Ahh, that’s so sweet that they let that senile old man call the winner for UP, a movie about a another crotchety old man. How fitting.

Paul McCartney’s love of animation is well documented. The joke is most likely aimed at the perception of animation, not at us.

Please don’t turn this into another manufactured cartoon brew controversy.

It was a joke. Remember jokes? It’s that thing that cartoons are really good at. Maybe if it had been against Dreamworks you’d have leaughed.

Anyhow, congrats to Up, which I did enjoy, although I wish the plucky underdogs like Fox and Meatballs stood a chance of getting a look in. It’s not healthy for one kind of story and one kind of company to win everything all the time, though the quirks of Up were a nice surprise. Still, a golden year for features.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the way I’m perceived by most people anyway. Animation really needs to be accepted by the creative as a kindred art form. Maybe, just *MAYBE* the hooplah around “UP” will help the cause, but it is connected to Disney. For animation to really gain any points, the prizes have to go to independent animation, perhaps the only place where one person’s true uncompromized vision is still important and fully realized. Judging by this comment, though, that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon, even if Sir Paul was being facetious. When those in the industry can proudly stop apologizing for their choice of career, then animation’s finest can really be given respect and be seen as true art. For now, I’ll honor all endeavors in this area as true art even if all others don’t see it that way.

Pixar could help massively if they decided to be bold and not make a kids/family friendly feature film for once – or at least freed their shorts programme from the same formula.

McCartney’s well-documented judgment in other areas should temper any sting his animation pronouncement might have. After all, he just lost over $50 million to an evil one-legged ex-prostitute, whom he actually married for crazy old man reasons.

You managed to make a hateful remark against Zemeckis. Again.

Anyway, congratulations, the best lobbyists in the business have won. Does it mean that the future of animation is in those 180M$ formula productions? What a fucked-up industry, let’s hope there’s a revolution coming.

“…it’s also for adults who take drugs.”

Isn’t Paul McCartney one of those? He must love animation.

It was a JOKE, Jerry! People who enjoy animation are supposed to have a sense of humor. Don’t lose sleep over this.

@ Casper the friendly executive

John Lasseter can also help by letting the folks at Walt Disney Animation Studios stretch their legs and not limit them to fairy tales. I’m looking forward immensely to Rapunzel, but after that I’d like to see WDAS tackle more experimental film-making and visual styles. And why can’t they make an adult animated feature and release it through Touchstone.

I may be misjudging the man, but I get the feeling that Lasseter is terribly conventional, and under him WDAS will not get out of its rut. Now if he’s brave enough to announce a third Fantasia, then I’ll happily change my mind.

To be fair, Paul McCartney invented taking drugs, thats how old he is.

Jerry, it has come to me that you may have a drug addiction.
We’re all here to support you man, we can beat this!

i was so offended i almost choked on my spliff.

I hinted his sarcasm when he said that line. While shaking my head at the same time. But all that aside, hopefully people will recognize that animation is not a kids medium. Hopefully there will be more PG-13 animation films that are not afraid to please a general audience…just need to have real good stories.

Yeah, the comment didn’t so much anger me as it did just… I dunno, disappoint me. Just another casual knock at trivializing animation and its filmmaking potential – at this point I’m getting pretty weary of it. Comments like that, even when framed as satirical, or “just a joke” – all they do is normalize the attitude of discrimination and superiority by live action towards animation. Kinda like misogyny. *grumble*

Anyway, something that is also getting old fast is Pixar’s virtual monopoly of animation awards. I do hope other entries (hoping and praying there are five this year) in the Oscars get fair consideration over Up. As great a film as the latter is, I’d love to see another nominee take it, like Coraline. Not only is the painstaking detail of its stop-motion quite admirable, but that the film also did not pander to kiddies and their over-sensitive parents and actually kept its dark tone from the book is something I really wish we could see more often in family films, animated or otherwise.

Uh, you all realize that he read what some writer wrote for him to say from a prompter, right? That awards shows are the place really bad jokes go to die? But by all means, continue ginning up a controversy where none exists.

That sounded like a Bruce Vilanch-style ‘snappy patter’ line to me, and Sir Paul did look like he was reading it. I doubt if McCartney would bring up recreational druggies for ridicule on his own, given his long, well-documented personal history with cannabis sativa.

I can only assume that Sir Paul is speaking autobiographically here, not necessarily as a blanket statement that all adults who enjoy animation take drugs.

I really wouldn’t read too much insult into his attempt at humor. It comes off as typical awards show “funny” banter , inane as always, whether it’s the Oscars or Golden Globes, whatever … Why otherwise talented people consent to mumble these idiotic lines on awards shows year after year is a mystery to me. It’s almost an expected show-biz convention (i.e Awards show time = lame jokes, poorly told)

Point of fact , Paul McCartney is a big animation fan and has provided employment for a lot of animators over the years (primarily through the studios of Oscar Grillo and Geoff Dunbar in England)

first of all, yes, it was a joke. but i don’t see it as a joke that trivialized or marginalized animation at all. If it was someone with an anti-drug slant like Rush Limbaugh that made that comment, it might be considered negative, but otherwise it only seems to be an insult if you consider recreational drug users as damaged, immature or irresponsible.Which, by and large, they aren’t. and it’s not just me as a responsible hallucinogen-user saying this, let’s please remember that some great minds, including Ward Kimball, Francis Crick (the progenitor of the double-helix DNA structure) and Steve Jobs, have admitted to tripping on acid, and having has some very valuable experiences on it. I’m not saying everyone should do it, or that it should be allowed to children or whatever, and i definitely dont want this to degenerate into a drug enforcement argument. but please let’s not all immediately attack someone for connecting great art with drug use, goofy and codgerly as that person may be.

The joke itself is funny and part of myself wish that people thought more often than animation is for adults who take drugs rather than asumming it’s only childish stuff for kiddies. Still, the fact that they have to start this joke saying that “it’s nor for kids” reflects that this explanation has to appear always.

As much as I liked the visuals of Coraline and Cloudy I still think Up is all in all the best animation movie this year. Part of me would like to see other studio winning, but all in all I really liked this particular Pixar movie. I kinda enjoyed KFP more than Wall-E, though. And I admit the first one was probably more shallow, but I still found it more entertaining.

I haven’t watched Fantastic Mr Fox or Princess and the Frog yet.

Joke or not I just don’t think that was very professional or appropriate in an award ceremony intended to honor film makers.

Let’s not be prudish here (there’s enough of that in the animation world) – as an unabashed fan of “mainstream” stuff like YELLOW SUBMARINE, FANTASTIC PLANET, HEAVY METAL, FIRE AND ICE, ROCK AND RULE, THE MAXX, METALOCALYPSE and SUPERJAIL, I applaud that statement! Nothing wrong with adults doing drugs and watching animation is there? *chugs cough syrup and puts on Deathklok “No More Hamburger Time” music video* Oh yeah… hurts so gooooooood…

“I haven’t watched Fantastic Mr Fox or Princess and the Frog yet.”
Roberto,
Don’t worry, it seems the voters of the golden globes haven’t either.

“for animation to really gain any points the prizes have to go to independent animation”

Actually, independent “animated shorts” have dominated the oscars for the past several decades.

I’m actually sort of getting annoyed with the people who say that Pixar shouldn’t get the award because they are Pixar. I mean seriously, we tend to forget the meaning of BEST Picture. Forget the Studio. Which film had all of its aspects better than any other film. Which Film had the best characters, the best plot, the best drama, the best comedy, the best score, the best emotion? Who makes it or how it was made or how much money it took to make it should not effect your views on who wins the award.

I saw UP, Mr. Fox, Cloudy, and Frog, and in my opinion, UP was the best animated film I saw all year (and I dare say the Best Film I saw all year after a surprisingly weak Live Action selection this year. UP and The Hurt Locker were my two favorites this year.)

You’re almost as bad as the people who say “Avatar deserves Best Picture because it was so innovative.”

(Golden Globes are offically a joke anyways. We all saw travesty in the Best Dramatic Picture category last night, correct? If Avatar were to win Best Picture at the Oscars, I would almost consider abandoning my film dreams. Almost.)

so sir Paul takes drugs?

I thought it was funny. You’re definitely reading way too much into it!

I’m an adult, and I DO take drugs, and Paul’s right on the money with this one.

OK….this joke seems very simple to me. He’s just referencing Yellow Submarine! Simple…no reason to read into it any deeper.

It came across as a joke to me, and one that deflated the pomposity of the event quite nicely. Would that someone could make such a joke when recieving the now much-deflated (though not yet enough) Nobel Peace Prize.

It was a joke…

Legalize Cartoons!

@Sylvain: many of those inconsistent screenplays get Oscar nods, and getting in that category needs more than an old formula. And where in them except Up has that “10 minutes Oscar fodding prologue”? Killing Coral in Finding Nemo or gun-wielding granma in Ratatouille?

Sometimes I feel the hatred for Pixar is as much disdained as the blind love for the studio, which in all fairness, the greatest and most consistent American animation studio nowadays, but their PR skill turns them into something holy.

I’m surprised nobody mentioned the animated films that Paul produced and scored found on the Paul McCartney: Music and Animation Collection (Re-released as “Tales of Wonder: Music and Animation Classics”). To me this is sufficient evidence that Paul takes animation seriously.

DrewDraws said it best and simply. It was a joke at the perception of animation. I like animation and don’t take drugs. I thought it was funny.

My guess is that nobody mentioned it, because the “best song” and “best soundtrack” awards have been considered consolation prizes for years. As if they are used only to give a “number” of nominations to a popular film. It’s an advantage for these popular films to win a number of nominations, because it improves the ratings when the awards are televised or, otherwise, gather the contribution money to survive… Changing the voting rules can help, too.

Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but these awards don’t mean anything anymore in the head of most people. I say this only as my interpretation of how people think… you know… I guess they can see the business part of it seeping through.

Congrats to Pete and the rest of the Up crew! The competition was unusually competitive this year. What with several spectacular animated flicks that appeal to a wide age spectrum, from Mary and Max to Ponyo, to Fantastic Mr. Fox to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Pixar is not a holy studio, but they certainly are some of the more consistent with their movies these days. Sony’s “Cloudy” is great, but you can’t deny that it sticks out as, by far, the studio’s best movie.

Yes, the quote’s a joke, thought in a FEW ways, it’s almost true. Especially if he means Ponyo. There are some parts in that movie (and nearly every other Miyazaki film) that are… trippy, to say the least.

His comment sounds rude on the way it’s written on the article, but once you actually bother to watch the video, you realize he didn’t mean to be offensive, so cool off, you guys!
The old man just tried to be funny.

and thumbsup at Rio’s comment haha!<3

I hate it when people say they don’t take drugs, because alcohol is a drug. And the one that causes most harm in the world. Fair enough if you don’t drink as well, but I doubt that’s the case. I bet most people in that room were drinking.

I’ll never forgive Macca for appearing on the X Factor.

I understand the joke but it is annoying. America is a place where Animation and kids go together as if that’s how is supposed to be.

The whole thing makes zero sense. For that reason many Americans completely miss great Animation titles aimed at adults because they think it doesn’t exist.

I cannot express how frustrating this is especially as a fan of Anime.

Wow, whingy much? It was a joke, hence not what they actually think. Seems pretty simple really….