One Category at a Time: Best Animated Feature

The Academy's animation branch saw a record number of submissions this year for Best Animated Feature consideration, which makes it a tad surprising that the final five were so easy to predict, and that the race for the win has been such a non-contest for so many months.

My Award Nominations: Animated Feature

I know, I know, only four nominees seems super lazy in a year which saw record submissions for the Oscar, but I promise if I eventually catch up with other 2016 toons that I like well enough I shall retroactively add them to the ballot.

March palette cleansers

New releases will be low on my list of priorities for the next few weeks, but anything I do happen to see in the 'Oscar off-season' (three so far) I'll mention here.

2016 predictions coming later this spring.

My Award nominations: Animated Feature

Didn't think it was the strongest year for animation all around, but there was lots of variety of technique upon which to feast the eyes. My five Best Animated Features nominees are:

My Award nominations: Original Screenplay

Read about my favourite Original Screenplays after the cut.

Review - Wreck-It Ralph

Spinning off of an imaginative, Monsters, Inc-like concept about a community of video game characters living within the same arcade, Wreck-It Ralph may seem at a distance to be little more than a nostalgia trip for parents and a seizure-inducing distraction for their kids, but the marketing is a mirage. While it starts out merely as a clever homage to the arcade culture of the eighties, it transitions into something more substantial and compelling before its ingenious but admittedly thin premise has the opportunity to wear out its welcome. You need not be a gamer in order to relate to this beautifully spun tale about seeking acceptance and discovering self-worth, which is frankly the best movie Walt Disney Studios has given us since its 1990s heyday. It's like the Pixar movie we never got last year (what is this Cars 2 of which you speak?).

We all know what it's like to be in a rut; that feeling of desperation that comes from going through the motions of a dissatisfying routine, the frustration of being doomed to your “lot in life” when you desire so much more. Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) understands it all too well. He, the villain of an antiquated arcade game called “Fix-It Felix Jr.”, has been performing the same Sisyphean grind for 30 years. Ralph wrecks the building, Felix (John McBrayer) fixes the building. Felix is rewarded with medals and admiration from the tenants, Ralph is tossed in the mud and made to sleep on a heap of discarded bricks all by himself. Sunrise, sunset.