KPOP Demon Hunters - 2 nominations

 

• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song): EJAE (music and lyric), Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu-kwak, Lee Yu-han, Nam Hee-dong, Teddy Park, 24, For “Golden”

• Best Animated Feature Film: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Michelle Wong

KPop Demon Hunters follows a globally famous K-pop girl group who secretly live double lives as elite demon hunters. By day, they perform sold-out arena concerts and maintain flawless public personas; by night, they battle supernatural forces feeding off human emotion and fame. When a rival boy band comes around and begins stealing audience attention, they also and begins exhibiting suspicious, otherworldly abilities, the group discovers that the demons they fight are evolving—and infiltrating the entertainment industry itself.

This film has a tremendous shot at winning both of its categories (sadly, I’d like the Diane Warren song to win) and the animation is magnificent. It takes the best of South Korean razzle dazzle and combines it with a beautiful soundtrack and leverages that into a pretty delightful and impressive film.

Animated Feature Films

This year's Animated Features do not have a bad one in the bunch (and that's saying something, there is usually at least one I don't like). The stories are compelling, the animation is fantastic, and none is like the other. I highly recommend all of them!

Flow - 2 nominations

Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman

Flow is also nominated for International Feature Film from Latvia.

This is a beautiful film visually and thematically, where a cat whose home is devastated by flood assembles a small crew of friends traveling the seas and looking for a safe refuge. There are crazy characters and gorgeous vistas, dangers and moments of comfort. (and some scenes where you kind of wonder what was flowing into the filmmakers systems, a bit of a cuckoo drug trip) This is not a dual screen movie, and if you can, it's worth it to see in the theater. The visuals are just too stunning.

Inside Out 2
Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen

Riley and her more complex set of teenage emotions are back and trying to navigate the challenges of popularity, loyalty, and the most essential questions of maturity and human relationships, all while playing hockey. Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and Fear welcome Ennui, Anxiety, Envy and Embarrassment to their emotional attic, and these more complex emotions mean more difficult experiences for the team - especially Joy - to navigate. While Joy is looking for ways to sequester hard emotions, Anxiety is taking control and developing a self-talk that is not healthy for poor sweet Riley. The sequel does a great job of bringing the chaotic but optimistic tone of the first film into the second one, and it's worth a watch for sure.

Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney

Let's start with our most important announcement - Memoir of a Snail is NOT an animated movie for children. It explores adult themes and follows twin sister Grace separated from her beloved brother Gilbert after their alcoholic father dies. She has an intense snail collecting hobby and they each go to foster homes that are less than ideal and moreover, Grace's life becomes a series of difficult and devastating losses. But she survives by befriending an older woman named Pinky who puts joy and spirit back into her life. Meanwhile, Gilbert has no such refuge, except for one child who is kind to him in the abusive home he lives in. When tragedy strikes, Grace realizes that she should have been looking for her brother rather than spending money on snail paraphernalia. Now, I know this is going to sound a little bit crazy, but Memoir of a Snail is my Hidden Gem Award winner. It's emotional gravity and brilliant storytelling (and wonderful animation) was a surprise that knocked me out.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek

OMG, W&G do it again! And this time, the film manages to bring back an old familiar character from a prior film - an evil penguin who has been locked up in prison thanks to our leads, and now he wants revenge. Wallace continues to be an incredible inventor, but this time, he invents an AI robot garden gnome who will do all of your chores unless his coding turns him into pure evil! When he builds a tiny, evil, robot garden gnome army, they set to the task of framing Wallace. Ever on the case and never fooled by shenanigans, Gromit must save the day and set the world right before the penguin escapes and Wallace is locked up forever. As always, a delightful film, funny, sarcastic, and yet totally relevant to the AI landscape of today's world.

The Wild Robot - 3 Nominations
Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann
The Wild Robot is also nominated for Original Score and Best Sound.

The Wild Robot is another film that I recommend seeing in the theater. An incredible film of a robot who crash lands on a deserted island who takes up mothering a baby goose. "She" protects the baby at all costs, and learns what it means to love, to let go when your baby grows up, and how to create community. She shares the spirit of needing a village to raise a child, and what a mother might be willing to sacrifice to save her child. Everything that this robot has learned about humanity changes her to her core, and when fighting with the company that created her, there is nothing she wouldn't give up to protect her child. The animals on the island are not only voiced by terrific actors, the whole experience of the movie is action packed and worth every moment. You'll note that The Wild Robot is actually nominated for 3 Oscars including Original Score and wowee, it's worth a listen event without the film.

Spider Man: Across the Spiderverse - 1 nomination

 

• Best Animated Feature Film

• Kemp Powers 
• Justin K. Thompson 
• Phil Lord 
• Christopher Miller 
• Amy Pascal

Spider Man is a multiverse film making it a little bit tough to summarize in a blog post. Our Spider Man, Miles, goes on an epic adventure with Spider Woman, Gwen, and he meets a universe with a ton of other versions of Spider People.  They encounter a villain named "the Spot" who is traveling across the multiverse to gather powers from other super villains.  The triggering of "canon events' - key moments in people's lives that alter their futures, and when you travel to other worlds which have potentially not yet had your canon event, you sometimes discover that people who are important to you are alive, while others who are important to you are not.  The film is surprisingly logical when you are watching it, and surprisingly difficult to describe.

But here are some key highlights.  Spider verse is likely this year's film with the hands down most impressive animation. The story is engaging but it would be nothing without the superb and creative approach to this animated feature, and that just blew me away.  It's a fun one and you can watch it with your slightly older kids.

Robot Dreams - 1 nomination

 

• Best Animated Feature Film

• Pablo Berger 
• Ibon Cormenzana 
• Ignasi Estapé 
• Sandra Tapia

This is the winner of the Hidden Gem Award!  Each year, I select a film that I would never had heard of if not for its Oscars nomination that I end up loving. What a sweet, lovely, adorable film that says so much without a single line of dialogue.

Dog (that is his name) is lonely and he orders a robot to become his friend. Robot arrives and the two build a beautiful friendship with fun, activities, and even just the beautiful opportunity to hold someone's hand when they walk down the street. One day, they go to the beach and have a fantastic day, when the robot seizes up and cannot be moved for love or money.  Dog races home to get his toolkit, only to discover that the beach has been closed and locked up with no access until the following June! Robot has dreams of reuniting with Dog while he waits on the sand. Meanwhile, Dog finds a new robot friend though his first robot remains on his mind.  Without giving away the ending, I can't recommend Robot Dreams enough. It's a testament to the power of friendship and how vital it is not to be lonely.  It's worth it!

Nimona - 1 nomination

 

• Best Animated Feature Film

• Nick Bruno 
• Troy Quane 
• Karen Ryan 
• Julie Zackary

Nimona is an animated feature you probably didn't see, but should! Such a fun film which takes on the power of misinformation, public persuasion, class warfare, and the raw desire for power. When a knight is framed for a crime that he didn't commit, by the person in leadership he trusted the most, he must rely on his arch nemesis, the shapeshifting "teenager" Nimona to help him reveal the fraud and restore his place in society.  But being a shapeshifter, Nimona is no stranger to being chased and rejected by the community, and she is devastated by her knight's repudiation of her, she decides that she no longer wants to live.

The animation in this film is really spectacular, and the colors only highlight the beauty of the story.  There's plenty for adults to learn from this terrific film, only reminding us that what we are told via social media isn't always the truth, and worse, when it is the truth and people are told not to believe what their eyes are looking at, that's when it gets truly dangerous. This film has a lot of resonance for today's world, and a surprising amount for an animated film.

Elemental - 1 nomination

 

• Best Animated Feature Film

• Peter Sohn 
• Denise Ream

Welcome to Element City where many "species" live (and are named so perfectly...), and we meet little Ember whose parents Bernie and Cinder immigrated there only to encounter some Xenophobia. Nonetheless, they establish a business called The Fireplace and they build lives there.  Bernie hopes to leave Ember the business, though she is not always suited to customer service.  She meets Wade, a water based city inspector who threatens to shut down the business due to a leak that could wipe out the entire fire based population.  Together, they race around the city trying to fix the leak while they slowly fall in love.  It's the Romeo and Juliet we didn't know we needed, with some incredibly clever devices that make the film a joy to watch.

Elemental isn't quite the level of a Pixar film like Inside Out, but it is particularly impressive for how they make use of and resolve the challenges of elements that would cancel each other out in a real life circumstance. It's a fun film and great for families.  If you love a Pixar romp, this film is for you.  If not, it's certainly not one of the movies this year that I'd say not to miss.  I liked it.

The Boy and the Heron - 1 nomination

 

• Best Animated Feature Film

• Hayao Miyazaki 
• Toshio Suzuki

Ah Miyazaki films, the weirdest non-drug-trip trip you could ever go on. This guy loves weird, and this film is no exception. Young Mahito loses his mother in the war. His father remarries and moves him out to the countryside, where he is pestered by a bird/creepy dude who tells them that if Mahito follows the birdman, he can see his mother again.  He follows the bird and begins an adventure filled with aggressive parrots, crazy wizards, bubble souls ascending to be reborn, and a game of blocks that are filled with malice. The journey brings the boy through major challenges, only to discover that the love he has waiting for him at home with his father and his stepmother and their new baby is what he has truly been chasing all along. 

I'm usually iffy with Miyazaki movies. They are way out there for me, and I'd love to be one of those people who loves these crazy adventures that seemingly make no sense.  But I actually really liked this one, and it's one of the only Miyazaki films where I found the crazy stuff to have a real point, and be useful in the storytelling. I know there are those anime fans who are probably ready to crucify me for saying so (and I'll admit, at the appearance of the insane bird/man, I was none too thrilled like, here we go again), but at least I'm on board with The Boy and the Heron.  It's a journey, to be sure, but it is an excellent piece of animated storytelling.  If you don't like weird, this film is definitely not for you.

Turning Red - 1 nomination

Best Animated Feature Film
Domee Shi
Lindsey Collins

Young Mei is growing up.  She is a dutiful and obedient daughter but longs to break out of her shell to express herself her way, to take the risks that she feels ready to take. She discovers that whenever she gets excited or agitated, she all of a sudden is turning into a giant red panda.  While she works to hide this at first, she soon discovers that her friends love her as the panda, and she starts leveraging the ability to earn popularity (and money for a very important boy band concert).

Eventually Mei discovers that this transformation runs in the matrilineal side of her family, and that there is a ritual to seal her panda into a talisman. She decides to forego the ritual and keep her powers, but accidentally knocks her mother unconscious during an argument. It is then that the women in her family must release their own red pandas to heal the mother, and the two must find peace where the mom won't be so overprotective and will allow Mei to forge her own path.

This film is possibly the best version of the story where a girl must come into her next stage as fully herself, while honoring the rituals and customs of her own history. Of course, there are references to a girl getting her period and perhaps the red panda is even a metaphor for that, but the most important part of this sweet film is how Mei is able to find what's right for her without feeling obligated to one specific approach. This film has been touted as a wonderful honoring of the growing up process, and I am happy to serve as one of those recommending it. Lovely little movie.

 

The Sea Beast - 1 nomination

 

Best Animated Feature Film
Chris Williams
Jed Schlanger

The world's oceans are filled with dangerous beasts and the King, Queen, and entire realm of Three Bridges only live safely thanks to the heroic acts of the hunters who kill the creatures.  The most famous, deadly and elusive of these monsters is known as Red Bluster. Jacob, the most prominent of these hunters, commits to the King and Queen that he will find and kill Red Bluster, and when he sets off to sea, he discovers orphan girl Maisie on board - she dreams of becoming a hunter like her deceased parents before her.

During an altercation with Red Bluster, Jacob and Maisie are thrown into the sea and land on an island where beasts live free, and they learn that they have misunderstood the intentions of the sea creatures all along. Red Bluster befriends them and takes them back to Three Bridges while they attempt to change people's views on the creatures who simply would like to be left alone. When they finally confront the King and Queen, Maisie and Jacob learn that the pair have known the true nature of the beasts all along, but used the fear to expand their rule, and they are not about to change public perception as long as it is good for them.

It's a very good film, it doesn't use typical tropes, and it has plenty of good lessons about how leaders use lies to control the masses and create big scary enemies to win popular support.  The day I saw the film I predicted its Oscars nomination, and I think if you see it, you'll appreciate why it was nominated.  It's not my pick for Best Animated Feature, but if you're looking for something to watch while you're just hanging out on the couch, this is a good choice.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - 1 nomination

 

Best Animated Feature Film
Joel Crawford
Mark Swift

Puss in Boots discovers that he has burned through 8 of his 9 lives acting as a hero and sometimes, just acting like an idiot.  He hangs up his crime fighting hat and plants himself at a safe house full of cats with little to threaten his last life.  There he meets Perrito, a little dog full of sunshine and kindness. One day, the Goldilocks and 3 Bears crime family comes along to hunt Puss down, and he overhears them say that a magical wishing star exists and they are looking for the map, which is about to go to Jack Horner who hordes magical objects so that only he can access their magic. Puss goes to steal the map and runs into his ex-fiancee Kitty Softpaws, who he left at the altar. Now the hunt is on to use the map, to be the first to the magical wishing star, and to reap its rewards no matter the cost ultimately recharging his lives back to 9.

This is the 3rd in the Puss in Boots trilogy, itself a spin off from the Shrek series, and I have to say, the films hold up.  This one was fun, had incredibly beautiful animation, and a compelling storyline.  I'm generally not a fan of pushing any one series to its limits (save Star Wars and the MCU, they can keep making them, I'll keep watching them) because the more stories you add onto a character, the less interesting they tend to become.  Not so with the Puss in Boots series, I enjoyed every single one of them, and I'll happily take more if they've got 'em.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On - 1 nomination

 

Best Animated Feature Film
Dean Fleischer Camp
Elisabeth Holm
Andrew Goldman
Caroline Kaplan
Paul Mezey

Let's start here, I'm almost sure that when I complete my top 10 favorite films of 2022, Marcel the Shell is going to take my number one spot. I went to see it by myself because I was so excited for the film (and I had only watched the YouTube videos in preparation to see the film, I was not aware of the series prior to the movie preview coming out).  It paid off. Big time. While Pinocchio is (for some reason) getting all of the Oscars buzz, this film was BY FAR my favorite of the animated feature nominees.

Marcel lives in a huge house with his grandmother, Connie.  He has an incredibly robust life and an incredible imagination. He is possibly the most charming lead character in all of the films put out last year, and that includes anything that Brad Pitt ever did, so you know it's a high bar.  He is kind, thoughtful, playful, and full of wonderment.  When a documentarian air b&b's the house Marcel and Connie live in, he begins filming Marcel and learns that on a night when the owners of the house were splitting up, Marcel's whole family other than Connie were taken along but accidentally, Marcel and Connie were left behind. When the documentarian posts the interview on social media, the whole world gathers to help Marcel find his family.

Not gonna lie, I shed a little tear watching this beautiful film. I recommend the YouTube series just to captivate your heart and join the millions who love Marcel, then see the film. If you only have time or inclination to see two or three of the nominated films, make sure that Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is one of them. 

Here's a link to one of the Marcel YouTube videos.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio - 1 nomination

 

Best Animated Feature Film
Guillermo del Toro
Mark Gustafson
Gary Ungar
Alexander Bulkley

In doing a little research to prepare for this blog post, I attempted to identify how many times Pinocchio has been made as a film.  The earliest one I could find is from 1911, and of course in 1940 there was Walt Disney's version. There were two film versions THIS YEAR and last year, the Italian version had a nomination for makeup and hairstyling.  The latest iteration is nominated for Animated Feature, and as far as I'm concerned, this could very happily be the last one.

Now, as a person who follows pop culture enough to be reading a blog post from a nobody like me, I'm going to take for granted that you know the story of Pinocchio, which begins when Gepetto the wood worker crafts a wooden puppet to honor his son who passed away, and the puppet comes to life.  Most of us consider this story to be a myth to teach children not to lie. In actuality, Pinocchio lies rarely in the story and yes his nose does grow, but that is hardly the lesson.  The real lesson of Pinocchio is that children should listen to their parents and not get sidetracked by vices and those who would lead them astray, and that's why his little buddy Jiminy Cricket is a manifestation of his conscience.  Bet you don't really remember that part, do ya?

Sure, this version is a little darker and a little more fantastical as only Guillermo del Toro could do it, but to all who are considering yet another remake I say, NO. Ask around... do you know anyone whose favorite story is Pinocchio? No you don't. It's a bonkers drug trip with very little redeemable value that filmmakers seem to enjoy but I've had enough. As Pinocchio learns in the story, JUST SAY NO.

Raya and the Last Dragon - 1 nomination

 

Best Animated Feature Film
Don Hall
Carlos López Estrada
Osnat Shurer
Peter Del Vecho

Raya is a young woman with a difficult challenge ahead.  She has accidentally released the Druun, evil spirits that petrify people, who were safely locked away in the now-broken dragon gem.  She embarks on a quest to reunite all of the pieces of the gem, and she enlists the help of Sisu the dragon (voiced delightfully by Awkwafina), whose siblings contributed pieces of their magic in order to create the protective stone.  Raya has been trained since childhood to act as a protector to the gem, but she quickly learns that one must not give trust away too quickly, and that a leader makes careful and calculated decisions.  Now the lives of the townspeople and her father hang in the balance of her finding a way to once again contain the evil of the Druun.

Raya was a big win for Disney, and was produced entirely from people's homes during the height of the COVID-19 stay at home orders. Per IMDB: A message appears towards the end of the credits: "The making of this movie from over 400 individual homes was completely unprecedented, and relied entirely on the talent, ingenuity, and dedication of everyone at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The filmmakers would like to thank them for their tireless hard work, good humor, and most of all patience... with our inability to properly use the internet. (Dude, you're still on mute.)" Ironically, the film is a lesson in persistence and overcoming obstacles, something that anyone could argue the filmmakers accomplished with this lovely film.  Not just for kids!