What film will win the Academy Award for Best Animated Film of 2008?

I think we’re going to have quite a showdown for best animated film of this year: Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Bolt, Tale of Despereaux, and Horton Hears a Who.
Wildcards “$9.99” and “Waltz with Bashir” join the fray.

Here are some of this year’s Annie Award nominations…

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Nominees:

· $9.99 (2008) - Tatia Rosenthal
· Kung Fu Panda (2008) - Mark Osborne; John Stevenson
· Tale of Despereaux, The (2008) - Robert Stevenhagen; Sam Fell
· Vals Im Bashir (2008) - Ari Folman
· WALL·E (2008) - Andrew Stanton


Best Animated Feature

Nominees:

· $9.99 (2008) - Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
· Bolt (2008) - Walt Disney Animation Studios
· Kung Fu Panda (2008) - DreamWorks Animation
· Vals Im Bashir (2008) - Sony Pictures Classics; Bridgit Folman; Les Films d'Ici; Razor Films
· WALL·E (2008) - Pixar Animation Studios



Apparently, Bolt was really good, but it had poor direction? Hmm. =^)


Which movie do you think will take it?

I think it will go to Wall-E, with Kung Fu Panda giving it a solid run.

The two wildcards also look promising, so we could have an upset. Although $9.99 is really artsy and amazing, you just can’t get emotion from stop motion. It looks too fake. The attempts just make me laugh. =^)




If Wall-E takes it, that will be the second Academy Award for Andrew Stanton. He currently has one win (directing Finding Nemo) and three nominations total (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004056/awards). That would tie Stanton with Brad Bird and John Lasseter for most Pixar Academy Award wins (2 each).




The other possibilities are: Madagascar 2, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Space Chimps, Igor, Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, Delgo, Roadside Romeo, and Fly Me to the Moon.


I think $9.99 and Vals Im Bashir are the “wild cards.”

“Waltz with Bashir” is mostly Israeli and looks like they took live-action video, filtered the backgrounds to look “cartoony,” and rotoscoped over the humans (similar to Scanner Darkly) and added some original animation as well: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2591555609/

$9.99 is an artsy, Australian, stop-motion: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3236430617/



Enjoy!

- TAE