Paperman” won Best Animated Short and not surprised that “Brave” won Best Animated Film.  It seems like every year they’re nominated, Pixar always comes out on top and while Brave was certainly a good movie and definitely worthy of joining the likes of The Incredibles and Spirited Away, I though it lacked the originality of some of this years greats such as Wreck-It Ralph and Pirates: Band of Misfits.  

Out of the five animated films nominated for Best Animated Picture the only one I didn’t see was Frankenweenie.  From what I've heard and seen from trailers it's a dark movie about a boy who tries to bring his dog Sparky back from the dead with science.  It looks like it's full of Tim Burton's unique style and I look forward to seeing it eventually.  

Brave was great and I believe it will be remembered for years to come.  For those of you who haven't seen it yet (and shame on you) Brave follows Merida and her quest to change her fate.  It was a fantastic film with beautiful animation and a lot of heart, exactly what we've grown to expect from Pixar.  It truly deserved to win best animated feature.  

LAIKA's Paranorman was a great film whose dark nature was a great reminder that animation doesn’t have to be just for kids.  I loved watching the weird and creepy adventure of Norman, a normal kid who can talk to ghosts.  It had a lot of strangely funny parts, combined with some actual scares and a really fresh animation style.  

Pirates: Band of Misfits was hilarious and provided that British humor that only the folks at Aardman seem to be able to bring to animation.  Watching The Pirate Captain (yes that is his actual name) and his lovable crew fight Queen Victoria and her militia was very entertaining.  

And of course, Wreck-It Ralph.  Ralph was in my mind the most original animated movie this year, possibly in the past decade.  It follows retro video game villain Wreck-It-Ralph as he tries to prove that bad guys can be good too.  It was one of my favorite movies of the year and a must see for any animation or video game fan!

Overall, it was a great year for animation and I highly recommend everyone the least bit interested to watch all these movies!

This was an excellent year for shorts as well.  Fresh Guacamole was strangely mesmerizing, The Longest Daycare was surprisingly entertaining, Head Over Heels was charming and unique, Adam and Dog was a unique look at a classic story, and of course Paperman was excellent!  They were all worth seeing but Paperman stole the show for me.  It was truly charming while adding a unique visual style and presentation.  I was very impressed this year!   But more on those tomorrow...