The Origin of the Best Animated Feature Oscar

In honor of the fact that tonight is Oscar Sunday, I thought today’s blog could be about the history of one of my favorite Oscar categories: The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Feel free to let me know in the comments section of which is your favorite of these movies.

Beginning with its history, the Oscars have been around since 1929, although the Best Animated Feature category has only been a part of the show for the past 20 years. Up till that point, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were reluctant to create a category for animated films. The reason? Prior to 2001, the Academy felt that there were enough animated films produced that could honestly be considered award-worthy, other than those produced by Disney. The Academy had given a Best Picture Oscar Nomination to Beauty and the Beast in 1991, and a Special Achievement Oscar to Toy Story in 1995.

By 2001, however, due to the advancement of new animated film companies competing against Disney, the Academy decided to create the category for Best Animated Feature Film. It was presented for the first time at their 74th show, and the very first film to receive the award was DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek (2001). “Shrek” beat Paramount Pictures' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) and Disney/Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. (2001), though “Monsters, Inc.,” did manage to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, “If I Didn’t Have You.” The following year, Spirited Away (2002) won; It was produced by the Japanese Animation Studio, Studio Ghibli (though released by the Disney label). It’s rather ironic that Disney didn’t win the first two awards in the category!

The first Disney/Pixar film to be awarded the Best Animated Feature Oscar was Finding Nemo, released in 2003. The Incredibles (2004) won the year after that, and that film also took home the award for Best Sound Editing. In 2006, the Best Animated Feature Oscar was given to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) co-directed by Steve Box and Nick Park. (Park also won Best Short Film, Animated Oscars for the Wallace & Gromit short films, The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995) and Box was an additional key animator on Chicken Run (2000), also co-directed by Park.) In 2007, George Miller took home the Oscar for the direction he gave to Warner Bros.’ Happy Feet, beating Sony Pictures' Monster House (2006) and Disney/Pixar’s Cars (2006). 

Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007) won the Oscar in 2008 and was written and directed by “Incredibles,” writer/director, Brad Bird. (Bird is also known for providing the voice of Edna Mode in “The Incredibles” and the Ambrister Minion in “Ratatouille.”) The next recipient was Wall-E (2008), which was written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who also wrote and directed Finding Nemo (2003) and voiced Crush the Sea Turtle in that film. When Wall-E (2008) was released some people were resentful of the fact that it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture of the Year, leading to the controversy of whether or not it was robbed of that chance. 

This controversy was somewhat resolved when Up (2009) won the award the next year, and was also nominated for Best Picture. While The Hurt Locker (2009) received the Best Picture Oscar that year, “Up” also took home the award for Best Original Score written by Michael Giacchino, who has scored several different Disney films, including “Incredibles” and “Ratatouille.” “Up” was written and directed by Pete Docter who also wrote and directed “Monsters, Inc.” He received another Oscar for writing and directing Inside Out (2015) and is nominated again this year for Soul (2020).

 

Toy Story 3 (2010) was nominated for both Best Animated Feature and Best Picture, and it won the latter along with the award for Best Original Song “We Belong Together,” written by Randy Newman. In addition to Newman’s win for the song “If I Didn’t Have You,” in “Monsters, Inc.”, Newman also received nominations for the songs “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” in “Toy Story,” “When She Loved Me,” in Toy Story 2 (1999) and “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” in Toy Story 4 (2019). In 2012, Warner Bros.’ Rango (2011) took home the Oscar, but Disney struck Oscar gold for the next six years in a row, with Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), “Inside Out,” Zootopia (2016), and Coco (2017). “Brave,” was a “big first,” since one of the film’s directors, Brenda Chapman, became the first woman director of an animated film ever to win an Oscar. “Frozen” and “Coco” both won the Best Original Song Oscars: “Let It Go,” and “Remember Me,” respectively.

The Oscar was next given to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018, beating Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Disney’s sequel to Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (2018). “Toy Story 4,” was last year’s winner, and Disney and Pixar both make history tonight, as it is the first time both have a had a film in the running simultaneously for Best Animated Feature: Onward (2020) and “Soul.” “Soul,” is also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Sound.  

    Disney and Pixar have been very fortunate to have won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for 14 beloved movies (Ten of which were produced by both Disney and Pixar, and four were produced by Disney.) Their competition tonight, includes Netflix’s Over the Moon (2020), Aardman Animation’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020), and Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers (2020). How things will officially turn out will be acknowledged at 7:00 pm Central Time on ABC.

Review: "Big Shot"

You might remember John Stamos best for his role as Uncle Jesse Katsopolis on Full House (1987-1995) and its reboot series Fuller House (2016-2020). He received Emmy Nominations for his role as “Blackie Parrish” on General Hospital (1963-present) and for Executive Producing the miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family (2000), and he even portrayed leading male roles in Broadway musical revivals including “The Emcee/M.C.” in Cabaret (1998) and Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie (2009). This past Friday, April 16th, 2021, Disney+ released the pilot episode for a new show called Big Shot (2021) starring Stamos. Here’s my review of the show:

in “Big Shot,” Stamos plays Marvin Korn, a divorced and disgruntled Basketball coach, who was forced out by the NCAA for having a bad attitude as a coach but was instead hired to coach the basketball team at an all-girls high school. He is not thrilled by his new assignment at all, and he makes that clear to the team, along with rudely criticizing some of them, which they take personally. However, as he gets to know their assistant coach, Holly Barrett (played by Jessalyn Gilsig), she tells him that he can’t be rude, but she also notices that despite his crankiness, he actually does have potential to be a good coach, and encourages him to inspire the team. Korn ultimately coaches them at the very first game (which they loose), but he inspires the team, and it’s pretty clear that they’re just getting warmed up.

What’s inspiring about this show is that it’s about how important it is to always have a good attitude, especially on the ball court. Marvin has to improve on his own personal attitude toward coaching basketball, but the team also has to improve on their playing skills, as well as respecting their coach. Clearly, both Marvin and the team are learning that you can choose if you want to be a “big shot” or not, but if that’s what you choose, it can make you a jerk.

The show is also very funny. It was co-created by David E. Kelley, Dean Lorey, and Brad Garrett. Kelley and Lorey are both known for executive producing drama/comedy series like Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and Arrested Development (2013-2019). Garrett won three Emmys for his performance as Robert Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), but he also produced the romantic comedy series ’Til Death (2006-2010).

Furthermore, the show includes the supporting cast of Yvette Nicole Brown as the High School’s Dean of Students and Keala Settle will have an upcoming role as one of the team member’s mothers. Brown previously played Aunt Sarah in the Disney+ remake of Lady and the Tramp (2019) and Settle portrayed Lettie Lutz in The Greatest Showman (2017), the role that made a worldwide sensation of the Oscar-nominated song “This Is Me.”

“Big Shot,” definitely has good potential. It combines the creative vision of accoladed television personalities, along with well-written humor and versatile actors. And it’s also about a man who will inspire girls to have confidence in themselves, not just as a team, but individually too, and that’s perfect for today. Let’s hope we see more of that good in the episodes to come.  

 

   

 

   

Burrow Review

When Disney/Pixar’s Soul (2020) was originally set for theatrical release in November 2020, there was also a short film planned to play in front of it: Burrow (2020). Both films, however, were subsequently released on Disney+ on Christmas Day 2020, “Burrow,” as part of Pixar’s “SparkShorts.” I was finally able to watch “Burrow” for the first time last week, so I thought today’s review could encourage you to do the same.

  “Burrow,” is cute, well-told, uproariously animated and entirely charming. It tells the story of a rabbit determined to build (or “burrow”) her dream home in the ground. She inadvertently keeps digging into spaces occupied by other animals, and ultimately winds up digging to the very “bottom,” of the burrow where she breaks a seal unleashing flowing water that endangers all. Finally, she learns of the value of asking for help, and teams up a ferocious badger feared by the other animals and they round up the others to dodge the water. Finally, all work together to help the rabbit build her own space.

“Burrow” has beautiful visuals. It uses 2D Animation just like the SparkShort Kitbull (2019) did the year before. Not only is the rabbit herself cute, but all the animals in the short are cute to look at. And as the rabbit digs through the burrow, it becomes easy to be curious what other animals she’ll encounter, and if she will ever achieve her goal of having her “dream burrow.” (Note that “Burrow,” is currently nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film also just like “Kitbull.”)

For music, “Burrow,” features compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, including his Oboe Concerto. While Pixar Short Films typically have original music, the Mozart compositions intermix with the plot beautifully and are a great companion. 

The film was written and directed by Madeline Sharafian who began her career at Pixar as a Storyboard Artist on Coco (2017). Sharafian based the plot for “Burrow,” on her own career as an artist. Quoted in an interview on Disney+: “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t ask other people for help ‘cause I want to show them right of the bat that I can do it, so this film was kind of my way of envisioning what my life could be like if I ask other people for help.” 

Sharafian also explained that as a child, she loved looking at “cutaway shots” in movies, which is a shot that suddenly introduces something new to focus on, different from the main focus of the plot. To make a film with several cutaways was a dream come true for her. Sharafian also worked as a cel painter/animator on the short film Weekends (2017), which also received an Oscar Nomination for Best Short Animated Short Film; She was also part of the “Story Trust,” for the SparkShort Purl (2018). (Story Trust is a Walt Disney Animation Studios term that means artists who rely on each other to provide input and feedback about films being worked on at the time.)          

All in all, “Burrow,” is wonderful and inspiring short because it’s acknowledges that, when one has big goals to pursue, they should never be afraid to rely on others for help, at least every once in a while. Especially when part of a team/ or family, it’s when one relies on others that one can achieve goals in ways unpredictable and uniquely fulfilling.