"This doesn't look like an Oscar statuette..."
This year's nominations for the Oscars-- that would be the 81st Academy Awards, by the way --are coming up, and today the Academy issued
a list of 20 animated films that are in consideration to be nominated (or perhaps I should say "nominated for nomination"?). Among them are both
Astro Boy and
Ponyo, and if both of them made it into the final cut it would be quite an achievement for Japanese animation.
"THAT'S not an Oscar statuette, either!"
On the other hand, it's hard to give this list a LOT of attention, since it feels like almost every full-length animated feature that was released this year is on it, including the not-yet-released The Princess and the Frog from Disney and the direct-to-video film Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, not to mention some stiff competition from the fantastic UP and the relatively adult (but lukewarmly received) 9.
What do you think? Does either film deserve an Oscar? I'm inclined to think it's just not anime's year-- if Princess and the Frog really does recapture some of the ol' Disney musical magic I expect it'll be rewarded with an Oscar to push Disney to keep doing it, and if not, then I definitely think UP has an immense chance to win. Both Astro Boy and Ponyo were enjoyable-- see my reviews
here and
here, respectively --but neither was five stars amazing.
Oh and it's the 82nd Acadamy Awards, not 81st.