Here’s a good way to piss me off: downplay my favorite movie
Jan/090
I love Wall-E. I’ve never seen Kung Fu Panda. Despite that fact, here’s what I know: Wall-E is the very best of the Pixar movies. It is quite possibly the greatest DISNEY movie ever made. It ranks among the greatest movies ever made ever in my mind. Kung Fu Panda, despite my never having seen it, is not anywhere close to that. So, why did Kung Fu Panda kick Wall-E’s ass at the Animation Awards?
I’m sure the commentators will just write my rant of as being a WALL-E/Pixar fanboy (which I’ll freely admit). But I think everyone will agree that an award show for animation (the Annies are basically consider the Oscars of animation) to award Kung Fu Panda a whopping 15 statues, and present Wall-E with not even one, is completely ridiculous
Seriously? That’s insane. What really bothers me is that Kung Fu Panda won for character animation. Really? Just looking at pictures of Wall-E and the Panda side by side, you have to choose Wall-E. He doesn’t even have any elbows. Not only that he shows more emotion than 85% of working actors today and he’s a ROBOT.I guess what bothers me is that the reason this movie wasn’t nominated for Best Picture Oscar is because it was “for kids” even though it has 50x more emotional resonance with it’s viewers than the likely winner (Slumdog Millionaire). So, you think ‘well that’s just the way these things work’ but here we have the ANIMATION AWARDS. Voted on by people who know ANIMATION and they can’t even get it right. I just don’t get it, but it could be some sort of misguided Pixar backlash. They’ve dominated the awards for years and this would have been their 3rd winning movie in a row (in four years).
(Slightly more devious conspiracy theory: It’s a money thing.)
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| The Mickey Mouse of our generation. | Just another panda. |
To me, Wall-E is amazing because it does something that only a few movies have ever done for me in my entire life. It makes me smile when I think about it. I don’t even have to be watching it, it makes me happy. That’s what movies are supposed to do. I can watch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly every day and it’s an amazing movie, but it doesn’t make me happy. It doesn’t make me love and appreciate life. It doesn’t make me want to meet a nice young lady with a laser for an arm and settle down. Wall-E does those things and I don’t necessarily feel I’m alone in feeling that way. It’s simply a masterpiece and it bothers me that other people don’t see it that way when it’s clear as day.
