Monday, February 23, 2009

81st annual Academy Awards, Wall-E and Maison en Petits Cubes take home trophies


I guess I should post the winners from last night.
Wall-E took best feature. No huge surprise there, although, for a split second I thought it was going to go to the Panda.
La Maison en Petits Cubes won in the best animated short category. Sadly, I didn't see this one, so I don't feel too qualified to comment. I was glad to see something traditional win, and that the director, Kunio Kato, thanked his pencil.
Presto didn't win. That made me happy. Not that Presto isn't a fun film, but it's a gag film, and a pretty standard one at that. It was nice to seee that the Academy didn't just hand it over to Pixar again.
I love the Animated Short Film category (and the short documentary category). I always feel that this is where the Academy Awards really rewards hard work and dedication. The big categories are all about prestige and politics. These directors are largely little guys, who dedicate themselves, with very little expectation of reward, to the stories they set out to tell. It's cute to see them all spiffed up, more than a little awkward, taking way too long to get to the stage from theire back-row seats and stand in front of the popular kids and get to say their thank yous.
Congrats to the winners.
I'm not going to comment on the 2008 "yearbook" montage of animated features. That was pure bullshit.
Oops, guess I commented.
Also, sorry to see the Canadian contingent absent this year. I hope this means everyone is working on next year's winners.

4 comments:

Andre Su said...

oh i saw this short film in the animation festival last year. it was a really amazing and touching story, i think a lot of people were close to cry near the end of the film. it was about how the water flooded and he had to build his house higher and higher, and during the years of expanding his house the kids, grandchildren had come and go and in the end it was himself again, still trying to expand his house higher to avoid the water.

Andre Su said...

oh i also forgot to mention, a lot of people have posted that short film on youtube so you should definately go check it out.

michael valiquette said...

Thanks Andre, I just posted it.

Mike Magnan said...

I liked both. But Wall-e is a better Choice. I can just dress up my kid as a box on Holloween...costs me nothing...love stuff like that.

 

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