OVP: Best Animated Feature Film (2015)
The Nominees Were...
Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, and Rosa Tran, Anomalisa
Ale Abreu, Boy and the World
Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera, Inside Out
Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, Shaun the Sheep Movie
Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura, When Marnie Was There
Ale Abreu, Boy and the World
Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera, Inside Out
Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, Shaun the Sheep Movie
Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura, When Marnie Was There
My Thoughts: We have hit the back half of 2015 now, and while I've been dragging this year in particular out for some reason (perhaps it's nostalgia for a time when Obama was president), we're actually going to cruise through the next few contests, as I am ready to drive into 2016, and finish off our first decade of OVP films as I recently finished the year, and have some things to say. I'm saying it out loud and speaking it into the universe-we will do at least two of these a week until we're done. As a result, let's get to talking about the animated films of 2015.
The shocking thing for me is, even just four years out, how small the films of this race seem in hindsight. The only major blockbuster of this bunch is Inside Out, found in a sea of sequels & The Good Dinosaur, we might have some rose-tinted glasses when it comes to this movie. After all, the ending feels a bit convenient, and I didn't like the jokes toward the end surrounding the parents. However, the actual chemistry between the five emotions and Bing Bong is terrific, with gorgeous art direction abounding and a wonderful piece of work from Phyllis Smith as Sadness. This is the sort of movie that Pixar used to be able to make with staggering consistency, but I can't fault it for being the a triple when it's coming amidst a few strike outs.
While none of the other movies came close to the financial success of Inside Out, creatively the one that should have been its biggest Oscar competitor was Shaun the Sheep, another gem from Aardman. Containing only a smattering of dialogue, the movie relies chiefly on visual cues to create its motif, and it does so wonderfully. There's some great comic set pieces (particularly the ones surrounding the farmer's daily routine), and the animators cleverly use the nearly identical nature of each of the sheep to strong effect. The movie occasionally misses out when it comes to character growth, and I would honestly love to see the studio go for a truly slam dunk winner again like Chicken Run, but overall this is laugh-out-loud funny and really cute.
Not so funny, at least in a "ha ha" way is Anomalisa, the latest from the mind of Charlie Kaufman, and a movie I still have mixed feelings about years after catching it. The movie's smart, and it has a lot to say about chauvinism, consumerism, and the way that we fetishize the people around us, but it's also a bit of a slog. It's genuinely hard to watch a movie with such an unlikable, odious main character as Michael, and while the twists are inventive, it's hard to tell what Kaufman is saying about men and himself when Michael is clearly serving as a surrogate for someone. Is this a deeply personal movie, where Kaufman shares his own intense sense of vanity (and the way that it's self-destructing), or is he indicting someone else? I would have liked a bit more clarity, perhaps at the expense of some of the graphic marionette sex.
At the time, we all thought When Marnie Was There might be the final Studio Ghibli film (since then, Miyazaki has thankfully taken back his retirement threats), so one wonders if it would have been able to beat some stiff competition without the threat of finality. The movie has its moments (I liked the night scene animation, and the way the movie uses yellow-and-blue), but the script is a downer, one that's easy to see coming (and Ghibli's films are intended enough for adults that plot twists being obvious isn't as forgivable as it would be for Dreamworks Animation). I honestly don't think this would have made it were it not "the final Ghibli," and considering it's overlong and a bit laissez-faire about its story, it probably shouldn't have made the cut.
I cannot say the same for Boy & the World, arguably the strangest film to be nominated in this category yet. Using almost no dialogue (and no English-language dialogue period), it's a mesmerizing visual feast, showing the world of a young boy who sees the universe in breathtaking color. The film plays in a lot of ways like what you'd expect from the Animated Short category, and occasionally that's a bit much; it stretches too long even at 80 minutes, and the plot choices feel a bit well-done. However, the colors are breathtaking, when it astounds it really pops (I saw this in theaters the first time, and uttered "wow" several different scenes), and it's a relatively compelling message for a children's film.
The shocking thing for me is, even just four years out, how small the films of this race seem in hindsight. The only major blockbuster of this bunch is Inside Out, found in a sea of sequels & The Good Dinosaur, we might have some rose-tinted glasses when it comes to this movie. After all, the ending feels a bit convenient, and I didn't like the jokes toward the end surrounding the parents. However, the actual chemistry between the five emotions and Bing Bong is terrific, with gorgeous art direction abounding and a wonderful piece of work from Phyllis Smith as Sadness. This is the sort of movie that Pixar used to be able to make with staggering consistency, but I can't fault it for being the a triple when it's coming amidst a few strike outs.
While none of the other movies came close to the financial success of Inside Out, creatively the one that should have been its biggest Oscar competitor was Shaun the Sheep, another gem from Aardman. Containing only a smattering of dialogue, the movie relies chiefly on visual cues to create its motif, and it does so wonderfully. There's some great comic set pieces (particularly the ones surrounding the farmer's daily routine), and the animators cleverly use the nearly identical nature of each of the sheep to strong effect. The movie occasionally misses out when it comes to character growth, and I would honestly love to see the studio go for a truly slam dunk winner again like Chicken Run, but overall this is laugh-out-loud funny and really cute.
Not so funny, at least in a "ha ha" way is Anomalisa, the latest from the mind of Charlie Kaufman, and a movie I still have mixed feelings about years after catching it. The movie's smart, and it has a lot to say about chauvinism, consumerism, and the way that we fetishize the people around us, but it's also a bit of a slog. It's genuinely hard to watch a movie with such an unlikable, odious main character as Michael, and while the twists are inventive, it's hard to tell what Kaufman is saying about men and himself when Michael is clearly serving as a surrogate for someone. Is this a deeply personal movie, where Kaufman shares his own intense sense of vanity (and the way that it's self-destructing), or is he indicting someone else? I would have liked a bit more clarity, perhaps at the expense of some of the graphic marionette sex.
At the time, we all thought When Marnie Was There might be the final Studio Ghibli film (since then, Miyazaki has thankfully taken back his retirement threats), so one wonders if it would have been able to beat some stiff competition without the threat of finality. The movie has its moments (I liked the night scene animation, and the way the movie uses yellow-and-blue), but the script is a downer, one that's easy to see coming (and Ghibli's films are intended enough for adults that plot twists being obvious isn't as forgivable as it would be for Dreamworks Animation). I honestly don't think this would have made it were it not "the final Ghibli," and considering it's overlong and a bit laissez-faire about its story, it probably shouldn't have made the cut.
I cannot say the same for Boy & the World, arguably the strangest film to be nominated in this category yet. Using almost no dialogue (and no English-language dialogue period), it's a mesmerizing visual feast, showing the world of a young boy who sees the universe in breathtaking color. The film plays in a lot of ways like what you'd expect from the Animated Short category, and occasionally that's a bit much; it stretches too long even at 80 minutes, and the plot choices feel a bit well-done. However, the colors are breathtaking, when it astounds it really pops (I saw this in theaters the first time, and uttered "wow" several different scenes), and it's a relatively compelling message for a children's film.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes per usual, took a more mainstream approach, cutting Boy and Marnie in favor of the more commercial The Peanuts Movie and The Good Dinosaur, while BAFTA, which correctly sticks to three nominees, still found time to put Minions next to Inside Out and Shaun the Sheep. At both ceremonies, Inside Out took the top prize, which also happened at the Annie's, though there the body copied the Globes' nominees exactly. As a result, it's hard to tell whether it was The Good Dinosaur or The Peanuts Movie that made it to sixth, but considering it is the only non-sequel Pixar film to ever miss with the Academy, I'm going to assume that The Good Dinosaur was a just miss.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I personally think that this should only be three-wide, as there are rarely enough nominees to fill this up properly. I'd keep Shaun and Inside Out, but I'd still find time for The Peanuts Movie, which was such a nostalgic treat. The animated TV features we know-and-love would be impossible to recreate, but here they modernize in a way that feels like you're watching another classic.
Oscar’s Choice: Against such small competition, it feels preposterous to think anyone could beat Inside Out.
My Choice: I hate to be cliche, but I'm also going with Inside Out. It's more inventive than Shaun, even if Shaun feels more effortless at times. Follow that with Boy, Anomalisa, and Marnie.
There you have it-the Animated Featured category. Anyone want to stray from the group thought and propose a different victor than Inside Out? Does anyone else still think about how bizarre Anomalisa is all of these years later? And who was sixth-The Peanuts Movie or The Good Dinosaur? Share your thoughts below!
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