(01/26/10) The road to the 82nd Oscars

With the Oscars nearly only a month away and the announcement of the nominated films coming to us on February 2nd, I can't help but be appalled at the recent developments to come out of the race for nominations in the Best Animated Feature category. This I recently discovered on www.oscars.org
Yes, this is another one of my classic rants but did you know the Oscars are considering nominating Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel for best animated picture? Wth?

The list of films being considered for the 5 slots at the Oscars are:

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Astro Boy
Battle for Terra
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
The Doplhin – Story of a Dreamer <--whatever the hell that is…
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Mary and Max
The Missing Lynx
Monsters vs. Aliens
9
Planet 51
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure <--sounds like it’s a direct to DVD release and I checked it and what’s that? It is? So they’re nominating a crapfest that’s direct-to-DVD? Are you kidding me?

A Town Called Panic
Up


So first of all I have a bone to pick with them for having Alvin and the Chipmunks on there. It’s not an animated film if you’ve got computer animated characters walking around in a live-action environment with real actors and etc. So that should be off of there. Don’t know what “A Town Called Panic”, “The Secret of Kells”, “The Missing Lynx”, “Mary and Max”, or “The Dolphin-Story of a Dreamer” are so they get the benefit of the doubt. But Monsters vs. Aliens?! Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs?! Planet 51?! Don’t even get me started on how they’ve got a direct to DVD crapfest on there with the addition of “Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure”. The list for consideration should be:


Astro Boy
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
The Dolphin-Story of a Dreamer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Mary and Max
The Missing Lynx
9
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
A Town Called Panic
Up

And the 5 that get to the Oscars should be "The Princess and the Frog", "Coraline", "9", "Up" And some other one. Or two others if "Up" gets its possible Best Picture nomination. But sheesh… you’re the Oscars for cryin out loud. It’s bad enough you gave the best picture in 1977 to "Annie Hall" and not "Star Wars". But at least you actually nominated films and not some of the cinematic diarrhea that’s on this list. Would someone please clear away this overturned manure truck on the road to the Oscars?