Pixar's Golden Moment

With the recent Oscar nominations coming out, I have thought a little bit more about movies lately.  I will put my reaction to the nominations up soon, but I am still trying to decide what I think.  One particular thing I have thought of, though, is the fact that one of the nominations for Best Picture was Pixar's masterpiece Up.  Now, most of you probably know that the Academy expanded their Best Picture category to ten movies this year.  It was supposedly a way to harken back to the old days, when there were ten pictures up.  But, anyone who knows anything about Oscar, knows that it actually was a pathetic attempt to get more public interest in the flagging show by giving more spots to "popular films."  This can be translated as, "Our snooty voters keep on nominating movies no one sees and no one give a crap about, so we are going to put on a show that we want more accessibility to our awards."

I think it was one of those moves that was necessary after last year - where there were two extremely legitimate "popular movies" that got rejected YET AGAIN.  The Dark Knight and WALL-E deserved to be nominated.  There was a pretty big public outcry, so the Academy scrambled to make it right this year.  [A similar thing will happen with the idiotic NFL overtime rules as soon as some team loses a Super Bowl without ever touching the ball in overtime.  It will help if that team has a player named "Manning" on it.]  So, this year the Oscars have ten pictures up.  But the stupid thing is that everyone knows which movies would have been the top five, if there had only been five.  And the other ones don't have a shot in Hollywood of winning.  If it had been five films, then Avatar, Up in the Air, Hurt Locker, Precious, and A Serious Man would have been the nominees.  One popular film, one pretty well watched film, three whiffs.  But, since they added five more slots, then Blind Side, Up, District 9, Inglorious Offsprings-of-Unmarried-Parents, and An Eduction also got up for the big golden nude guy.

The last five films are just happy to be there.  It is really just a three movie race - it has been for months.  It is between Avatar, Up in the Air, and Hurt Locker.  So, the other seven get to dress up pretty and go hear Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin make jokes.  But, there is one interesting side story I have thought about from this.  Up scored a Best Pictures nod - the first Pixar movie to do so.  They have been nominated for, and regularly won, the Best Animated Film.  They also have been nominated for Best Screenplay a few times - a big jump for an animated film.  But they couldn't shake that animated Best Picture curse.  Up is only the second animated movie EVER to be up for Best Picture (1991 Beauty and the Beast was the other).  That made me wonder - if there had been ten nomination slots for the whole of Pixar's run, how many Best Picture nominations would they have?  It is an interesting question.  That made me think through Pixar's library, rank them from bottom to top, and see which would have had a chance for Oscar's highest award.  Because that is how I roll.

10. CARS (2006)
Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Song
Won: Nothing

Ten Picture Best Picture Field Deserving?  No

Breakdown: Don't get me wrong.  Being the worst Pixar movie is like being the third best Lord of the Rings movie.  It is like being the worst starter in an All Star Game.  Even the tenth place Pixar movie is better than 98% of all animated movies and 90% of all regular movies.  Cars was a great movie.  It was so fun.  My son and I had a blast at it and we had a whole garage full of cars from the movie.  It made tons of money, had the most merchandising opportunities, and is spawning a sequel.  It was fun and sweet and funny.  But it wasn't that original - the story was very similar to Doc Hollywood (something I pointed out, and that numerous others did as well).  It lost best Animated Feature to Happy Feet (?).  And there were about seven legitimate films that could have filled an expanded Best Picture category.

9. BUG'S LIFE (1998)

Nominated for: Best Music (no animated feature award that year)

Won: Nothing

Ten Picture Best Picture Field

 Deserving?  No

Breakdown: I think Bug's Life gets lost in the shuffle.  It was sandwiched between the two Toy Story films.  It is the lowest grossing Pixar movie (only a lousy $163 million).  But it is very entertaining.  Only, it is a lightweight film compared to the heftier Pixar fare.  It didn't get nominated for anything but score.  And there were too many other good movies that year.  Plus, that was the year that everyone in the Academy went absolutely insane and voted for Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan.  I'm getting angry just thinking about it.  Let's move on.

8. MONSTERS, INC (2001)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Song, Best Music, Best Sound Editing

Won: Best Song

Ten Picture Best Picture Field

 Deserving?  No

Breakdown: It was a very beloved film and another raging box office success for Pixar, raking in $255 million.  And it was a very original, fun film that poked fun at decades of monster movies.  Brilliantly done and acted.  But it didn't even win Best Animated Feature in the first year of that award - being topped by a superior and even more creative Shrek.  So how could Monsters, Inc be up for Best Picture - even in a ten film field.  Shrek would have nabbed that spot, though.

7. TOY STORY 2 (1999)

Nominated for: Best Song (no animated feature award that year)

Won: Nothing

Ten Picture Best Picture Field Deserving?  No

Breakdown: It was one of the best sequels of all time.  It firmly put Pixar on the map as a consistent force.  But, it wasn't the earthshaking event of the first Toy Story.  And it hadn't moved into the powerful film realm of the later Pixar offerings.  On the other hand, it was a very weak year for movies.  American Beauty won.  There weren't a lot of movies to make up a ten movie Best Picture roster.  It wasn't a great year for movies - so Toy Story 2 did stand out.  Plus it was the first Pixar movie to top $200 million.  But it didn't get the Screenplay nod - which is always my Oscar code for "Pixar should be up for Best Picture."  So, I don't think that I can say it would be nominated - but it would be close.

6. INCREDIBLES (2004)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

Won: Best Animated Feature, Best Sound Editing

Ten Picture Best Picture Field

 Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: One of the best superhero movies ever was doubly cursed in its attempt at a Best Picture nod.  It got slammed for being animated and slammed for being a superhero movie.  It was the same curse that hurt Iron Man and The Dark Knight as well.  But the Incredibles was a phenomenal movie.  It made big money ($261 million), appealed to adults BIG TIME, and showed a very different side of Pixar.  It got the Screenplay nomination - which is what the Oscars always give to Pixar movies instead of Best Picture nominations.  But this year was a great chance for Pixar to sneak in with the film.  Only twelve movies were represented in the big categories (Picture, Director, Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress).  Usually there are about sixteen films.  That means that there were not a bunch of deserving movies floating around.  Incredibles made just about every top ten list there was.  And there wasn't a clear frontrunner for Best Picture.  In a ten picture field, it would have been hard to overlook these heroes.  

5. TOY STORY (1995)

Nominated for: Best Music, Best Song, Best Screenplay 

(no animated feature award that year)

Won: Special Achievement Award for New Technology

Ten Picture Best Picture Field 

Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: Toy Story shocked the movie industry.  It was such a departure from anything before - and it basically marked the death of traditional animation.  It was such a big deal that John Lassiter received a special achievement award - something to acknowledge how huge a movie is to the industry.  And, this also started a precedent that the Academy used on five Pixar movies.  In lieu of a deserved Best Picture slot, they get a Best Screenplay nomination.  Toy Story was an amazing movie.  It was touching and funny and gorgeous.  If the roster was expanded to ten movies, it would be easy to see Toy Story snagging a slot.  Remember, this is the year that Il Postino and Babe both RECEIVED nominations.  The Usual Suspects, Twelve Monkeys, Se7en, Dead Man Walking, and Leaving Las Vegas all got left out.  I think that the 10 spots would have actually gotten those five, plus Toy Story, in  - while knocking out one of the two dumb nominations.  Braveheart still would have won.

4. RATATOUILLE (2007)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Music, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, Best Screenplay

Won: Best Animated Feature

Ten Picture Best Picture Field 

Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: Ratatouille should have been a disaster.  It was the third lowest grossing Pixar film (a pathetic $206 million).  They couldn't merchandise it to death, because it was a bunch of rats.  But, when you stripped down the product tie-ins, the inevitable theme park attraction, you had a very special movie that was so moving and tender.  It began what has actually been the glory days of Pixar - three movies in three years that all legitimately deserved a Best Picture nominations.  But they actually all deserved that nomination in a field of five - not just a field of ten.  All three got Best Screenplay nominations, Top ten rankings, raving reviews.  I remember thinking that Ratatouille was easily one of the best movies out there.  And it was a pretty weak year for movies.  It easily could have taken Juno's spot in the five picture field.  And there is no doubt it would have been in with a ten film field.  And, I am still not convinced that it wasn't the best film of the year.  

3. FINDING NEMO (2003)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Music, Best Sound Editing, Best Screenplay

Won: Best Animated Feature

Ten Picture Best Picture Field 

Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: Nemo took Pixar to the next level.  It still is the highest grossing Pixar film - over $330 million.  The film itself was touching and heartbreaking and hilarious and very special.  This was the first Pixar film that really stirred debate over whether an animated film could make it into the big show.  (There is that Screenplay code nomination.)  I remember that 2003 was a pretty weak year for movies because the third Lord of the Rings movie was coming out.  The first two had been nominated and passed over.  And it was pretty well understood that the third one was going to win everything - which it certainly did.  So a lot of studios pulled their movies out of that year.  Aside from the five nominated, only Cold Mountain and House of Sand and Fog were close to getting nominations.  There was no way Nemo was going to win, but then again neither were the other four movies that made it.  Nemo definitely would have been in the top ten - and realistically should have bumped Seabiscuit out of the top five.  

2. UP (2009)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Music, Best Sound Editing, Best Picture, Best Screenplay

Won: Nothing

Ten Picture Best Picture Field 

Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: Pixar finally lucked out with the expansion to a ten film field.  Did it deserve its spot?  Oh, yes it did.  When you compare it to the other films, it easily deserves to be there.  I honestly think it was good enough to be in a field of five.  The first ten minutes of the movie was as good as most movies I have seen.  I could have walked out after the opening scenes and felt like I had seen a great and touching film.  The rest of the movie was even better - exciting, emotional, funny, thoughtful.  And I'm glad it got the nomination.  Would it have gotten a spot in a field of five?  Nope.  It would have gotten its Screenplay nomination and gone on its way.  And this year it has no chance of winning Best Picture.  But at least it finally broke its way into the club.

1. WALL-E (2008)

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Song, Best Music, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, Best Screenplay

Won: Best Animated Feature

Ten Picture Best Picture Field 

Deserving?  Yes

Breakdown: For the first half of WALL-E, there was hardly any dialogue.  It was mostly just electronic noises as means of communication between two robots.  But there has hardly been a movie that communicated more.  It was a touching movie about love and loyalty and responsibility.  It was a warning to us to be careful with our planet.  The movie was beautiful and touching and glorious.  And it got robbed.  It didn't just deserve to be in a ten movie field.  It deserved to be in a five movie field.  And it deserved to win.  The two best movies of 2008 didn't even get a nomination - The Dark Knight and WALL-E.  The Reader was relentlessly depressing.  Benjamin Button got a C from tons of media outlets in their reviews.  There is no good reason why WALL-E got left out except that it was animated.  It is my personal favorite.  I think it was better than Up, but the score between the top four Pixar movies is separated by decimal points.  A ten film field would have easily put this movie into play.  And with the movies that wear actually nominated, it may have pulled off an upset.  It deserved to.


One final thing about Pixar movies.  A way to judge their Oscar-worthiness is to think about how that movie would look if it was live action and not animated.  How would that film have been received?  I know that can't work with the toys and bugs and cars.  But the basic story, applied to people.  How woud that have gone over?  I think that when you do that, you can see just how robbed Pixar was.  If Up was live action, I can guarantee that Ed Asner would bee looking at a Supporting Actor nomination.  If Ratatouille was live action, the story of a young restaurant worker and a homeless guy instead of a rat, it would have been seen as a powerful tale.  Finding Nemo - if it were people, a father searching for his lost son - would have had tons of acting awards too.  Personally I like the ten movie field because it gives movies like Pixar films a shot at Best Picture recognition.  Now, if we can just convince the voters to give them a shot at the trophy.

New Quote For Me To Run Into the Ground

This summer, I have been able to keep up with my movie watching pretty well.  To date, I have only missed one movie that I wanted to see.  It just came out, though, so I'm still okay.  I also did miss the last half of Kung Fu Panda - or as they say "the important half."  Gabe got freaked out and wouldn't calm down.  So I went out and walked him around the mall.  I don't get it.  He was fine in WALL-E.  Slept through most of Get Smart.  Got scared with animated animals.  

Well, while we were sitting there waiting for WALL-E to start, they were running the kids' version of The Twenty - advertising new shows and such.  One they were highlighting is The Tale of Despereaux.  It is a new movie coming out based on the Newberry Award winning book.  It looked interesting.  But what got me was at the end of the interview when the author said, "Those who dare to do the impossible get the impossible done."  I had never heard of the book, but we went and got it after the movie.  I'm finishing it right now.  It is one of the darker and more depressing "kids' books" I have read - at least to this point.  It is good, just not something I want my kids hearing right now.  But I had gotten it strictly because of that line.

I don't know about you, but for me, I need things to hold on to.  Most of the time I feel so out of control of my life - wondering when things will change.  It isn't because I am lazy and sitting around hoping for God to drop a big bucket of goodness in my lap.  I am active and working and searching - looking for job, looking for funding, looking for bookings.  But things just don't seem to be going anywhere.  Even when we get some hope, it seems like it dries up quicker than rain in Las Vegas.  That line really resonated with me because it often feels like I live in the Land of the Impossible.  It's a strange land.  Sometimes others who don't live there mistake it for the StupidLand or PollyanaTown or The Nation of Fantasy.  I just know that most of the things that have happened in my life have directed me here.

• I am daring to do the impossible with my career.  I am trying to convince churches that they need to discuss issues they don't want to discuss.  I am trying to help people break free from a prison they don't want to leave.  I am trying to raise funds and get bookings during a downturned economy.  I am trying to fight an industry that is so rich and powerful and government protected that they could crush me without a thought.  All of those things are impossible.  I'm fighting against statistics, hormones, big money, and pride/ego.  Quite frankly, my job is impossible.
• Heather is daring to do the impossible with her career.  She knows that God built her to be a doctor.  Everything in her life has directed her to that point.  She has gotten better in school and in tests SINCE she had kids.  But, she faces women who think she has no business being in a job at all.  She faces old school doctors who don't want people concerned with family.  She faces long long hours, hard classes, the very real possibility of lots of debt, the chance we have to move, and time away from her family.  The other option is to hope that she is one of the forty people UCF picks out of thousands of applicants for their first class - then it would be free and here.  Quite frankly, her calling is impossible.
• As parents, we are daring to do the impossible with our kids.  We are trying to teach them to love God, love others, respect their elders and authorities, do well in school.  We are trying to help them become positive influences.  We are trying to protect them from the dangers out there on the Internet, movies, and television - or at friends' houses.  We are trying to teach them about God, when the world thinks He's a joke.  Quite frankly, that kind of parenting is impossible.
• Our church is daring to do the impossible.  We are trying to grow a church the right way.  We are trying to love each other and support each other.  We are trying to do things different - not just following the formulas laid out by the big guys.  We are trying to minister in an area saturated with churches, but not necessarily with places to grow.  We are ministering to the people who get encouraged to leave other churches.  And we hope that church grows, is able to survive financially, and can change its world.  Quite frankly, that kind of church is impossible.

I guess is why that line meant so much.  We all have this drive to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.  We want to be involved in something great and huge and powerful.  We want to be there and see the impossible happen.  We want to be there - so we can talk about the amazing things we saw and were a part of.  But, like in the powerful speeches in Henry V and Braveheart, not everyone is willing to do what it takes to BE a part of those things.  Not everyone is willing to try to do the impossible.  We all want to be able to tell the tales after, but we don't all want to be the ones fighting and warring.  We don't want to get beat down 364 days in a row just so we can be there the one day when we finally break through and win.  But if no one is willing to do the impossible, then it never will get done, right?  If parents aren't willing to fight for their kids, if churches aren't willing to fight for the world, if those who are called aren't willing to answer - what hope is there? 

The Tale of Despereaux talks about how Hope and Love are very similar.  They are both very silly and blind and stupid at times.  (I would add Faith to that, as well.)  They make you believe in things that make no sense.  They make you act like a fool.  But if you have Faith, Hope, and Love, you have to do those things - just because you have Faith, Hope, and Love.  As 1 Corinthians 13:13, Colossians 1:5, and 1 Thessalonians 5:8 all show, those three things will remain - and they are all you need.  That's true with us - it seems like that is all we have left!  We have Faith that God will deliver like we know He can and has promised.  We have Hope that even the overwhelming odds can be overcome when the time is right.  We have Love for those people whose lives are being destroyed and wounded and cast aside.  So we HAVE to dare to do the impossible.  It may be silly and blind and stupid.  But it is what we have to do.  Otherwise, we didn't really have Faith or Hope or Love after all.

WALL-E Review

I haven't posted a movie review for a while. Mostly I have been putting them on my Rotten Tomatoes site. But this one was too good to not comment.

I don't always want to write my review of good movies right away. I want to dwell on them and twirl them around in my head before I try to distill them into a short(ish) posting. But then I'm torn when I see a fantastic moie because the storyteller in me wants to chat with someone about the piece of art I just saw. I guess waiting until the next morning is enough of a compromise.

Sooner or later, I guess we will stop being surprised by Pixar's genius. I keep hearing people say, "Sooner or later they have to make a flop. They can't keep this up forever." You know what that is starting to sound like? It sounds like sore losers, or people who just cannot enjoy beauty without trying to destroy it. When I walked out of WALL-E yesterday afternoon, I asked my wife, "What do you think the people who make all the OTHER animated films think when they walk out of a Pixar movie? Can they possibly feel good about what they are creating? Did the makers of Barnyard walk out of WALL-E and feel like they had done a good job on their film?"

SIDE NOTE: The animated short Presto was funnier and better made than just about any comedy I've seen in the last ten years. I laughed so hard that I wished they had made a full length version of it. It was in the legacy of Bugs Bunny and the truly classic Looney Tunes - even included a rabbit. If it doesn't win Best Animated Short, I give up on the Oscars.

Pixar long crossed the line of making kids films. Sure, their films are unbelievably popular with kids. And my kids loved WALL-E, running right home to start "playing WALL-E" (which largely consisted of hauling their toys around in boxes and dumping them behind the chairs). But they became full fledged artists with the beauty of Cars. And they proved they can compete with "grown up films" when they were nominated for the Oscar for Best Screenplay for Ratatouille. But, with WALL-E, they went farther. I really think that if there is any justice in the Academy of Awards, WALL-E will be up for Best Picture.

You may laugh to yourself, but I can say this. I love movies. I watch a LOT of movies. And I have only found myself sitting quiet at the end of a movie, just thinking about what I saw a handful of times. That is when I know a movie really hit me where it matters. Henry V, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, The Matrix, Batman Begins. Those are some of the ones that left me speechless and emotional. WALL-E did the same thing to me.

We have gotten so accustomed to the gorgeous animation that it isn't even surprising now. But the thing that I can't get over is the STORYTELLING. Pixar writes amazing stories. This one was so layered and intricate. It was a powerful environmental message, urging us to be more careful about our planet. It was a cautionary warning against materialist excess. It was an unbelievable love story - unlike anything I've seen in a while. I was a reminder that doing what you are told sometimes challenges doing what is right. It was a call to humans to be more than just robots - and to stop living behind screens, missing the beauty and joy of life all around us.

At the heart of the movie is WALL-E, a trash disposal robot left on Earth to clean up after the humans. Supposedly, once the robots cleaned the planet, the humans would return. But that, as we see from the opening zooming shots, is impossible. He is the last working robot and he spends his days working, exploring, interacting with his pet roach, and learning about love - all while being lonely. One day, EVE arrives on a huge, loud, disruptive spaceship. She is looking for something. WALL-E is smitten. EVE soon begins to grow fond of him and his quirks - developing a few of her own. Once her mission is completed, she is picked up and WALL-E cannot bear to see her go, hitching an intergalactic ride.

We soon see that the robots are more human than the humans - giving in to power lust and ego, sectoring off those who are different, developing consciences. The humans have become robots - blindly taking orders, living behind screens, losing their humanity. The story was powerful and convicting. It showed how people are going to be in trouble if we continue to live like we do - addicted to "stuff", hiding from interaction, ignoring warning signs, killing our emotions.

Removing all of that, you are left with a passionate and beautiful love story. You see WALL-E being the kind of person we should all be. He loves life, enjoys his work, find pleasure in the little things. And when he finds someone to love, he does it with everything he is. He loves her unconditionally. He wants her to be the best she can be, even if that means without him. His relentless and pure love affects everyone he sees. I know, as we saw it played out, there were moments where I felt myself wishing I could be more like that with the people I hold dear. I misted up several times as the movie built to its climax. And I felt something that most movies, especially summer ones, think they can do without - genuine emotion. I saw it in my
kids as they responded to scenes.

It was a fabulous experience, and one that made me think about a lot of things. WALL-E is a classic, powerful film. I haven't seen anything like it for a long time. I wish every filmmaker would see it just to be reminded of how films are supposed to be made. Animated or not, WALL-E was a true winner.