OSCAR: Toons Tuning Up For Big Animation Race But Will Spielberg Make The Cut?

With today’s announcement that GKIDS (under the banner of Luma Films) will release Oscar-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba’s (Belle Epoque from 1992) animated musicalChico and Rita for a qualifying run before the end of the year, the animated feature race just heated up. By my count the list of potential films is now 15, one short of triggering five nominees in the category and definitely enough to make way for 4 nominees (8-12 means 2-3 noms, 13-15 means a max of 4, and 16 means a full house of 5). Final entry forms need to be into the Academy by November 1, and then will be vetted by the Acad’s Short Films and Feature Animation branch to see if they fully qualify. If last year is any indication, the Academy will then put out a list of eligible animated features by the middle of November. Of course there is always controversy about what istrue animation, particularly with the Motion Capture process which incorporates real performances by actors and then essentially animates the scenes. This year there are three potential nominees that use the Mo Cap process including Robert Zemeckis’ box office bomb, Mars Needs Moms; George Miller’s sequel to his Oscar winning Happy Feet; and most notably Steven Spielberg’s long awaited entry into the animation world, The Adventures of Tintin (which he also produced with Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy). There are many animators who have questioned the purity of the Mo Cap process as it relates to their art form and although such Mo Cap films as Zemeckis’ The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol have been qualified in past years, none werenominated. In fact no film using Mo Cap either fully or partially has made the final list since 2006 when both Monster House and Happy Feet were contenders, with the latter actually winning. Reportedly keymembersin the Acad’s animationbranch met Tuesday night for a meeting that lasted four hours. Among topics said to come up was the issue of Motion Capture (aka Performance Capture) andan insider with knowledge of the situationtold Deadline that they “apparently” havedecided to send a letter to the filmmakers of Mars Needs Moms, Happy Feet 2 and Tintin asking them what their ‘intent’ was in using the Mo Cap process before deciding whether those films actually qualify. In their formal rules the Academy states that “Motion Capture by itself is not an animation technique” and that the films must be done in frame by frame animation. Based onthe Academy’s past actions it is likely that all three would qualify and itwould seem unlikely that the Academywould take on Oscar winners Zemeckis, Miller and Spielberg on this issue especiallysince their previousstated intentions have been that they are workingfully in the animated format. Even outside of the Mo Cap area filmmakers known primarily for their live action films like those three have been dabbling inother forms of featureanimation including Trueba and Rango’s Gore Verbinski this year. If some animators have their doubts those behind ‘Tintin’ certainly do not. Paramount sources who have seen Spielberg’s film swear it qualifies in every way, that despite use of Mo Cap they tellmeit is strictly frame by frame in terms of its animation. One person working on the film said “ten years ago animators were complaining that the CGI process was not pure animation. I think when they see how this form has developed, particularly with ‘Tintin’ they will start to accept it more readily”. Ken Kamins who works closely with Jackson and is an Executive Producer on the film agrees, emailed Deadline: “Steven has always believed that Tintin is an animated film. The Academy doesn’t for example, make a distinction between hand drawn vs digital animation. ‘Tintins’ approach, using a mix of performance capture and digital animation is simply another angle of the art form. Our current animated films use voice actors whose performances are directed. ‘Tintin’ is using actors who are providing performance through voice, motion and an ability to interact with one another, but what you’re looking at in its design and conception is nonetheless , animated, “ he says adding recent comments from Joe Letteri, one of WETA’s owners that “It all depends on how you define animation, but to me the tools and techniques (of visual effects and animation) are all the same. Performance (Motion) Capture is not a mechanical process; it’s still an artistic process.” Another Paramount source told me the film is rendered in a way that “completely animated” and that “once everyone sees the movie these issues will go away”. People will begin seeing the film very soon as a matter of fact because, in a very unusual move for a Spielberg film, The Adventures of Tintin is being rolled out internationally first beginning October 26 in Europe and throughout November before finally hitting the US and Canada on December 21st. Columbia Pictures has the film overseas while Paramount is domestic distrib. Nickolodeon Films and Spielberg’s Amblin’ Entertainment are also listed in the film’s credits but not Dreamworks so Spielberg will find himself in the potentially awkward position of competing for Oscar attention against his Dreamworks co-founder and ‘toon magnetJeffrey Katzenberg who has DWA’s Kung Fu Panda 2 and the Shrek spinoff Puss In Boots in contention. In fact Paramount is overloaded with ‘toon titles this season as they also have a frontrunner in Verbinski’s Rango which is a true homebred Par product.With Par’s agreement with Dreamworks Animation seemingly coming to an end the studio is going to be making adirect foray into animation itself rather than relying on its distribution agreements with others. So assuming they get entered andeverything eventually meets the Academy’s qualifications for consideration, the 15 surefire candidates as of now (with a month to go) are Rango, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss In Boots, Adventures of Tintin (all be handled by Par’s awards crew); Rio and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (both thru Fox); Weinstein’s Hoodwinked Too; Disney’s Mars Needs Moms and Winnie The Pooh; Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2; Sony’s The Smurfs and Arthur Christmas (from the highly regarded Aardman Animation and for which the studio is doing special 30 minute sneak peeks in LA, NY and London on Monday); Warner Bros. Happy Feet 2; and GKIDS’ Chico and Rita. In addition to those titles there are oddities like a couple of Pokemon films announced for specialweekend theatricalruns in Decemberand Lion Of Judah which may, but likely will not factor into the mix. There are a number of international titles which could possibly come into play but at this point are not on the horizon before the November 1 deadline. For the past two years Disney has also qualified one of their Tinker Bell straight -to-DVD feature titles in order to swell the number of entries and trigger a category of five nominees (thereby increasing the chances of a nom for their realistic contenders). This year I have learned they willNOT bequalifying the nextTink flick, Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods, even though it couldhave been a significant factor in getting the list of eligible ‘toons to the magic 16. With the race seemingly morewide open this year (Pixar has rolled over the competition the last four years straight), and Cars 2 not the kind of slam dunk potential nominee/winner Disney/Pixar has had in the past, every strategic move could count in a race that promises to be a real nail-biter.

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