And I’m still organizing that lynch mob. Whether I’ll use it…
whoa, The Oscar Awards seem to be today. Holding fingers for Wall-e! 
Oscar nominees were just announced. No best picture nomination for WALL-E 'tho, but:
Best Animated Feature
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Wall•e is also nominated for Best Original Screenplay. That’s six nominations. I think it’s a record for a Pixar film (and maybe for an animated film), so it’s not too bad.
And Presto is nominated for Best Animated Short Film.
I just watched the nominations live on TV, 5:30AM in Los Angeles!
With 6 nominations for WALL-E, that makes it the most Oscar nominations for an Animated Film ever (Beauty and the Beast also got 6, but 3 of them were in the same category for song)! I was very excited that it got all the nominations that it really had a chance in, including original screenplay and animated feature!!!
In terms of Best Picture race, I’m so happy to see Slumdog Millionaire in that list. Almost nobody saw The Reader coming. What a surprise. I can hear all the Batfans screaming in terror already.
I just saw them on TV when they were announced! Glad that WALL-E got a decent number of nods. I wasnt expecting it to be in the best picture category (although I was expecting Dark Knight to be there…), but the categories it is in, I would expect because it was that good. 
I’m slightly disappointed that Wall-E didn’t get out of the ‘Best Animated Picture’ slum, probably due to the critics’ long-held prejudice against ‘cartoons’, so it felt like the huge amount of nominations in other categories was their way of ‘making up for it.’
I don’t foresee any animated films of that scale or scope this year that looks like Best Picture material. Up looks more whimsical than ambitious or daring, and Princess and the Frog’s storyline may proved too cliche. Only Tim Burton’s 9 may have potential. As for Monsters vs Aliens and Ice Age 3… they frankly don’t stand a chance. So it may be a long time till we see this ‘just a cartoon for kids’ stereotype broken. 
I guess it is with a bittersweet feeling that I can now witness its many nominations (of which the others have already written above). Best Animated Picture is a practical shoe-in. I haven’t seen any other movies in the Best Score and Original Song list (since they’re not out in Sing yet), so I can’t make any judgements. I haven’t seen a few in the Best Sound Editing and Mixing, but it seems like Ben Burtt’s creativity may prove a strong contender… Again, I haven’t seen all the other nominees for Best Screenplay, so no verdict… Good thing Presto got a Best Animated Short pick!
And what the heck? They shafted The Dark Knight too! Where did The Reader come from? At least it got six nominations too… (Best in Makeup… interesting!)
sigh Well, The Board of Academy, I have one thing to say to you… King Julien voice You’re just a bunch of PANSIES!
Yeah, I’m bitter. Get over it. 
And Wall-E, I have one thing to say to you too: SWEEP EM’ ALL!
And if we count Presto, it’s 7 noms (and since Presto is attached to WALL-E I think it’s only fair, myself) which would make it a record for sure. But I guess the record books will only count the ones for the main feature itself.
I hope the Batfans are all coming “Down to Earth” today and realizing they had a good film but not a Best Picture film on their hands. On the other hand, the highest-rated, most critically acclaimed film of the year didn’t get nominated either. That film, of course, was WALL-E. The animation bias went a long way in working against it, though, plus the Best Animated Feature category. TDK was live-action and still didn’t make it, so hopefully this is a wake up call.
I don’t think Up necessarily looks any less “ambitious or daring” than Wall-E. I think the praise for these aspects of Wall-E is a little overblown. Sure, it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, but it has plenty of saccharine cute, expressive eyes, bleating bleeps and bloops, etcetera, to make up for it. Wall-E is a lot of wonderful things, but I think a lot of the people who call it “challenging” are forgetting the well-established vocabulary of silent film that Wall-E so beautifully employs.
Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol is coming out. imdb.com/title/tt1067106/
It is supposed to be the closest adaptation yet.
And I think that UP could possibly be more than anyone is suspecting right now.
- C-3PO
Daring is employing those things in an era where your film has to talk talk talk otherwise it’s labeled as “boring”. Daring is making a love story about robots that only talk the way they were designed to do so. Daring is overlaying something like “Hello Dolly” with a space epic and making it work. Daring is having the nerve to go through with the environmental background stuff even during a time where it gets you labeled as having “sledgehammered the message over the viewer’s head” despite the fact that you had no message other than love. Daring is also being willing to commit to a story unlike any other that wouldn’t have been made by 99% of companies. WALL-E is most definitely daring.
That said, I can’t agree that Up doesn’t look daring either. I think it looks extremely daring and bold. An old man and a house? It certainly doesn’t sound run-of-the-mill and could easily be up for next year’s Best Animated Feature award. But Best Picture? That talk isn’t going to get any play at all unless there’s something the trailers aren’t telling us, which at this point looks doubtful. Even Best Animated is going to be tough with Coraline, 9, and Ponyo on a Cliff all being out state-side next year. But yes Up looks daring, it’s just not at all accurate to say WALL-E wasn’t.
Ratatouille was daring, but was not nominated. It was nominated for all of the same awards as WALL•E, except for Best Original Song.
A rat cooking in a kitchen is in my opinion even more daring than a robot. I loved WALL•E, but this is a movie that people saw the trailers for and fell in love with - because WALL•E is so appealing. But Ratatouille… a lot of people were unsure of how that would work.
So yes, I can think of a reason of how practically every PIXAR movie is daring in some sort of way. All of PIXAR’s movies are critically acclaimed in some way or another.
- C-3PO
Oh, come on. Of all the criticisms leveled against them, how often were the Star Wars movies deemed “boring”? More dialogue than Wall-E? Sure. More substantive, important dialogue? Not really.
Daring is making a love story about robots who don’t talk at all. Daring is a feature-length Quay brothers movie. Daring is a feature-length Luxo, Jr. Daring is an unsympathetic lead. Wall-E is R2D2. Wall-E is a puppy dog. How is that daring?
How is making emotional-shorthand of a pop-culture touchstone daring?! Daring would be pulling off that story without resorting to such expressive shortcuts.
Ah, the old ‘it’s unlikely because it’s the only extant example’ argument. Logic at its finest. 
Critics have nothing to do with the Oscars. In fact WALL-E appears on most of the year’s top 10 lists by the critics, more than any other film indeed. The AMPAS’ 15 branches are Actors, Art Directors, Cinematographers, Directors, Documentary, Executives, Film Editors, Makeup, Music, Producers, Public Relations, Short Films and Feature Animation, Sound, Visual Effects and Writers. In other words, filmmakers, not critics. The critics are more open-minded than you think.
I don’t think a film needs to be the most “ambitious” or “daring” to be recognized, but it’s true that there can be talks about WALL-E best pic nom because of the ambition and uniqueness of this little film. Had it been another animal talkie, even better than Ratatouille, I doubt it.
Perhaps there’s prejudice towards animated films and WALL-E, but maybe it’s not quite there yet (for the AMPAS, they’re just a group of people with subjective opinions after all). If Pixar can still make good film, one day the best will come and no one can deny it then. How long did it take for Beauty and the Beast nominated as a “Best Picture”, since the genre began, since the Oscar began and since Disney began? A very long time to break the mold.
It will be another very long time until anything of that sort can happen. So I’m quite content.
Ah the old eye roll and lack of making any valid point. Rhetoric at its finest indeed. I remember why I don’t come here often now. Back to the WALL-E Forum I go to enjoy friendly discussions and people not rolling their eyes in contempt. Good job on representing your forum.
The eyeroll was rude of me and I apologize.
Meanwhile, if you truly saw no ‘valid point’ in my statements, I encourage you to re-read them. Please bear in mind that I was responding to your vigorous defense against comments I made for the sole purpose of expressing my own personal opinion. I’m not sure why you felt the need to refute me in the first place.
On the one hand, I’m disappointed about WALL-E’s lack of a Best Picture nomination, especially after reading an article in the paper today that mentioned WALL-E as a real contender, but I’m not surprised either. On the other hand, six nominations is very impressive, and I’m pleased that Presto is being recognised as well! So, congratulations everyone at Pixar!
Just wondering, does anyone know what the maximum number of Oscars won by an animated film has been in the past? I hope WALL-E can continue to break the records.
Well, pro and con are welcome here. Many posters have come here today from other segments of this Pixar-related site, and just may not have liked Wall-E much.
But don’t worry, that guy only has 19 posts (meaning he is not typical of the posters here, altho the guy with the highest website post count felt Wall-E fell flat, and thought Hello Dolly was the only good thing!), he’s been here only 10 days and he was too ‘attack dog’ on yours. I thought you made a decent argument, wallefanatic. And his argument didn’t always make sense: even if this movie is one-of-a-kind, that’s evidence toward an argument that it could be daring, as opposed to safe. Now that’s not a conclusion; that which is unique isn’t necessarily daring or good quality.
But we can cut the crap here: the way Pixar is structured, the way the directors help each other out with the story if one gets in trouble, there is little chance of a stinker. Other studios would NEVER spend $180M on a picture like this, unless some star or dream team was behind it. I doubt that any other animated feature ever cost this much. Only the track record of Pixar and Stanton’s stature allowed them to make it. The producers admit that there is always a risk, but also admitted the story was so good early on, confidence was high. Despite this, most of act2 and 3 had to be junked in pre-production. This wasn’t a disaster, they felt that no one cared about what happened to the gels.
Someone mentioned that one way to be daring means you select an unsympathetic lead character. There’s some truth to that, although I can’t imagine children or a roach or Eve being interested in a lifeless or nasty Wall-E, unless there are hints of a redemption in the offing. Without families mobbing these pictures, you just can’t keep spending decamegabucks on them.
…Also, I’m glad too that TDK didn’t get a nom, it’s waaayyy too hyped. Ledger’s performance was like a sponge, it left the rest of the cast wanting.
Hm… it seems like my comments have triggered some interesting discussions…
DHOSW (Sorry if you mind me using acronyms): I agree Pixar has a good organisational structure. I’m sure you all are familiar with the Brain Trust and their refusal to take orders from the bigwigs and all that, so if there’s one studio to pull off inconceivable concepts, it’s Pixar. I would like to see an unsympathetic lead in the mold of the anti-hero, though. Not mean-spirited or nasty, but scheming or not-as-straight-morals-wise as most Pixar characters. Look at most of them, Buzz Lightyear, Flik, Mr Incredible, Remy, Wall-E… they’re all too goody-two-shoes. Something like Captain Jack Sparrow, or RJ from Over the Hedge, or John Silver from Treasure Planet. One who, like you said, would eventually gain redemption and learn his lessons. I’d love to see Pixar do an anti-hero.
lizardgirl - I think Wall-E tied with Beauty and the Beast at 6. If you count Presto, though, that makes 7!
JD - What I meant by critics were those on the Voting Board, the ones who made the decision. I was aware the others were already rooting for Wall-E. Maybe it’s a case of herd mentality, one person on the board may have the heart to vote Wall-E in, but because he/she perceives the rest as doing otherwise (or being seen as less of a movie aficionado for voting for a ‘cartoon’), decides to forgo Wall-E. And because no one dares to take a different stand, everyone won’t. (Of course, I’m just generalising, not to mention my emotions may play into this theory) They feel like playing safe because it’s always been the case year after year, and nobody expects them to do anything different. The Acadmey may act all-knowing and pseudo-intelligent, but deep down, they aren’t willing to change and are just too… chicken.
doctorossi - I respect your opinion, but there was no need to get all ‘interrogative’ on wallefanatic. Everyone has a point to make, so let’s (to quote Daffy Duck) act civili-sh-ed!
Yes, I agree that Up may be prove a dark horse in next year’s Oscars race. I’m only making preliminary assessments. I’m also aware how much Wall-E has taken its influences from silent movies and sci-fi epics (AUTO is practically the half-sibling of HAL! Even the cockroach is named HAL!). But Up has its influences too, unintentional or otherwise. Howl’s Moving Castle comes to mind. The Road to El Dorado and Danny Deckhair may be other inspirations. The thing about making a movie these days is that some way or other people are going to say you’re copying or ripping off someone else, because so many themes have already been explored.
But whereas Up is imaginative and much more creative than Dreamworks, Sony, and Blue Sky’s talking animal movies, in my humble opinion, Wall-E was more daring because of the reasons wallefanatic said. No dialogue, all body language! Environmental and social commentaries in a time when that’s the last thing people want to hear. A love story between two inanimate objects (the romance would have put off lots of kids already). A space opera in the grandest scale possible.
Please don’t take this personally. I hope Up would prove my preconceptions wrong! But even ignoring the fact on which of Rat, Wall, or Up was ‘better’, I feel Wall stood a better chance this year than Rat or Up (the small demographic and viewing number for the former, the sheer competition of other contenders like 9, Coraline and Ponyo for the latter). Wall-E was a fable for the ages, and compared to the mediocre Bolt and KFP, this was the year it stood a fighting chance as any. And that’s why I’m so annoyed it missed out on this.
wallefanatic - What’s your username on Wall-E forums? I tried searching wallefanatic but couldn’t find any posts. I agree with your points 100%. But again, I’d add a disclaimer that these are just surface observations on Up based on the trailer. We don’t know what it may have up its sleeve just yet… but I agree with you Wall-E seems like more audacious of the two. 
Nice to see the nods Wall-E got, but of course it would’ve been nice to see it get nominated for Best Picture. Nice point there about the Rotten Tomato scores.
In the end though, don’t forget the one important fact, as brought up by the local LA Times columnist: the majority of the voters in the Academy are actors, and in animation there are no “actors” per se (excluding voiceover artists and those who do the voices). So naturally people tend to vote their own and dismiss pictures (animated) that don’t have any actors in them.
It’s also good to remember that there have been many years in the past where the movie that won Best Picture for the year has long since been forgotten and become obscure, while other movies made the same year that were snubbed by the Academy have lived on through the years…