OVP: Best Animated Feature Film (2009)
The Nominees Were...
Henry Selick, Coraline
Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox
John Musker and Ron Clements, The Princess and the Frog
Tomm Moore, The Secret of Kells
Pete Docter, Up
My Thoughts: 2009 may have been the only year since the launch of this category where it felt legitimately like there should have been five nominees. 2009 was an extraordinary year for animation, both critically and financially, and when I started planning out all of these write-ups, this was the category that I wanted to most get my head around, because my opinion is slightly lower than critical consensus for most of these pictures, and this is one of the few times where I think writing an article may alter my opinion of some pictures.
Of the movies, the one that I feel the least connected to is Fantastic Mr. Fox. This isn’t a knock on this particular picture, per se, but instead on the fact that it’s probably the longest I’ve been since seeing one of these films. The movie is quite inventive, and you have to adore the art direction-the farms, the foxholes, the way that everything feels so authentic even if it’s all stop motion. The script is wry and witty, and honestly this is probably my favorite Wes Anderson film-for a man who deals in making the world cartoonish, it seems more than appropriate that he would excel in this format.
The thing that stops me from loving the movie (I merely like it) is that it, like all of Anderson’s work, runs the line between cute and knows-it’s-cute with too many falls in the latter direction. The casting, for example, becomes too much of a gimmick; “ooh, Bill Murray,” is something that’s fun to proclaim, but not when it’s constantly taking you out of the picture. This is something that Disney and Pixar have done SO well-voice actors make the character the focus, rather than wondering what Meryl Streep sounds like. It’s not fair to famous movie stars, I guess, but don’t they already have enough? And when it’s done right (Ellen Degeneres in Nemo, Robin Williams in Aladdin) and the character matches the voice, then it’s brilliant. I just didn’t feel that way about Mr. Fox.
I did feel that way about Coraline, however. The vocal work is a centerpiece of this film, and as I’ve mentioned before, Teri Hatcher absolutely owns this movie. Part of casting a movie is to fit a voice that matches the character, and Hatcher’s high, tight tone is an inspired choice for the Other Mother. The entire film, honestly, is sheer bliss. Henry Selick borrows from his most famous creation, The Nightmare Before Christmas, creating a “world of imagination,” where things aren’t quite what they seem. However, he expands in ways that that (brilliant) movie doesn’t, giving us a fairy tale about a little girl who wants to connect with her parents, but finds that she already loves them the way they are. It’s a clichéd plot, but the animation is so inspired, the plot so twisty, and the vocal work so spot-on that you won’t care. It’s the sort of movie that you think about long after, realizing that it was even better than you realized initially. Laika would three years later create a similarly-felt picture with ParaNorman, which, as you’ll see in the links below, competed for the Best Animated film race of 2012 (click the link if you want to see if it won the OVP).
The film of this bunch I’ve seen the most is assuredly Up, the Pixar entry from 2009. The movie is such an odd pairing for children, as Carl Frederickson is not the sort of character you assume that children are going to gravitate toward (they do throw in a talking dog, but that’s about it for child-friendly topics). The movie is actually about how you give up on your dreams as you get older, particularly when you are dealt huge setbacks in your personal life. It’s a very adult topic, and probably the peak of Pixar’s making films without regard to audience (Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up all three fall into the field of making a great movie and assuming an audience will come, a confidence that Pixar has completely lost in their franchise-heavy corporate direction since). The movie is good in most parts, and absolutely brilliant in others. Really, the first opening ten minutes or so is probably the best thing any movie had in 2009, regardless of format. Watching a couple fall in love, get older, share a life together (with its highs and lows) and then finally succumb to that end we all must face-absolutely haunting. So good is this scene that it almost carries the entire picture after it, though the film becomes more problematic once we actually get to Paradise Falls (also, there are serious scripting issues with the age of Charles Muntz in particular and the fact that Carl essentially lifts a house that made my eyebrows raise throughout the film). That said, it’s still a very strong picture, and definitely a medal contender in this crowd.
I know you could read this joke if you click the above review, but I remember watching the Oscar nomination announcements for this category, and saying, “I believe it’s pronounced Ponyo” when The Secret of Kells came on the screen. This was by far the most shocking nomination in an Oscar year where there were VERY few surprises. The big question with this particular category is what are the merits you’re supposed to vote upon, because there is of course an emphasis on the animation. If we are indeed focusing on the animation, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful film-the golds and greens just pop on the screen, and are deeply loyal to Celtic traditions. However, the plot itself is razor thin, and the movie drags (and is quite frankly pretty boring for something so short), and so I must admit to leaving disappointed.
The final nominated film is The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s much-anticipated return to traditional animation. I still cannot stand the way that Disney renames all of its fairy tales these days to be edgier (I’m telling you, Rapunzel and The Snow Queen would have been so much more suitable), but at least this one comes close (the original Grimm story was called “The Frog Prince”). The animation in the movie sings, and the music, while sporadically uninspired (for every “Almost There,” there’s a “Ma Belle Evangeline,”) this is still a fun movie. Anika Noni Rose is having a blast as the uptight young woman in love with a frog prince, and I like that the film isn’t afraid to be a little bit dark (the voodoo spirits recall past Disney villains that truly petrified), though the movie runs long and the side characters' personas in particular are pale imitations of their Sebastian, Lumiere, and Pumbaa style predecessors.
Other Precursor Contenders: Considering that The Secret of Kells came out of nowhere, the Globes clearly skipped that one in favor of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Up won the big prize). The Annie Awards actually did nominate The Secret of Kells (but they nominate everyone…including all of the nominees that year), and also found room for Cloudy with a Chance (Up won). The real question here is who was in sixth place. Common sense looking at the precursors would say Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but Ponyo is the only Miyazaki-directed film since the beginning of this category that missed, and something tells me that it would have just barely beaten Cloudy. It’s definitely the sixth place I’m most curious about of this bunch.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Honestly, I would have probably stuck to three nominations this year, cutting my bottom two. Ponyo I found too childlike (and cloying) and Cloudy is a mess and too paint-by-numbers for my taste. I didn’t see anything else that year worth mentioning.
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar so rarely turns down Pixar when he has the chance, and Up made a worthy contender (likely over Mr. Fox, I’m guessing?).
My Choice: A very tight race, but my hypothesis at the beginning of the article is correct: I convinced myself that Coraline deserved the win instead of Up. In third is another tight race, but I’m going to lean into Mr. Fox, then Princess, and then finally the surprise nominee Secret of Kells.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Did you like Pixar’s entry for the year, or did you, like me, prefer Corailne? Were you stunned about The Secret of Kells inclusion? And of course, what was the best animated film of 2009?
Also in 2009: Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2009
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