Animation Is Not A Genre: Oscar Edition

As if we needed to point out the Academy’s cluelessness, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, via the Academy Awards show writing team, incorrectly labeled animation a genre as he presented the Oscar for best animated feature. It’s the same mistake made by the LA Times and NY Times, except The Rock made his blunder in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.

As always, we defer to Brad Bird’s corrective note:

“People think of animation only doing things where people are dancing around and doing a lot of histrionics, but animation is not a genre. And people keep saying, ‘The animation genre.’ It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. But it doesn’t do one thing. And, next time I hear, ‘What’s it like working in the animation genre?’ I’m going to punch that person!”

And if you’re thinking—How is Brad going to punch out The Rock?—don’t worry. He’s got backup from Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne who tweeted:

#animationisnotagenre — c'mon The Rock!

— Mark Osborne (@happyproduct) February 23, 2015

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Brad Bird. (Photos: Shutterstock.com)