Saturday
Nov102012
"Rise of the Guardians" Begins Its Oscar Push
Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 3:33PM This morning, very bright and early, MOMI unveiled their new exhibit "The Art of Rise of the Guardians" with an accompanying film series on the Best of Dreamworks Animation. A museum exhibit is definitely a way to announce that you are Serious For Real and not just for, you know, for kids. Methinks Dreamworks Animation wants their third Animated Feature Oscar.
And hey, this year's Oscar is totally up for grabs. Sure Wreck-It Ralph might be the one to beat unless the Cult of Pixar regathers for Brave but it's hardly a done deal this early in the toon throwdown.
The only two things I could think staring at this beautiful image above is
- I have to see this exhibit! and...
- Wouldn't the (admittedly unseen) movie have been more awesome if it actually looked like this image above --- so graphically compelling and painterly and not like it does with the semi generic 3D modelled CGI?
Who do you think has the edge in the Animated Feature Race?
Reader Comments (7)
Wreck-it Ralph seems to have the edge at this point. But you never know, one of those, always, gorgeoys looking foreign animated flicks could easily win if enough people see them.
There is a 2003 version of Dangerous Liaisons, made in South Korea. It was called Untold Scandal and our beloved Jeon Do Yeon was fantastic as Mme de Tourvel.
Just saw the trailer today and it is beautiful. I think it could be enjoyed as animation in either incarnation as shown above or as actually filmed. It does look to be the holiday crowd pleaser for young children which gives families depending on ages several movies to see in the PG and PG-13 range.
I'm curious to know what I'm missing about this movie because, with its seeming enthusiasm in how 'hip' and action-packed it is, it seems like something the Academy would never go for. I'd love to know why they think they have a shot at this race. Or is it just from a quality-of-animation standpoint?
I've only seen ParaNorman and Wreck-It Ralph, but 'Ralph' seems like a winner to me. Maybe Frankenweenie if it's as good as what I've heard.
"A museum exhibit is definitely a way to announce that you are Serious For Real and not just for, you know, for kids."
I'd say this were true if it were any other museum but the Museum of the Moving Image. Not to knock MoMI or their film series—I'm a member—but they know who drives their gallery attendance and who populates their hands-on workshops, and it's not adults. It's not for nothing that they held on to the Jim Henson exhibit well past its original end date, or that they only ever have weekday feature-movie screenings (as opposed to occasional weeknight screenings) when school is out at the end of December—like their daily screenings of Monsters vs. Aliens during Christmas week this year.
Let's not kid ourselves: MoMI is getting at least as much, and probably more, out of featuring an exhibit on Rise of the Guardians as DreamWorks might be getting out of museum prestige.
P.S. I was just at MoMI today for their afternoon screenings of shorts from 1912. Rise of the Guardians had just let out beforehand—there are two weekend screenings, one today one tomorrow—and I'm pretty sure I heard someone say, "I've never seen a movie get a standing ovation like that before."
I'm curious as to whether WRECK-IT-RALPH really is the front-runner: does it have broad appeal beyond the generation that played or remembers those games?
I've not seen it, and most of the enthusiasm I've come across for it has been from male critics of a certain age who probably grew up in the 80s and with whom it obviously resonates for at least partly nostalgic reasons.
I have seen Brave, Frankenweenie and Paranorman and I am amazed by the quality of the animations this year.
It is hard to choose between Brave and Paranorman, maybe Brave.