The Academy Awards are this weekend, and in the animation category, there’s a lot of “Buzz” around Toy Story 3, nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Song, Best Screenplay and Best Picture. I’ve been a fan of Pixar since the beginning, but I’m not rooting for Toy Story 3 this year, because I think it is not one of Pixar’s best films. Despite its popularity, I thought it had a weak script, and it pains me to see it nominated for screenwriting.
You can read more of my thoughts about Pixar in a recent guest post I did for the Animated Writings blog. I invite you to leave comments and let me know what you think. Have you been disappointed by any of Pixar’s recent films? Do you think they are as good as their earlier ones? Do you think Toy Story 3 should be among the Best Picture nominees?
The film I would love to see win Best Animated Feature is The Illusionist, by French director Sylvain Chomet. It’s a quiet film, a quirky film, a film with almost no dialogue and almost no plot. It is like no animated film I’ve ever seen, and several days after viewing it, I’m still not sure what to make of it. It’s a slice of life, a tribute to a bygone era, and a beautifully-animated film.
I’m dying to see The Illusionist! I liked Toy Story 3 a lot, but my main issue with it as an award winner might be that I don’t think it stands on it’s own. You really need to know what happened in the previous 2 to “get” it, so it’s not really complete unto itself.
On the other hand, bonus points must be added for the appearance of Mr. Pricklepants! 🙂
I agree, it felt like the third act of a play, after you’ve developed the characters and now it’s all action and summing up. There were a lot of things I liked about Toy Story 3, but I thought it didn’t live up to the previous two, as far as writing and inventiveness.
I still haven’t seen The Illusionist, but I have seen plenty of clips from it and the design, backgrounds and animation are all stunning. A vast improvement over Les Triplettes de Belleville, whose characters were poorly designed for animation, too skinny and comic-strippy, even though the film was delightful, if a tad long.
The drawing in The illusionist is excellent, reminiscent of Tintin even.
Even thought the film didn’t win an Oscar, Sylvain Chomet has done wonders for hand-drawn animation with his films and I hope some adventurous producers will keep him going.