Posted on: February 2nd, 2010 Gaiman Vies For Best Animated Feature
I rarely fall for Oscar-buzz, but I sniffed around the nominations this morning, hoping for a nod to Coraline, animated fare based on the book by Neil Gaiman. Joyfully, it is up for Best Animated Feature, amongst some heady competition.
Of course, Neil Gaiman is not capable of a bad book, but Coraline is one of my favorites. I MAY have one of the drawings from the book tattooed somewhere on my body, just as an example of how much I love this story.
Coraline is a bored child, who discovers a secret passage to a world that is a fun house mirror image of her own, a world with adventure and mouse orchestras and waffles and buttons and snarky cats.
The highly anticipated movie was released in February, and it was pretty magical in so many ways. I nearly fell off my chair laughing at the burlesque dance performed by the saggy and batty Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (while responsible mothers in the audience hurried to cover their children’s eyes). The animation was superb and mind-blowing and fanciful. I even survived the seemingly nonsensical insertion Wybie Lovat into the film, a *shudder* little boy who was not mentioned in the novel, who helps out Coraline on her exploits.
Easy Oscar win right?
Not so my fine furred friends. Coraline is up against The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a Wes Anderson stop-motion venture based on the Roald Dahl book. Voiced by a star studded cast including George Clooney and Bill Murray, Mr. Fox capers through the countryside, stealing chickens and cider, and uttering one-liners that had the adult audiences rolling in the aisles. CLUSTER-CUSS!
As they are nominated in the animation category, can we even begin to compare the glossy stop motion magic of Coraline to the intensely multi-dimensional stop motion magic of Mr. Fox? Really, it’s like apples and oranges, as Coraline is supposed to take you to a dream world,
while Mr. Fox is supposed to take you on a picnic in the country. Personally, I’m leaning towards Mr. Fox on this one, simply because you could see the little fuzzies on his foxy tail. It was warm and sunny and made me grin from ear to ear.
Yeah yeah yeah, Up will probably take the Oscar itself: little boy, old man, fuzzy dog, box office success, happy ending. Also in the category are Disney’s Princess and the Frog, a merciful throwback to 2D animation, and The Secret of Kells, which has yet to be released stateside. What’s your pick?
As for Mr. Gaiman, he announced on his blog Sunday that The Graveyard Book movie is still ago, despite the end of Miramax, which was originally setting up the movie. Gaiman says, “In “putting a movie together” world that barely counts as a hiccup.”
5 Responses to “Gaiman Vies For Best Animated Feature”
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Ryan Ferrier Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 pmI’m really disappointed that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs didn’t earn a nomination. Everybody loved that flick, easily one of the most surprisingly good animated flicks in the last few years. Dare I say I had more fun with it than Up.
That being said, I want Up to win but predict Mr. Fox to win. Coraline is a second choice for me.
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Adam Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:09 pmYou dare not say! UP was my favourite movie of the year! A nomination I’ll agree, but UP was perfect!
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Katie Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:11 pmUp just didn’t catch me. It wasn’t bad but… meh. Didn’t see Meatballs. Me and glossy computery animation, not so much friends.
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Nate Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:19 pmI had an amazing creative buzz after seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in theatre. It was the first animated move that I had seen since The Incredibles to leave me so excited and inspired. It’s a shame that it hasn’t received more Awards.
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Ryan Ferrier Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:27 pmI gotta second Nate; Cloudy ruled. It’s legitimately funny. And while I adore Pixar, they fall victim to the all-too-often tactic of making the odd jokes that only parents/adults will get/like, whereas Cloudy is just plain great comedy writing. Up is the technically better film, no doubt, but Cloudy entertained me more than any animated film since Wall-E (my personal Pixar favorite).
The word of mouth on Cloudy has been great, so why the lack of attention? Bad marketing?