Oscar the blog #2 (Best Animated Feature Options)

Naturally this is my category of choice and this year there were some choices, and while I feel spoiled that there were finally 5 films to choose from I still thought it wasn't enough and thought a few got shorted. Below are the five nominees and my quick opinions on them. Again, I will not post who I think should win until my next blog. Thank you for reading and enjoy...

Coraline:
Henry Selick did a fine job at another stop-motion animated film. I am a little indifferent on this film as it had an even amount of things I liked and didn't like. Let's start with the bad. The story had some issues like some things needing more explanation and it just wasn't in depth enough. My other issues were that there were too many similarities to past films like Beetlejuice, Spirited Away, Alice in Wonderland, and Nightmare Before Christmas. The good came through a bit in this though and that was the incredibly well done animation. The look of the film was solid and stunning. I was amazed with the cinematography of the whole film because it really helped give it a whole feel. As I said I am indifferent on Coraline. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It did deserve its nomination.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson completely blew me away. I was expecting this to be ... well, I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was really good. Even though it was an animated film and that was a new realm for Wes the film still felt like it was one of his. I never read the book as a kid so I wasn't super excited about the film. The animation is great, the characters are great, the story is great and the direction was great. This definitely deserved its nod here and not just because it was Wes.

The Princess and the Frog
As most of you know I have a long standing grudge with Disney and there films especially 2D ones. The last one I really liked was Lilo & Stitch and before that was Lion King so it is rare for me to like them nowadays. Despite this fact I found this movie to be amazing. It takes a lot for me to be able to say that but Disney didn't stay so formulaic in this film. They worked out of the norm and retold a classic story in a new way. The songs weren't that bad either. I truly loved the style and the characters though especially the villain. All in all it was a refreshing return to 2D for Disney. Besides that it made me have a mad craving for some soul food.

The Secret of Kells
This film went under the radar. I was in awe of it for sure. The story was new to me, it had incredible animation and artwork, and its illusion pulled you right in. I don't really know what to say about this movie besides that you need to see it yourself. Beyond worthy of its Oscar nod and has apparently won all sorts of other animated awards. Besides that it was good because it came out on my birthday last year. :)

Up
If you read my previous blog about Best Picture than you should have read what I wrote about Up. Up was a good film. Not one of PIXAR's best but still a good film. It doesn't hold a candle to WALL-E, Nemo, Ratatouille or most of the others but it was cool. I think the fact that it was PIXAR was the only reason this one made it to this list. The Academy and I differ on opinions a lot of the time and here it couldn't be more apparent. I did not think that Up deserved to be listed this year and especially do not approve of it in the Best Picture category. I am pleased that there is an animated film up for Best Picture but it is the wrong year to have done this. Up was fun and was a normal good hearted film. It was really fun to see in 3D so I saw it twice. People, please do not get me wrong I really liked the film I just thought it was lacking the usually PIXAR pizazz.

My opinions on the other animated films this year are as follows... Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs I felt was shorted out of a nod. It was really stylized and really funny so I liked it.
Monsters Vs Aliens was pretty awesome too especially with the witty comedy and having Colbert as the voice of the President.
9 should have stayed a short film. Sorry Shane but I liked the short a lot better.
Ice Age 3 was better than 2 but not as good as 1.
AstroBoy was the last one on my list of films this year. I think it was a brilliant resurrection of AstroBoy and I think IMAGI is under appreciated but the world will love them when T28 comes out.
Of these which do I think truly got the shaft? Cloudy and AstroBoy should have been in there but I can understand why they weren't...mostly.