My Award nominations: Sound Editing

Great work out there from the sound designers this year. I tell ya, some decisions were tough to make in narrowing it down to five for my Best Sound Editing nominees.

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.

Review - Brave

There's a point in Disney/Pixar's Brave – the latest animated effort to be ushered in under the watermark of Luxo Jr. and (more imposingly) Cinderella's castle – when an impatient character declares, “We've all heard this story before!” The teller of said story defends by emphasizing that stories and legends ring with truths, however familiar they be. The same point can be made of Brave itself, a decidedly predictable fairytale more aligned with the traditional morality tales of the Brothers Grimm than with the wild inventiveness upon which Pixar's brand was built, but that doesn't make the story any less beautiful or touching.

At the centre of this earnestly conceived fable is Merida (Kelly Macdonald), princess of the clan Dingwall who reign in the Scottish highlands, gorgeously rendered here by some of Pixar's most stunning animation to date, courtesy of their newly programmed Presto animation system. Merida is in the illustrious but unenviable position of being able to sire peace between hers and three rival clans if she would only willingly marry one of their first born sons, as prescribed by tradition. No pressure, kid. It would certainly please her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), who spends no small amount of effort primping her daughter to be a perfect lady. But Merida is a tomboy of fiery, untamable disposition – with fiery, untamable hair to match – who would much rather spend her days riding out with her trusty bow and a quiver of arrows than resign herself to a lifetime of wifehood. After one particularly heated confrontation with mom, she takes off into the woods, where the mystical will o' the wisps, lighting up the forest floor like floating pilot lights, lead her to a witch's hut. She bargains with the batty old woman (Julie Walters) for a spell that will change her mother's mind about the whole marriage thing, but failing to be specific, gets a spell with more ursine consequences than she expected.

One Category at a Time: Sound Mixing

After an off year which only saw two nominees score duel Sound nominations, it was back to business as usual this year with four overlapping between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. They obviously don't call it Best Sound Mixing for mixing it up. It may seem a tad redundant after yesterday's rundown of similar Sound Editing nominees, but let's have a look at the playing field anyway.

One Category at a Time: Sound Editing

Some odd inclusions and exclusions in Sound Editing this year, in which I only correctly anticipated two of the five nominees. Pretty dismal performance on my part, but with such high-profile snubs, perhaps that's understandable. Among the slighted films are Super 8, which dominated the guild announcements with three nods from the MPSE. No room was made for animated efforts Tintin or Rango either. Ditto Mission: Impossible. But enough of that griping; let's examine those that did make the cut

My Awards nominations: Sound Mixing

My nominations for the best Sound Mixing of 2011 go to:

Drive (Robert Eber, Robert Fernandez, Dave Paterson):

The squeeling rubber and breaking glass of the action scenes are well handled, but its the suspenseful moments of silence, with only Cliff Martinez's tonal score boring through, that really get me. Oh, and the opening scene = perfect.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
(Peter J. Devlin, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers):

Employing a sophisticated 7.1 surround-sound canvas, they somehow manage to lend sonic cognizance to Bay's visual cacophony with astonishing clarity and formidable bombast, KA-BAYs and all.

The Tree of Life
(Craig Berkey, Kirk Francis, Jeremy Peirson, John Pritchett, Christopher Scarabosio):

The extended creation sequence is the most obvious showcase of the sound in this film, but I also like how the voice-over narrations were blended in to yield an ethereal sonic quality that felt both natural and graceful.

War Horse (Tom Johnson, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom, Stuart Wilson):

They may have amplified the music a tad beyond what was needed, but their handling of the battle and action segments more than compensates, immersing us in a variety of distinct sounds all in their right place.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (Paul Davies, Robert Farr, Ken Ishii):

Surely the film's most under-appreciated aspect, this ingenious sound mix is as essential to creating Eva's messy memories as the photography or editing. Sound takes on narrative meaning, becoming a device of foreshadowing and flashback before we even know it.

Just missed: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hanna, Harry Potter,
Hell and Back Again, MI4, Tintin

My Awards nominations: Sound Editing

The most impressive Sound Editing of 2011 could be heard in:

The Adventures of Tintin (Brent Burge, Chris Ward, David Whitehead):

The deep groans of ships at sea, the resonance of voice-shattered glass, bullets and bazookas and tanks... oh my!

Drive (Lon Bender):

The drive sequences are mesmerizing in their sonic detail, but moments of relative silence are just as tense.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Richard Hymns):

The WHAPs and THWAPS of bone-crunching fisticuffs, the sonic boom of airborne missiles, and all those awesome gadgets and gizmos...

Thor (Michael Babcock, Richard King):

The electrifying pounding of Thor's hammer, the creaks and cracks of the icy frost giants, the threatening machinations of The Destroyer...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn):

Tinny robot voices, those distinctively organometalic sound effects, and of course, explosions gallore... KA-BAY!!!

War Horse (Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom):

As they did on Saving Private Ryan, the piercing staccato of machine gun fire, the shattering bombast of artillery shells, but also the thunderous rumble of hooves.

Just missed: Thor, Hugo, Super 8, The Tree of Life

Review - A Spielberg double feature

For New Years Eve I took advantage of a unique opportunity; the chance to view two new Steven Spielberg features on the same day. Spielberg has had four others years in which he released two films, but never simultaneously, so this is kind of a first both for him and his eager fans. The two films in question are awards pony War Horse and "animated" action/adventure Tintin. Both my reviews after the cut.

Sunday Top Ten: Sound effects

Time has been somewhat tight for me this week, so you're getting an abbreviated edition of the Sunday Top Ten; a quick countdown of some of my favourite movie-related sound effects.