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Film reporter Patrick Goldstein, in today’s LA Times, writes about movies that are long shots for the Oscar’s Best Picture nomination. One of them is Pixar’s Wall•E:

A wonderful, critically beloved movie, “Wall-E” in any normal world would be a shoo-in nominee for best picture. Its problem? It’s an animated film, the one genre (along with comedy) that gets no respect from the academy — no animated film has won an Oscar for best picture, even though many classics, notably “The Lion King,” “Toy Story 2,” “Spirited Away” and “Ratatouille,” were just as good as the live-action winners in their year of eligibility. Actors, who make up the biggest branch of the academy, almost never vote for animated films, so it’s virtually impossible to put together enough support from other branches of the academy to register a win.

Hence, the best animated film ghetto, which, just like at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, allows an animated delight like “Wall-E” to get some recognition without having a legitimate shot at best picture stardom. Some commentators have suggested that if Disney had spent just another $20 million to push “Wall-E,” it could’ve gotten over the top, but Disney is probably right not to throw good money after bad — too many academy members have a built-in bias against animated films, viewing them as just not “important” enough to vote for.

As much as I’d like to see an animated film recognized alongside live action in the Best Picture category, I’m afraid Goldstein speaks the truth. This is the reality: no matter how much money animation makes, or how many hits Pixar and Dreamworks churn out, animation is still a 2nd class citizen in Hollywood.

I don’t like it that way. It’s not how I think — but it’s the way it is. And nothing that happens seems to change that perception. Four of the top 10 movies of 2008 (in U.S. box office gross) were animated features – four – and the other six were blockbusters that had more than their fair share of CGI effects (Iron Man, Dark Knight, etc).

And consider this scenario, which is entirely within the realm of possibility: Waltz with Bashir could be nominated (and win) in three categories (Animated Feature, Foreign Film and Documentary), Wall•E could be nominated (and win) as Best Picture, and leave, perhaps, Kung Fu Panda (my pick) winner as Best Animated Feature. Even if this could happen (and it’s not impossible) animation would still be considered by non-animation folk, as Goldstein says, “not important enough”.

It’s been a hell-of-a-good year for animation but, according to some, we still rank 2nd place.

58 Comments »   posted in Ideas/Commentary

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Tonight at L.A.’s Silent Movie Theatre

January 13, 2009 12:05 am

Sound cartoons… Disturbing sound cartoons. Cartoons too violent, too scary, too depressing and, though made decades ago for all ages, are considered no longer suitable for todays kids! Tonight, Tuesday January 13th, at 8pm I’m returning to the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood with a full program of classic cartoons no longer shown on television and not on DVD.

If your childhood wasn’t already perverted by hours upon hours of unhinged animation, this show will make it up to you. I promise to fry your brain with ultra-rare 16mm and 35mm prints. Bring kids at your own risk. For more details, check the Silent Movie website.

UPDATE 3:00pm: The 8pm show is almost sold out! A second screening at 10:15pm has been added. The show also got a nice plug on LAist.

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2009 New Year’s Greeting by Art Grootfontein

January 12, 2009 2:16 pm

Every year around the holidays I receive a whole slew of animated greeting cards. The new year’s greeting below by French artist Art Grootfontein is the most impressive from this past season’s batch of e-cards. It should be evident from the piece itself, but Grootfontein also tells me that one of his favorite sources of inspiration is my book Cartoon Modern.

8 Comments »   posted in Flash, Shorts

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Comics and the American Jewish Dream

January 12, 2009 1:35 pm

Wanna meet three comic art legends? The YIVO Institute in New York will be presenting one-on-one interviews with three comic book innovators.

Al Jaffee, Jules Feffier and Harvey Pekar will be interviewed by comics writer and critic Danny Fingeroth. YIVO’s Comics and the American Jewish Dream series kicks off Wenesday January 21st at 7:00 pm with The MAD, MAD, MAD (Jewish) World of AL JAFFEE. The series continues with Jules Feffier on Tuesday, February 3, at 7:00 P.M. and Harvey Pekar on Tuesday, February 17, 7:00 P.M. The YIVO Institute For Jewish Research is at 15 West 16th Street, in Manhattan. Admission $25 / YIVO members: $18 / students: $12. For tickets call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.com.

1 Comment »   posted in Comics, Events

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Cartoon Mojo Launches

January 12, 2009 2:22 am

A new site launches today: CartoonMojo.com. It’s a video sharing site in the YouTube mold that focuses exclusively on animated shorts. In that respect, it’s similar to sites like AniBoom and MyToons. Notably, the site was created by artists–industry veterans Louie del Carmen and Octavio Rodriguez. It remains to be seen how Cartoon Mojo will distinguish itself from its already more established brethren but there is still plenty of room for competition in this arena. Below is one of the shorts featured on their website: “Anniversary” by the boys at Ghostbot.

19 Comments »   posted in Internet/Blogs

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Cel-ebrating Animation’s New York Roots

January 11, 2009 10:10 am

We’ve plugged the forthcoming It All Started Here! several times already, but once more couldn’t hurt. I also couldn’t resist posting this photo of J. J. Sedelmaier and Howard Beckerman which appeared in the Westchester section of the local NY Times on Thursday. The Times article gives a good overview of the events planned starting next Saturday around the New York area. Don’t miss this series if you live in the Northeast. You’ll hate yourself if you do. For even more details, click here.

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