OVP: Best Animated Feature Film (2004)
The Nominees Were...
My Thoughts: We are in the back-half of the 2004 Oscar races today as we encounter our final three-wide field, the category of Best Animated Feature Film. This category started in 2001, and for the most part it has justified its existence for the run, even if it feels like a stretch in a lot of the five-wide fields. It feels strange to winnow down these films when there are so few film eligible in some years that it seems like every major contender is getting nominated (that's why we only cite three even in years where I liked more than that for the My Ballots, as Oscar categories should be robust enough that we occasionally have to leave behind quality work), but by-and-large they've bestowed "Oscar-nominated" on movies of such quality as Spirited Away and Wolfwalkers, and given an American audience to animated films that might otherwise not have have had them. But there are a few big exceptions to this argument, and one of them comes in 2004, when there was really only one film that remotely was near the term "Oscar-worthy" and the rest, not just the nominated films but the movies that were skipped, don't come into the same hemisphere as the winning picture.
We will start with that winning picture, which is of course The Incredibles. This is a great action movie, one with a lot of neat visual tricks & strong iconography (much of which was abandoned in the sequel, but we'll get to that when we tackle 2018 later this summer). It's not the best Pixar movie of this era, but it's not the sort of movie that won just because the competition was bad-it deserves the accolades. It was also the kind of movie that had genuine quality, and a rich side performance from Brad Bird as Edna Mode, one of the most delicious figures in the Pixar canon. A strong & worthy entry.
Compare that to the other two, which are total failures. I don't like the Shrek movies, and honestly if you rewatch them, I doubt you will too. In many ways they're like Family Guy-it was potentially funny at the time, but it ages poorly both in terms of the movie's politics (particularly around gender & sexuality) as well as the cascade of outdated pop culture references. The film's Puss-in-Boots is the best part (and there's a camp attitude toward Jennifer Saunders campy Fairy Godmother that the gays have latched onto), but this is not a good movie, and even if it's better than what came later in the Shrek franchise, let's not confuse the gold mine this picture made (and the fact that it was a weak year) from convincing you that this deserves an Oscar nomination even in a weak field.
That said, Shark Tale is worse. A massive hit in 2004 (with a starry cast featuring Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, & Renee Zellweger), it is truly a terrible movie, one of the worst nominated for this category in its history. There's nothing inventive about the voice work, the script makes no sense, the sexualization of some of the fish is weird, and the pop culture references age even worse than Shrek 2. Throw in a lazy Godfather parody (involving no less a luminary than Martin Scorsese in a rare acting role), and not even Jack Black can save this unfunny script. Truly terrible stuff.
Other Precursor Contenders: Here's where the problems lie, though. The 2004 Oscars don't have a lot of precursor awards (this was before the BAFTA & the Golden Globes had their own category), so the only field that would be similar would be the Annie Awards, which cited Shrek and Incredibles (the latter winning) as well as Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie. The Polar Express, considering its groundbreaking animation & trio of nominations in other categories, was the obvious fourth place choice (at the time it was expected to outdo Shark Tale, which was a shock nomination), but the list of eligible films don't have a lot of gems. Home on the Range, Teacher's Pet, and Clifford's Really Big Movie were also options in 2004, but none of these are movies that stick out as hidden winners.
Films I Would Have Nominated: As I said above, there are no good choices. I'm currently watching some of the movies of the year to get a My Ballot pulled together (we'll do that after we finish off the Best Picture field), but I may have to cheat and expand into partially animated films to get a list that I can put my name on, as the only logical choice here is to nominate The Incredibles three times...they should have cancelled the category or just given it its own statue like they did with Visual Effects in the early 1980's.
Films I Would Have Nominated: As I said above, there are no good choices. I'm currently watching some of the movies of the year to get a My Ballot pulled together (we'll do that after we finish off the Best Picture field), but I may have to cheat and expand into partially animated films to get a list that I can put my name on, as the only logical choice here is to nominate The Incredibles three times...they should have cancelled the category or just given it its own statue like they did with Visual Effects in the early 1980's.
Oscar’s Choice: Let's all assume that The Incredibles won this with 80-90% of the vote, right? Just so we can sleep at night?
My Choice: No choice but Pixar-Shrek 2 gets the second place, and Shark Tale gets to never be mentioned by me again.
And that's our Animated Feature film race. Is there anyone who has enough shame to admit they think anything other than The Incredibles should have been nominated here, or are we all in agreement? Has anyone re-watched the Shrek movies over quarantine & realized how poorly they hold up? And how did Shark Tale beat out The Polar Express when the latter was labeled a "technical marvel" at the time & was clearly seen by Academy members? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 2004: Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2004
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