The Oscars and their blatant disregard for animation

 I know,I know there's another four months to the Oscars but a video on the same topic by Mother's Basement(that I watched recently) and a discussion by some of my friends spurred me on to make this blogpost.

The Oscars are considered to be the most prestigious awards that someone working in the film industry can get get, at least that's the feeling it gives off. It gives some much needed boosts to films that are critically accomplished but don't have much in the mode of popularity. Bong Joon Ho's masterpiece Parasite won the Best Picture award last year. Indeed Parasite deserved its win as it was in a league of its own. The Oscar's aren't the most squeaky clean awards out there.

The Academy Awards being won by basically throwing money at the voters is an open secret at this point. Campaigners are on par with politicians now, expensive gifts are given, celebrity meet-ups, all sorts of things are done to make the voters vote for a certain nominee. 

However I'm not here to talk about that rather I'm here to talk about the current state of animation in the Oscars but there is a very enlightening video on the subject by Adam Conover from his show "Adam ruins everything". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhfxo8xPNGU

The Animated Feature film category was introduced in the year 2000. It has been 20 years since they started the category and only one movie featuring Japanese Animation-Spirited Away has won the award. Spirited Away is the stuff of legends as far animation is concerned, the art style was incredible, story-tremendously captivating and I could keep on gushing about Miyazaki's masterpiece. So you would think that, "Wow if its such a good film, then it probably had to fight tooth and nail with the other nominees which were no doubt just as good?" Sorry to burst your bubble but the other nominees were Ice age (Imdb score of 7.5),Lilo and Stitch(7.2),Spirit:Stallion of the Cimarron (Imdb score of 7.2) and Treasure planet (Imdb score of 7.2) compared to Spirited Away's rating of 8.6. Of course one could say that Imdb scores are arbitrary and that they could be inflated AFTER the Oscars and that would be right. 

However one cannot overstate that the people who vote for the animation award's don't give a damn for it. Most of the time voters can't even be bothered to watch it. This is due to the false impression that animated content is for children which is a gross misunderstanding. Spirited Away itself is the perfect example for this. Even an adult could gather something for that, however I suppose I do understand how the come to this assumption considering that most American movies are essentially the same concept. Protag is unique- Protag hates surroundings- Protag finds a place where he can show his unique abilities-strife with old surroundings and family-family is blown away by protag-all reconcile-the end.

However as responsible voters their job is to view and critic each film on its individual merits and demerits. A good critic is never biased, frank and to the point. Unfortunately the voters for best animated feature go ahead and vote for whatever film their kids were raving about(which is almost always a Disney or Pixar film) or they vote for whatever latest Disney-Pixar film. They might give a cursory glance towards the quality but not too much effort is spent on critiquing these films. The 2017 awards are the most blatant representation of this.

First of all what the hell's up with the nominations! Ferdinand?! Boss Baby?! Now far from me to say they are crap or something but they are most certainly not deserving of nominations! Boss Baby in particular I have a bone to pick with. The story was passable at best, animation-good but it has no merits of being an Oscar worthy film! I'm still seething over that nomination but of course I would be. When there were wonderful animated features like Your Name or A Silent Voice available why would you choose those movies?! An obvious let down -_-

Ugh boss baby you smug toddler with an impeccable sense of fashion

Your Name

A Silent Voice

The winner for that year was Coco, a movie by... you guessed it Pixar-Disney. You could apply the same story formula from above to this movie and see how it holds up. Bottom-line is that the voters for the best animated feature film of the year couldn't be less bothered about who win as long as its something they're familiar with.

It is quite a sad state of affairs, but as each year goes by a rising trend of international cinema being popularized is quite visible and that's encouraging to say the least. Here's to hoping that animated content is judged and chosen wisely henceforth.

Toodles!

Aby