So, yesterday I uploaded six clips from WALL•E and at the same time said, “I will guarantee right now that this will be nominated for an Oscar Best Picture.”
Around the same time The Hollywood Reporter publishes an article headlined “‘WALL-E’ bow kicks off Oscar season” saying, “[If] today’s moviegoers warm to “WALL-E” the way an earlier generation embraced “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” then the latest Pixar effort could find itself contending with the big boys for best picture.”
Then, I read an article over at New York Magazine headlined “Start the Campaign: ‘Wall-E’ for Best Picture!” and that one gives us this quote:
Could this be the year that the Academy finally realizes that Pixar movies are the closest Hollywood comes anymore to the great, classy populist entertainments that used to be nominated for a gazillion Oscars — the kinds of movies that everyone complains have disappeared from the Academy Awards?
If you think I am done quoting folks guess again, because Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood also has a theory saying that “Andrew Stanton’s arrogance” may end up being the reason WALL•E doesn’t get a nod:
I’m hearing the problem may be Andrew Stanton’s arrogance in that interview in last Sunday’s “New York Times”:
“Stanton, who wrote and directed the film, doesn’t care if the kiddies want to hug Wall-E or not when the movie comes out on Friday. ‘I never think about the audience,” he said. “If someone gives me a marketing report, I throw it away.'” Because them thar’s fightin’ words in the movie industry. “Half of Hollywood went, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!'” a bigwig Hollywood marketer said, echoing sentiment heard within the Industry. “Nobody can say, ‘I don’t care what the audience thinks’, especially when making a mainstream movie for families. Nobody can live outside the envelope like that. His disdain for the audience was really obvious.”
You can read the “Times” article here if you are interested.
However, my trip doesn’t end with the Hollywood gossip monger Ms. Finke. Nope, tonight prior to the screening for the dreadful Hancock I was chatting it up with box-office bud Laremy Legel and a prominent Seattle critic. I pose the question to her, “You’ve seen WALL•E, it’s a lock for an Oscar nom don’tcha think?”
“Nope, I am not going to say anything is a lock this early,” was her reply, but she did say she thought it had a good chance. Laremy bet me a dollar because he is a big shot gambler. I tried to get him up to ten, but that would have broken the bank.
I would have taken my argument a little further, but as it turns out she didn’t like WALL•E as much as she liked Ratatouille so it is hard to make a case against someone that didn’t really think the film was quite as great as you did, even though they really liked it. As for Laremy, his balls are a little too small to go out on a limb just yet so he is sticking to the “Uh, eh, I don’t know…” defense, which is to say he reserves his right to not have an opinion until the very last second.
I however believe we will have our second animated feature film nominated in the Oscar Best Picture category with WALL•E. I believe this based not only on how great the film is and how much it reminds me of the kind of effect E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial had on audiences back in 1982 when it was nominated for Best Picture along with eight other categories.
As Laremy pointed out to me last night, Pixar’s worst reviewed film ever was Cars, it had a 75% rating at RottenTomatoes. After that we have A Bug’s Life at 91%, Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille at 95%, The Incredibles at 97%, Finding Nemo at 98%, WALL•E at 98% (as of this article) and both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 at 100%. My point in telling you this is that politics also plays a HUGE role in award season selections. Just look at Lord of the Rings, I don’t think I am the only one that believes the Academy just waited until Return of the King was released to finally give the film trilogy its due. Scorsese for The Departed? I love that movie to death, but it is far from his best.
Nope, I don’t see how the Academy cannot nominated WALL•E unless five films absolutely blow the doors off later this year. A quick peek at what is coming up from now until December has my looking at this films as possibly contenders:
- Burn After Reading (Coen bros.)
- Miracle at St. Anna (Spike Lee jizzoint)
- A House of Lies (Ridley Scott and DiCaprio)
- Changeling (Eastwood and Jolie)
- The Road (Hillcoat and Mortensen)
- Australia (Luhrmann, Kidman, Jackman)
- The Soloist (Wright, Foxx, Downey Jr.)
- Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard)
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher, Pitt, Blanchett)
- Revolutionary Road (Mendes and the cast of Titanic)
Looking at that list I would say serious contenders include Changeling, The Soloist, Benjamin Button and Revolutionary Road. Obviously I have no real basis to make these guesstimates, but this isn’t exactly science here considering I have only watched trailers for three of the ten films listed above. Also, I didn’t include Sean Penn’s Milk just because I can only assume it is going to be yet another sour-puss-faced Penn giving another been-there-seen-that performance. Mystic River is continually begining to feel like it was Penn’s time in the sun. Oh, perhaps Doubt could do something considering the Amy Adams and Meryl Streep factor, but that all depends on how hard Miramax pushes it and, of course, if it is any good, but that goes for all of these films…. doesn’t it? Crash anyone?
Am I crazy for assuming WALL•E can stay atop for the next six months?
