Submissions for the Nominations for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2018 Oscars (Part 3)
Welcome back again, fellow TopTenners and visitors! This is yours truly, MSBS, here again in the third and final part of my blog post series, where I take a look at the last 6 movies on the list of submissions for the nominations for Best Animated Feature Film at the 90th Academy Awards! Previously on my last post, I resumed the list count as I counted down yet another 10 movies that were featured on the list. With two of the previous parts over with, now I have tackled 20 out of 26 films featured on the list. So it goes without further ado that I'm here to finally finish this blog post series by giving my thoughts on the last 6 movies chosen to be potential nominees for the 2018 Oscars. Now... LINK START!21. Napping Princess: Sounds like the title rips off Sleeping Beauty in terms of definition, but fear not. This anime movie is in no way related to Sleeping Beauty. So Napping Princess is set in 2020 three days before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and revolves around a teenage girl named Kokone Morikawa, who is often dozing off and finding herself between the real world and a dream-like realm filled to the brim with advanced technology. However, when her father is framed and arrested for allegedly stealing technology from a powerful corporation, it's up to Kokone and her childhood friend Morio to save her father. Based on the full synopsis at Rotten Tomatoes, the movie explores the concept of the evolution and advancement of technology as Kokone and Morio come one step closer to finding her father and discovers secrets she never knew about her family. It helps that visionary director Kenji Kamiyama of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East fame worked on this movie and helped bring its technological vision to life, giving us a genre-blending and universe-blending anime movie that can easily be considered an underrated gem of this late decade. Huh, so we have two great anime movies that revolve around technology and are in the sci-fantasy genre. Napping Princess and Sword Art Online: The Movie - Ordinal Scale. Go figure. As for Napping Princess's chances at nomination, it's not impossible, but it'll have to contend with A Silent Voice, In This Corner of the World, and Mary and the Witch's Flower for a spot at nomination. A worthy rival of Ordinal Scale, and while it could dominate that movie, anything could happen if we pitted those two together for nomination.
22. A Silent Voice: So we already know Coco or The Lego Batman Movie has the award in the bag. But what about which anime movie will come on top of the nomination process out of the five anime movies chosen? I'm putting my bet on A Silent Voice. Now we have two anime movies based on technology (one on technology in general and one on AR), one anime movie based on the events of World War II in Japan, and we have an anime movie revolving around an aspiring young and benevolent witch girl. As for A Silent Voice, it goes for a premise that borders more on a social theme rather than a technological, historical, or fictional theme. And that social theme is bullying. So A Silent Voice revolves around a deaf elementary school named Shoko Nishimiya and a boy named Shoya Ishida. The two first meet when Shoko transfers to Shoya's class in elementary school. Shoya would then have him and his class bully Shoko for being deaf. However, things take a 180 degree flip when Shoya's class then bullies him for harassing a deaf girl. After the two graduate from elementary school, Shoko and Shoya don't speak to each other until later when Shoya feels remorse for his past actions and wants to make amends with Shoko and become friends with her to make up for all the bullying he put her through. Right off the bat, you can tell that this movie has a touching story to tell and how that story relates a lot to bullying in today's society. I have yet to see it for myself, but if you're into anime movies and especially ones revolving around social themes, this is a must-watch. All in all, if we're talking what anime movie is most likely to be nominated for this year's Oscars, this HAS to be the one.
23. Smurfs: The Lost Village: Okay... Well, at least it isn't The Emoji Movie... That said, there are a few things I liked based on what I saw from the movie. I like how more faithful it is to the original Smurfs cartoon and the animation is actually pretty good for what it is when it comes to making a fully CGI-animated Smurfs movie. In other words, this is A LOT better than those two awful live-action animated hybrid Smurfs movies Sony gave us in the past. However, Smurfs: The Lost Village mostly got mixed reviews from critics. For the most part, I can agree that The Lost Village did good on the animation, but I can understand why the story wasn't held in a high regard in general. But hey, like I said, a step-up from the awful live-action animated hybrid Smurfs movies. But... I don't think it's going to be a shoo-in for the nominations this year. However, I'd nominate it over The Emoji Movie and The Boss Baby ANY DAY.
24. The Star: The Star... Wasn't that the one with the trailer where it had cheap animation and there was that stupid donkey joke where the donkey was trying to tell the humans something and a woman thought it wanted a belly rub? Yeah, talk about another lowbrow Sony animated feature film. Given Sony Pictures Animation keeps giving us crap like this and The Emoji Movie, it shouldn't be a surprise why people like Animat hold quite a harsh grudge against the animation studio itself. Going back to The Star itself, it's supposedly selling itself off as a Christmas movie focusing on the Nativity aspects of the holiday, but in execution, all we see are sub-par animation quality, lowbrow animal jokes and maybe toilet humor, and no charm or soul put into it at all. Yeah, way to disgrace Jesus Christ's birthday, Sony. This movie might as well be considered blasphemy in pathetic animated form. This will not- NO, this will NEVER win the nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. Not even in a million years. At least Smurfs: The Lost Village had more effort and even heart (I don't even know what I'm saying anymore) put into its movie.
25. Sword Art Online: The Movie – Ordinal Scale: *This might be longer than how much I should write for this movie* Yeah, baby, it really made it! Woooo! Being a Sword Art Online fan myself, while I already heard good things about the movie and I look forward to watching it when I buy the Limited Edition Blu-ray Pack from Aniplex USA (either online or by retailer) in time for the Christmas season, I never actually thought it would actually make it onto the ticket of submissions for the nominations for Best Animated Feature Film. I could understand it winning this year's Newtype Anime Awards, but I never actually considered something as big as the Oscars. So when I was reading through some of the Crunchyroll News, I was actually taken by surprise when I saw that Ordinal Scale was actually one of five Japanese animated movies submitted for consideration as one of the nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film at this year's Oscars.
Before I give a little synopsis about the movie, let's do a little background check in case you don't know my interests, yes? So like I said earlier, I like Sword Art Online. Indeed, I still love it to this day. I haven't read the light novels, but I did watch all the episodes for the first Sword Art Online and all the episodes for Sword Art Online II. With all honesty, I genuinely liked both of them overall. Now they're not perfect, but I found a lot of things to enjoy from it from the animation to Yuki Kajiura's soundtrack for the show to all the virtual worlds and settings the world of SAO takes place and quite arguably the story and characters it had to offer (except for Sugou. That guy can go get impaled and left to die a slow death).
Alright, I'm going on too long about this, so let's cut to the chase. So Ordinal Scale has a new original story written by Reki Kawahara himself. In this story, Kirito joins Asuna and their friends in a new ARMMORPG (Augmented Reality Massive-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) game called Ordinal Scale. It seems it's just a game... or so they thought. As suspenseful battles unravel and familiar memories from the past rise again, now our heroes Kirito and Asuna and friends find themselves in a new epic AR adventure. From the premise itself, I'm already hooked onto this new AR setting in contrast to the traditional VR settings we saw with SAO, ALO, and GGO. Not to mention the new original characters Yuna and Eiji (or should I say "Edgy". Sorry, I am intrigued by Eiji, but his name just reminds me of edgy.) really pique my interest in the movie. Not sure what to say about Professor Shigemura, but at least it's nice to see we got someone as awesome as Akihiko Kayaba after having to put up with those scumbags we call Sugou and Shinkawa. That said, I'm proud to say that SAO has set a milestone for itself with its first theatrical release and I'll be looking forward to watching the movie later this year. As for its chance of nomination, it unfortunately probably won't make the cut when put up against movies like A Silent Voice and In This Corner of the World, but hey, never say never. But for me, all I need is the satisfaction of SAO being considered for the Oscars in the first place. Rejoice, SAO fandom.
26. Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming: Man, sorry about taking too long with Ordinal Scale. Anyways, onto the last movie on this list! Alright, so now we have a 2016 Canadian animated feature film on this list. One that is directed by Ann Marie Fleming and is based on Fleming's novel of the same name. So Window Horses tells the story of a young female Canadian poet of mixed descent raised by her strict Chinese grandparents, believing her own mother and father abandoned her. However, her life changes one day when she is invited to perform her poetry in Iran and then learns that all of what she was told as a child her whole life may not be all true. I can't say for myself if the movie is good or not, but the movie seems to border around coming-of-age or whatnot, so I'm pretty sure Window Horses has a meaningful story that really provokes our thoughts about if all of the stuff we were taught when we were young is true or not to this day. The animation does look quite culturally diverse with its art styles, so that's another thing to praise this movie for. Other than that, this movie seems to be a pretty decent and worthwhile watch, but given I don't hear much people talk about it, I unfortunately have to say it may not get a nomination. But hey, anything's possible.
And now, I close off Part 3 in my third and final part of this blog post series where I analyze movies being considered for nomination at the 90th Academy Awards. Napping Princess and A Silent Voice are worthy contenders, and I can see the latter getting the nomination over all 5 of the anime movies being considered for nomination. I don't care much for Smurfs: The Lost Village, but it's hardly one of the worst Sony has pumped out this year. As for The Star... Yes, now THAT is one of the worst Sony has pumped out this year. Funnily enough, want to know something? So A-1 Pictures, the animation studio that animates Sword Art Online, is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)'s anime production firm Aniplex (key word: Sony). So in other words, Sony has had a genuinely good animated movie this year. Yet, it's NOT a Western animated movie made by Sony Pictures Animation. It's a Japanese animated movie made from one of the subsidiaries of Sony's music arm in Japan! As for Ordinal Scale, I do have my fingers crossed for a possibility of nomination, but it getting considered for the Oscars is all I need. And for Window Horses, that's up to chance. But in all seriousness, 2017 hasn't been a very good year for animated movies. There's really only a few Western studio-produced animated movies that I believe are worthy of praise while the rest is mediocre or even outright terrible. However, the indie movies are definitely something of their own league that makes them good in their own right and even able to rival some of this year's studio-produced animated movies. All in all, here's to hoping for the best at the 90th Academy Awards. I'm definitely counting on Coco or The Lego Batman Movie to win. Thanks for reading this post and feel free to discuss in the comments about the potential nominees for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Until then, peace!
Comments
Let's recap all 26 submissions for this year's Oscars.
“The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales”
“Birdboy: The Forgotten Children”
“The Boss Baby”
“The Breadwinner”
“Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie”
“Cars 3”
“Cinderella the Cat”
“Coco”
“Despicable Me 3”
“The Emoji Movie”
“Ethel & Ernest”
“Ferdinand”
“The Girl without Hands”
“In This Corner of the World”
“The Lego Batman Movie”
“The Lego Ninjago Movie”
“Loving Vincent”
“Mary and the Witch’s Flower”
“Moomins and the Winter Wonderland”
“My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea”
“Napping Princess”
“A Silent Voice”
“Smurfs: The Lost Village”
“The Star”
“Sword Art Online: The Movie �" Ordinal Scale”
“Window Horses The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming”
Now that this blog post series, here are both my personal picks and predictions for the nominations:
My personal picks:
1. Coco
2. The Lego Batman Movie
3. A Silent Voice
4. Sword Art Online: The Movie - Ordinal Scale
5. Mary and the Witch's Flower
My predictions:
1. Coco
2. The Lego Batman Movie
3. A Silent Voice
4. Loving Vincent
5. The Breadwinner - visitor
Hmm the other half was bad but the 2nd and third half seem reedeeming. - visitor
The Lego Batman Movie was great. There's no doubt in my mind that it'll get nominated.
But I can't be the only one who was surprised that Kimi no Na wa didn't even get submitted. - Absolite
Your Name did get submitted last year, but it's just that it wasn't nominated for last year's Oscars, unfortunately. It seems that they only allow animated feature films to be submitted only once. May the best of the 5 submitted anime movies win. I'm betting on A Silent Voice getting nominated, but since it seems the Oscars lean more only towards Studio Ghibli movies or movies made by former Studio Ghibli animators, Mary and the Witch's Flower could have a chance as well.
As for The Lego Batman Movie, it should definitely get a spot at nomination. We all remember what happened when they didn't nominate The Lego Movie back at the 2014 Oscars. Here's to hoping The Lego Batman Movie avenges its predecessor's snub. - visitor
On a side note, I've seen people in the articles complaining that My Little Pony: The Movie didn't get considered for the Oscars this year. While I haven't watched it and I'm not into My Little Pony, I do have to say that the movie did have a lot of heart and soul put into it, so I could understand why so many bronies and casual moviegoers wanted My Little Pony: The Movie to be nominated. These news must be quite depressing for fans of the franchise, I tell you. - visitor
My Picks
1 Captain Underpants
2 Coco (assuming that it is, it is Pixar after all)
3 The LEGO Batman Movie
4 Ferdinand (another late 2017 film that might be a surprise hit)
5 Loving Vincent
What they'll put in there
1 Coco
2 Cars 3
3 Despicable Me 3
4 Captain Underpants
5 Boss Baby (because knowing the process they tend to snub underrated films for crap like this) - visitor
1. Coco (seen it it was good)
2. The Lego Batman Movie
3. Captain Underpants
4. Cars 3
5. A Silent Voice - visitor
Man, I can't wait for Coco! - Phillip873
I'm going to watch A Silent Voice - TwilightKitsune
Well, the nominations are in now. Here are the nominees according to Variety:
Animated Feature:
“The Boss Baby,” Tom McGrath, Ramsey Ann Naito
“The Breadwinner,” Nora Twomey, Anthony Leo
“Coco,” Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
“Ferdinand,” Carlos Saldanha
“Loving Vincent,” Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Sean Bobbitt, Ivan Mactaggart, Hugh Welchman
Yeah... I think I'm going to make a post later this week or month about my thoughts on these nominations. - visitor
Cool. - visitor