Before reading on, take a look at the introduction and criteria, and prepare yourself for some serious commenting afterwards. Winners (bold) in eight categories after the jump.
The Adventures of Tintin
Cars 2
Action-packed and with a masterful screenplay, Tintin was an epic cinematic experience that surpassed all of my expectations. Cars 2, on the other hand, wasn't Pixar's greatest from an adult perspective, but it could not be beat for lighthearted laughs and visual appeal.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Any one of these films could be called the best of the year.
Winnie the Pooh wins for being animation and storytelling at its purest. Of all the animated films released this year, none was more confident in itself—its ability to entertain—than Pooh. Not once does it cheapen itself by trying to appeal to an older audience.
Propelled by its top-notch direction, character animation, backgrounds, and layout, Pooh gave me—a non-fan of the stories and franchise—many reasons to love it.
Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall recorded this short video at Walt Disney Animation Studios on Friday to say thanks for the 'honour' and to express their gratitude to all the readers who appreciated the film. Watch—
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Propelled by its top-notch direction, character animation, backgrounds, and layout, Pooh gave me—a non-fan of the stories and franchise—many reasons to love it.
Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall recorded this short video at Walt Disney Animation Studios on Friday to say thanks for the 'honour' and to express their gratitude to all the readers who appreciated the film. Watch—
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Best Short Film – La Luna
Air Mater
Hawaiian Vacation
Let me keep this short: La Luna, directed by the talented Enrico Casarosa, is Pixar's most artistic short subject since Red's Dream in 1987. "Wow!" will be on the lips of audiences when they see it with Brave in June.
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Best Credits – Winnie the Pooh
Rango
Small Fry
Pooh's live photography credits had no real competition. Watch and you'll see why.
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(Key tracks: "A Monster in Paris", performed by Sean Lennon; "La Seine and I", performed by Vanessa Paradis and Sean Lennon.)
Rango ("Rango Suite", composed by Hans Zimmer; "Walk Don't Rango" by Los Lobos feat. Arturo Sandoval)
Winnie the Pooh ("So Long", written and performed by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward)
A little French production, directed by Shark Tale helmer Bibo Bergeron, Monster in Paris made an impact with me for a number of reasons, one being its catchy original tunes.
"I hide my pain/inside a melody/as if the notes I sing/will set me free", sings Sean Lennon, sounding more Beatle-y than ever as Francoeur the monster (actually an overgrown flea).
The film hasn't been picked up for North American distribution yet, but the soundtrack is available on Amazon.com and on iTunes in Canada.
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Finn McMissile from Cars 2
Rango from Rango
Most importantly, the artists at Weta Digital did a superb job translating Haddock's cartoonish proportions from Hergé's illustrations into the three-dimensional world of the film.
His motivational speech to Tintin near the end sealed the deal.
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Best Voice Acting – Larry the Cable Guy as Mater in Cars 2
As much as I liked Finn McMissile and Rango, this one goes to Captain Haddock for being not only the best designed new character of the year, but also the most enjoyable to watch, due in part to Andy Serkis' energetic mocap performance.
Most importantly, the artists at Weta Digital did a superb job translating Haddock's cartoonish proportions from Hergé's illustrations into the three-dimensional world of the film.
His motivational speech to Tintin near the end sealed the deal.
Best Voice Acting – Larry the Cable Guy as Mater in Cars 2
Craig Ferguson as Owl in Winnie the Pooh
James Hong as Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda 2
James Hong as Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda 2
Read it and weep, Mater haters. Nobody brought more 'heart' to their character this year than Larry the Cable Guy. Maybe it's because they're so much alike.
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Artist of the Year – Sharon Calahan, director of photography–lighting on Cars 2
With her background in fine art and oil painting, Calahan notably influenced the appearance of Cars 2. Leading Pixar's lighting team on the film, Calahan expanded the possibilities for light in the story while staying true to the aesthetic of the first Cars.
Whatever your opinion of the film is, you can't deny it's part of one of the biggest animated franchises ever. If there's ever a Cars 3, you can expect it to follow the visual path established in Cars 2—Calahan played a key part in that.
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Brad Bird
For successfully making the rare jump from animation to live action filmmaking with Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol. He has raised the bar for fellow Pixarian Andrew Stanton, whose live action John Carter opens next month.
Gore Verbinski and the Artists at Industrial Light & Magic
For taking photorealism in animation to eye-popping new heights with Rango.
Steven Spielberg and the Artists at Weta Digital
With The Adventures of Tintin, they pushed the limits of performance capture animation, creating an action-packed spectacle that is not only watchable, but highly enjoyable. In doing so, they showed audiences what the method can become.
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20 comments:
Nice choices, Mike. Nice to see Pooh get some recognition too!
Good choices all, Mike though we all know Winnie the Pooh was a given for Best Animated Feature.
I disagree
Good job choosing Pooh!
Hip Hip Pooh-ray! I'm so happy Winnie the Pooh was the winner.
Mr. Anderson, Mr. Hall, and anyone else at WDAS, if you're reading this, congratulations! You deserve it.
Oh, and, before I forget...I was surprised by some of the choices, but in a good way. You've got good taste in cartoons, Mike.
You gotta be kidding me... Pooh was nothing but 70 minutes of nostalgia for people--and a load of crap for other people, like myself.
Rango and Cars 2 FTW.
really nice choices, I particulary like the special achiement selections and the kudos to sharon, whose field is unusually overlooked.
Personally I felt Winnie the Pooh did nothing EXCEPT cheapen itself for adult audiences. The humour was either sit-com comedy sketch style or just asking the audience to laugh at how stupid all the characters acted. Plus the characters were boiled down to their very basics. Pooh is hungry for honey, piglet is scared, tigger is the only one and likes bounthin, eeyore lost his tail, owl is smart (but not for some reason), rabbit is leader, kanga says mom things, roo says kid things and gopher doesn't exist...
Eeyore went from being gloomy to downright passive-aggressive and Kanga and Roo turned into walking mother-child stereotypes. Especially Kanga. Rabbit's personality was mushed up into the *facepalm*-"good grief!' straight man.
The animation, while it was nice to see hand-drawn again, was nothing special. Pretty cliche and uninspired... Especially to anyone who's seen the heffalump movie.
I always thought the charm of Winnie the Pooh came from it's simplicity and innocence. But this movie only seemed to know how to say 'laugh at them because they're stupid'...
How does one even write an thousand-page autobiography without knowing how to read... how does that happen...?
@anonymous#3
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Finally, someone who sees this movie the way I do. I was immediately put off by the tone of the humor, although I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. The more I thought about it, the closer I came to what you've said here. You definitely summed it up better than I could.
And this is coming from a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh. I adore the original books, grew up with 'the Many Adventures' and 'New Adventures' TV show (which I thought stayed very true to the humor and heart of the original film.
I so wanted to like this, and I have no ill-will towards those who do. I see some merit in the film, mainly the animation and I loved Zooey's contributions. Overall though, I was very dissappointed, especially since I felt, 'I'm the only one' who doesn't seem to like it.
I wasn't going to respond anymore, but I found a few comments interesting.
Anonymous 3: It's fine if you didn't like Pooh, but I find your reasoning odd. What you described are precisely the characterizations and style of humor from the books and Disney's original cartoons, so I don't understand the issue. I'll point out examples later if you want me to. Adults and kids alike enjoy those iterations of Pooh, and I viewed this film as a return to that. Now, in responses your vague references about "simplicity and innocence", I must ask: What is more carefree and innocent than a silly bear hunting for honey, friends helping one of their own find a valuable thing he's lost, and that same gang finding themselves in a haphazard adventure over nothing simply because their imaginations start running wild?
Darrell: Mike said in the blog post that he wasn't particularly nostalgic about Pooh coming into this film, and he makes a good case for why the film stands on its own merits. If you disagree, I'd like to know why others are more deserving, which is better persuasive writing technique, instead of a pithy statement that his choices do not.
"What you described are precisely the characterizations and style of humor from the books and Disney's original cartoons"
Uhh, no, they're not actually. What he described was very close to the original 'Pooh', but not precisely. The humor has most definitely been subtly updated for 'modern audiences' in this movie.
I still regularly read the books and watch the original film, the show (not the new 3d one, whatever that things called), and some of the subsequent movies (the best being 'Grand Adventures'). With this film I immediately noticed the change. I don't know how you're not picking up on it, but it's there.
Now, I don't think this film was awful by any means, some of the humor was still funny (if a little out of place for 'Pooh'). I liken the change to the last season or two of a long-running sitcom. It's still funny, but the characters have kind of become caricatures of themselves, and you may not notice it at first because it happened so gradually. And some people will even prefer these later seasons to the earlier ones, ehich has happened a little bit with this movie.
Again, if you enjoy the film, I don't think you're 'wrong' for doing so. All I'm saying is that there most definitely is a tonal shift to some degree whether everyone picks up on it or not.
Best new phrase - Mater haters
Pure genius.
Rango would be deserving because it's got MUCH better animation, much better characters, and a much better plotline to follow, and much better voice actors (Johnny Depp anyone?).
Kung Fu Panda 2 also has an even better plotline and Cars 2 has utterly stupendous animation, if nothing else.
thank you for actually considering pixar!!!!
Wait, shouldnt Morris be nominated? Or did it come out a little too late? (I know Mike saw it, and loved it, maybe even more then La Luna...)
I did see 'Morris Lessmore' before making my picks, it just didn't make it into the top three and certainly didn't beat La Luna.
Ahh...the Big Screen Animation awards. Animation's second highest honor. (You should consider this for your slogan next year!)
Good one.
Yes! Pooh was definitely the best feature animation from last year ... this is the first place I've seen it get the recognition it deserves. Keep up the good work!
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