Team Experience will be covering the various Oscar categories in the lead up to Oscar night. Here's Tim Brayton, Cláudio Alves, and Nathaniel R...
TIM BRAYTON: Hello Nathaniel and Cláudio! I'm thrilled to have the chance to discuss this year's slate of nominees for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars with you - animation is, I think it's fair to say, the most important form of filmmaking to me, and it's always fun to share it. Whether these exact five films represent animation at its peak, well, we'll just have to get into that as we go.
CLÁUDIO ALVES: My brattish annoyance at Disney's monopolizing ways makes me want to say The Mitchells vs. the Machines. The Netflix flick certainly beats its Disney-distributed co-nominees on the level of pure formal ingenuity and aesthetic value. It feels like a seamless marriage of 2-D textures and 3-D animation in the same vein as Into the Spider-Verse, though less graphically spectacular. The formalist in me is screaming that it's my favorite, but no, it's not.
I first saw Encanto at a press screening in mid-November and instantly fell in love. It made me cry like a faucet, hitting very close to home in some of its observations on family dynamics and feelings of inadequacy. Moreover, it features a cast of loveable characters that are hard to resist and a cornucopia of colorful set and costume design, some of which are better rendered than the cartoon humans. Whatever exitance I still had about declaring my love for the thing irrevocably vanished around a month later, when I finally watched it again over the holidays, this time with my family.
That's not to say I'm blind to the picture's many faults. As lovely as the characters are, they all look vaguely like molded plastic, and the writing is incapable of developing them with adequate balance. It often feels messy and like the cast would be better served by a TV series than a single feature-length story. The expanded format perhaps wouldn't shortchange some of the most exciting figures quite as much as the final film does. That or the movie just needed a much nimbler screenplay.
Having outed myself as a sentimental sop, I propose another question. Does Encanto have this in the bag, or is the race more competitive than it seems?
NATHANIEL R: The Billboard charts would have us believe that Encanto has this in the bag but we can't really know. The Annie Awards will give us a clue -- probably while we're talking -- though their winner doesn't always align with Oscars. I suppose it is possible that three Disney nominees (60% of the list? ARRRGH) means they all split the vote and Mitchells vs the Machines or Flee comes up the middle to take it but that's overthinking it. It's more likely that Mitchells and Flee are splitting the more critically attuned vote (just as they did in critics awards), leaving an easy path for Encanto. But that's also overthinking it. Overthinking it is not what this category is about. It's all about the feels as Cláudio has just admitted!
TIM BRAYTON: Nathaniel, if anyone is going to convince you that Raya is good, it won't be me. But here's my best attempt at explaining what I got out of it, such as it is: if you can steadfastly ignore the story, the dialogue, the voice acting, the themes, and the world-building - all those little fripperies - what remains is some pretty remarkable technique. From the standpoint of raw visual horsepower, it's easily the more impressive of the Disney films: frame after frame of minutely-rendered photorealism. The narrative structure is basically a feature-length tour of all the different kinds of effects animation Disney's people can carry off: we've got some misty caverns, some dusty wind, a whole lot of sand sloshing around (every grain its own particle!), lots and lots of water, a field of glistening snow. There's some of the most amazing rain I've ever seen in a movie, capped by the nifty effect of having it glow every time the last dragon of the title touches it. And there are so many different kinds of lighting: eldritch cavern glow, hot afternoon sun, sun filtered through trees, murky nights, a town lit by the smoky red warmth of a thousand lanterns. And boy, talk about some fluid, graceful camera movement!
CLÁUDIO ALVES: I agree wholeheartedly with everything you wrote about Raya. How I wish its sole nomination had come in the Best Visual Effects category, where the project's best components could be rightfully rewarded while not implicitly celebrating its horrendous storytelling, humor, characterizations. If even I, someone who has often given bad movies a chance just because they're pretty to look at, felt the shitty writing got in the way, you've got a major problem on your hands.
Anyway, you asked about Flee, and that's a pleasanter subject. It's no secret that I love Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated documentary. It's even in my 2021 top 10, and I stand by what I said back in that article. For me, the film represents a powerful emotional experience that draws a significant percentage of its impact from the stiff style of its presentation. No matter how dramatic the narrative might at times be, the inexpressive character designs and choppy low-frame rate animation build a wall between the subject and the spectator. Such alienation is a tool of anonymity, but, moreover, it works as an added patina of aesthetic severity, a filter that eliminates some of the endeavor's more exploitative possibilities.
This detached quality is a paradox in effect, for it makes the story's content more viscerally felt. Rather than passive consumption of another's trauma, it tasks the spectators with active engagement. Despite Flee's illustrative nature, its tonal negotiations reminded me of Claude Lanzmann's work. On the surface, that might sound like a silly, far-fetched comparison. However, I couldn't help but be reminded of the French director's avoidance of archival footage and overt visual illustrations. Like Flee's lack of human expressivity, Lanzmann's technique leads towards a forceful confrontation between audience and documented fact, a reckoning.
But of course, this also leads me to another thought – I might value Flee more as a documentary than as a piece of animation. Which is another way of saying that while I think it's the best overall film in the lineup, I'm not 100 percent sure I'd vote for it were I a member of the Academy. If, in trying to spread the wealth, you could only give Flee one of the three awards for which it is nominated, would you vote for it in Best Animated Feature?
NATHANIEL R: That's a good question. I dont want to sound hopelessly uncultured but since I am not an avid documentary watcher and find it difficult to judge that form, I would be happiest if it took a win there of its three categories. For Animated Feature I'd be quite satisfied about throwing my vote to Luca instead even though Flee is my gold medalist. Tim dismissed Luca as anodyne (ouch!) but it really moved me. I thought it's simplicity, which I believe to be a strength not a weakness, led to its critical underestimation.
Too many animated films, like too many superhero blockbusters, just pile the events and the setpieces and the characters and the plot on and basically crush any possible moments of grace or authentic individuality out of themselves. They end up feeling like clumsy "LOOK AT ME!" machines. Luca just splashes about innocently in its little pool and finds its humanity and metaphors and loveliness there. It never feels forced. I felt I could breathe with the movie and I just loved every second of it. The ending is... sorry, there's something in my eye give me a moment.
TIM BRAYTON: The question about Flee - how does it stack up in Documentary vs Animated vs International Feature Film - is one I've been mulling over since I first saw it way back in January 2021 at Sundance. It is, I think, an extremely great documentary, and while I haven't seen all five nominees, I won't be remotely surprised if it ends up as my favorite. Over in International, I think I might vote for it over Drive My Car (but I'd vote for The Worst Person in the World over both). Here in Animated Feature, though? I kind of think the animation is a detriment to the film. Not the mere fact that it's animated per se, just the specific style chosen for the bulk of the film. And I specify that, because right inside the same film is a style I like much more, that smudgy, kind of charcoal look that shows up sometimes.
CLÁUDIO ALVES: Honestly, I agree with your predictions wholeheartedly as I still believe Encanto will take it, with Netflix's movie as a possible upset. Furthermore, I love your suggestion, Tim. If I had a ballot, I'd go the write-in route and just vote for Belle anyway. F*ck the Academy for ignoring it.
What about you, dear reader? Who are you rooting for in Best Animated Feature?