Can and should an animated film be considered for Best Picture at the Oscars? You’re god damn right it should if it is indeed one of the best pictures of the year.
With a lot of critical and audience praise, many are already asking the question about Wall-E and the Oscars. Already a shoe in the best animated Oscar, the issue here is the big prize… best picture.
Time Magazine put up a story today on their website about just this issue and we even got a mention in it:
With its tale of a trash-strewn earth centuries into the future, WALL-E’s environmental message should resonate with the typically liberal politics of most Oscar voters. The film also makes affectionate nods to films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, City Lights and Hello, Dolly! “There are a lot of little olive branches in WALL-E to the Academy,” says The Movie Blog’s John Campea.
Head on over and read the whole piece here.
Probitionate – While I respect your viewpoint, have you seen the movie? I do know where you’re coming from, and I know my point won’t make a huge difference to The Academy, but WALL-E quite prominently features live actors, and no I’m not only talking about the Hello Dolly footage. Every “human” from the past in WALL-E is a live-actor.
Regarding some other points – I’m not sure that everyone here has seen the movie if they agree that a timeless love story is “juvenile”. I think that may be missing the point, entirely.
Should WALL-E get a Best Picture Oscar? Yes. Will it get nominated? I’m currently placing bets on yes. Will it win? Not unless the end-of-the-year pickings are slim.
Why can’t good and widely-popular family films that are moving and meaningful compete for, and win, the Best Picture Oscar these days as well? After all, family fare like My Fair Lady (1964), the Sound of Music (1965), and Oliver! (1968) have all won the Best Picture Oscar, along with the slightly less family friendly Titanic in 1997. Why does a film have to be dark and brooding, and appeal to art house crowds instead of main street, to win, or be nominated for this Oscar?
WALL•E is a landmark achievement in a number of ways. It employs a very creative use of silent film comedy techniques in telling the story for perhaps the first time in some 70 years. Its love story is reduced to a uniquely beautiful, and very moving, simplicity — one that has kept me misty-eyed now for nine viewings! The film achieves a wonderful blend and balance among science fiction, romance, a post-apocalyptic future, and even salts some slap-stick comedy and humor in! Its visuals achieve a new sense of realism that make the scenes on Earth look like they were photographed, not rendered. Musically, too, the score departs from conventional “space opera” with creative uses of flutes and dulcimers. And the opening, accompanied by Hello Dolly’s “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from 1969, has to be considered unconventional, even risky!
I don’t think it’s a stretch to perhaps assert that WALL•E could be a landmark ‘Wizard of Oz’-type film of our time, at least visually and story-telling wise. It is time that animation was recognized and accepted as an equal story-telling medium alongside live action (which itself is being increasingly blended with animation through CGI special effects.) So if WALL•E is still not good enough to be considered for best picture, what animated film could really ever be? . . . An animated version of No Country for Old Men??
Wake, up Academy!! It’s slap in your face that one of best movie this year came from the media that always had been not appreciated properly. Best Picture nomination for this lonely robot!
Thanks, ZACH
I absolutely did no research on Oscar History same on me. I should have before making a statement like that, sorry and thank you.
PS – John, the recent comments section on the right doesn’t seem to be working (at least with Safari).
Not to the extreme, but I agree Jay. Wall-E is cute and looks gorgeous. Also the “no dialogue” thing is sort of interesting (see a movie called 3-Iron for an amazing no dialogue movie). But the story itself is pretty juvenile. Not much to think about and the human dialogue gets pretty inane while the action is derivative of the usual Pixar fare.
Just a hit you over the head message (environmentalism) we’ve seen a million times. Idiocracy did the “lazy, stupid humans of the future” much better. As soon as the humans enter the story Wall-E takes a turn for the worst.
Having not seen any of the films I listed in the comment above, I’m quite sure many of those will be much richer and more profound than anything Wall-E has to offer – which in my mind is a huge chunk of what a best picture should be. Not just the fact that it’s critically acclaimed or visually stunning. And not to mention they will likely have pretty ass-kicking performances.
It would be a lame choice to consider Wall-E as Best Picture. As I commented in the review section, I don’t feel this is Pixar’s best yet.
This would be a cop-out on the Academy for a liberal pro-enviromentalist point-of-view.
How sad this is coming to…succumb to the usual derivatives.
that would be cool.
lets just hope some sweet remake of silence of the lambs doesn’t come out and take the win like when Beauty and The Beast was nominated.
congrats on the quote john.
i started a petition for this very subject. click my name for the link.
*Body of Lies
1) Awesome you’re in Time.
2) There are too many people that don’t think Wall-E is THAT amazing.
3) It’s July. Still coming we have:
The Road
Defiance
Doubt
Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Australia
Burn After Reading
The Changeling
Synechdoche, NY
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Body of Liea
Milk
Guerrilla
House of Lies
So a little earlier to be proclaiming the best picture of the year I think.
Wall-E was the worst Pixar movie so far (still good), so no. Thank you.
Congrats John
So let me at least attempt to understand this…TMB and other movie related websites are good enough for TIME but not Variety. Strange.
*****
As mentioned, the academy has that fail-safe of best animated film. As such, you, I, everyone, knows that Wall-E will be one of the nominees, and most likely will win with zero suspense. It’s a dumb category anyway and deserves to get booted.
But…isn’t there *one* possibility?
Couldn’t Disney.Pixar pull out from the consideration of Best Animated film category and lobby for Best Picture?
Hey Orren Jesen,
The first and only time an animated movie got nominated for best picture was for Beauty and the Beast in 1992.
Cheers
You’ve been quoted in Time Magazine? Way to go John!!!!
It would be cool if they do consider Wall-e for the Best Picture nomination. It would be the first time animated feature got nominated for Best Picture but what are the odds. It could be a really cool Oscar this year if Heath Ledger gets nominated and wins Best Actor and Wall-e get nominated and wins Best Picture. No doubt Wall-e will win in Best Animated Feature category (clean sweep) but how much more prestige would animate film get if Wall-e won a Best Picture Oscar.
Imagine the possibility of Fred Willard being in a movie that actually got an Oscar nod.
:-)
Awesome.
Wall-E is the spiritual heir to Silent Running.
John’s all prestigious now:)
And I loved Wall-E to death. I’ve been walking around crying “Eva!” to my friends, but I don’t think it’ll even get nommed for Best Pic. Best Animated Pic is in the bag already, though.
John and Fellow TMB readers,
I feel this post is less about Wall-E and more about TMB’s insight to the movie business and quality recognition. I’d say there is a dearth of good writing and critics opinions tend to be sanctimonious, self-serving and smug.
Conversely, John and the Crew tend to enjoy talking to the crew like the “fanboys” they are, and of course we all enjoy the occasional nerdgasm together when news breaks!
So John enjoy the exposure and may it do wonders for your career, just bring us on the ride too!!!
I enjoyed WALL-E, but I didn’t even think it was Pixar’s best. The amount of “critical and audience praise” is also due to its eco-friendly message at a time when green is the new black.
http://www.moviestosee.net
It will prob win 15 Oscars, the Academy is just that lame and desperate for ratings.
I certainly don’t understand the spell Wall-E puts over on some people.
Oh yeah its cute. ;-/
Considering that the largest portion of the voters for Best Picture are actors…doesn’t it seem a little unlikely that they’d be even remotely interested in the idea of a film that doesn’t feature a person on the screen (please, voice-overs are not the same as a paying gig with your face up on the screen, and I can prove it by asking any of the top-500 actors in H-wood which would they prefer: a live-and-in-person starring role, or a starring voice-over role. Guess what the overwhelming consensus would be…?) being awarded a Best Picture statuette. This may make those like John want to stamp their feet and hold their breath…but that doesn’t change things. (Nor does it bring me any closer to agreeing with them.)
I agree with THOS- since there is an “best animated category” it wont be nominated for best picture…shoe in for best animated but no best picture love.
Yes I think it should be considered, but it won’t. IMO, as long as that bs “best animated” category exists, no animated film will ever be taken seriously for best picture. It’s unfortunate, because Wall-E should definitely be in the running.