Blarrggggg...

So the nominees for this year were released:

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

And Toy Story 3 has the luck of being nominated for “Best Picture” as well. Which brings to light my question—what is the difference between “Best Picture” and “Best Animated Feature Film”? If Toy Story 3 wins “Best Picture” (which I doubt it will, but if) wouldn’t it then, necessarily have to win “Best Animated Feature Film”?

The way the categories are set up, it is my opinion that there should not be a difference. Why do animated films have to have their own little “kiddie table”? They have stories and themes and characters just as everything else, the animation is simply a tool to tell the story, not something that exclusively defines it.

What I propose instead is that the category should be for “Best Animation”. There are categories for “Best Editing”, “Best Cinematography”, “Best Costuming”, etc. This category would judge how animation is used in films, potentially even live action with animated elements. Because good animation is something to be noticed, awarded and praised.

To illustrate my example, I would say that were “Best Animation” a category, I would vote for Tangled to win. Why? Because simply put it had the best animation, in fact probably the best animation that I’ve seen in a 3D film. It applied the classic principles of animation (squash and stretch, overlap, etc.) in a way that has not been attempted for its medium before. 

But with no category to recognize animation, how can society document it’s advances and successes?

Was pretty awesome.

I don’t think it will be my favorite film, and it didn’t take my breath away it’s look like Princess and the Frog did, but it was fun and had some touching moments and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The animation was beautiful however, the best animation I have seen in a 3D film. After watching it my mom commented that the animation looked very realistic. I couldn’t help but laugh, because the reason why that was true is because the animation was so far from realistic, and that’s why it was amazing. (excellent squash and stretch, “breaking” the models, etc.  Glen Keane’s influence was amazing!) “Realistic” animation is horrid and stiff lurks in the uncanny valley. As a result I have extremely disliked most 3D films up to this point. The animation in this felt right, and totally unlimited, powerful, and poignant.

As for seeing it in stereoscopic 3D, I’m not sure what it did for me. In general the atmosphere was “nice”, but I felt that save for one scene it didn’t add a lot. The scene was pretty good though, really felt claustrophobic. Though on the other hand I felt that in the long run the 3D hurt the film. The textures on the tower fell apart pretty quickly, Rapunzel’s hair floats around Flynn’s form when she has him tied to the chair, it doesn’t look like it’s really holding him, and there is a shot where she steps into the water that is just wrong, she kind of floats in the middle of it halfway to the bottom.

The aforementioned “claustrophobic” scene, the one in the boat, and the end were my favorite scenes. The lanterns were magical, thus fun to watch, and awwww love. The other two I liked because they really put the characters in danger, which is exciting and a level missing from far too many films. Plus I have a soft spot for tragedy.

As for the characters- lots of fun. Rapunzel kicked some butt. Flynn was nonstop fun to watch, and his sarcastic reluctance to everything made me love him so much more. Maximus was so entertaining and well animated; great attitude for a horse. Though they could have been more developed and more could have been done with them, all of them felt very real.