It has frequently been observed that comedies are rarely nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, and almost never win. But you know what's even rarer? A Best Picture nod for an animated film. To paraphrase Oscar-winning hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, it's hard out here for a 'toon.

The only cartoon ever nominated for Best Picture was Disney's Beauty and the Beast. (It lost to Silence of the Lambs, if you can imagine.) Few cartoons were legitimate contenders after that, and once the Academy established the Best Animated Feature category in 2001 -- just in time for Shrek to win -- voters could breathe easy. No longer would they have to consider possibly casting their ballot for -- gasp! -- a cartoon in one of the more "serious" categories.

Animated films have been relegated to their own separate-but-unequal slot. Academy rules state that a film is eligible for Best Picture even if it's also a nominee in the animation category. But let's be honest: in a year crowded with good movies, voters consider it a blessing to be able to cross something off their list of contenders. The only reason Juno is a Best Picture nominee is that there isn't a separate Best Comedy by a Former Stripper category.

Associated Press entertainment writer Jake Coyle raises the subject this year with regard to Ratatouille. It earned five Oscar nominations (more than any cartoon in history other than Beauty and the Beast), including ones for its screenplay, musical score, and sound -- all categories whose nominees are generally Best Picture nominees, too. But no Best Picture nod for Pixar's sophisticated and brilliant tale.

Ratatouille was also the best-reviewed movie of 2007. We learn this from Metacritic, which takes the Rotten Tomatoes model a step further by telling you not just whether a review is positive or negative, but HOW positive or negative it is. (Metacritic has a much less garish and baffling design than RT, too, but that's a rant for another article.)

According to Metacritic, Ratatouille's average score, on a scale of 1-100, was 96. Next on the list is the newly reissued Killer of Sheep with a score of 94, followed by The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and There Will Be Blood with 92, and No Country for Old Men with 91. The last two are Best Picture nominees; the rest of that category includes Atonement (85), Michael Clayton (82), and Juno (81).

In other words, there's a good chance that if it weren't for the Best Animated Feature category, Ratatouille would be a Best Picture nominee.

Then again, Ratatouille shouldn't feel too bad. Glancing at Metacritic's list, we see the only instance this decade of the best-reviewed film of the year also winning Best Picture was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The only other top film of any year to even be nominated was Sideways. (The actual winner that year, Million Dollar Baby, was the 10th-best-reviewed film.)

So what do we learn? That the people who choose the Academy Awards are erratic, unpredictable, and not always sensible. I'm sorry if that's a terrible shock, but there it is.

* * * * *
Eric D. Snider (website) would have voted for Ratatouille over Atonement any day.

Recommend (0) |

Comments (0) |

Email  |

Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us