Here were the 2009 Oscar nominees for Best Animated Film: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, and Up.
Like just about everyone else in this country, I haven't scene The Secret of Kells. It killed in Europe and we all know their impeccable taste. It's about 9th century monks--what's not to like, you know, other than the 9th century monk part? Really, monks peaked in the 640s.
Coraline came with both cred guns blazing: it was directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and based on a book by Neil Gaiman (uh, Coraline). And it was 3-D, but old school terrible 3-D. It looks terrific and captures the creepy PG tone of the book. No complaints.
Disney mouth-to-mouthed classic 2-D animation with The Princess and the Frog and...ok, they finally figured out that it was okay to sell dolls to African-American girls as well. Princess Tiana: the Jackie Robinson of crass commercialism.
Up won, of course, because it was a Pixar film. Not that it wasn't good--it was, and deserves some sort of prize for making kids sit through one of the most beautifully depressing sequences in movie history before they got to the talking dog. But it also received a Best Picture nomination as well...I don't know, though. I think it was over-hyped by the time I saw it. Or maybe the Pixar formula has been perfected to predictability at this point. Whatever the case...
...I though Mr. Fox was the best animated film of the year. What won me over was that it was an animated movie that not only didn't try to hide the fact that it's an animated movie but reveled in it. There's just an infectious giddiness, from George Clooney's over-the-top swagger as the lead voice to the manic stop-motion movements and gestures. But most of all, it captured director Wes Anderson's eccentric whimsy that can sometimes get too cute for its own good in his live action films. Or: it was fun.
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