Academy Awards Nominations for Best Animated Feature 2014

I haven't been very current when it comes to films this year, mostly because of expenses and also because of not feeling like it. Like, I'm sure all the Best Picture nominees are well done movies, but I still haven't seen any of them. One thing I do hear about from a few critics is that American Hustle is basically David O. Russel pretending to be Martin Scorsese, and may end up getting the Best Picture award, and then going to be swiftly forgotten in the coming years, like many of the recent Best Pictures (i.e. The Artist).

But of course, the only category that I find myself giving a damn about is the Best Animated Feature category, mostly because I have actually seen a few of the nominations. This year, we have an interesting batch, so lets take a quick look.

The Croods

As someone who isn't easily entertained by slapstick, the beginning of this film felt pretty slow, but once the story got going and the characters became relatable and likable, I became very invested. Very well done. 

In general, I would prefer it if a film began clunky but then improved in quality as it went. One of the few exceptions I can think of is Pitch Perfect, where it was consistently obnoxious up until the last ten minutes, then it got good.

Despicable Me 2

I haven't seen this one, mostly because I wasn't that interested in the first one, so by extension I wasn't interested in this one. It makes me wonder why it's even nominated. I'm sure it's at least enjoyable, but it feels like the filler nominee.

Which reminds me, I remember hearing about the third Madoka Magica movie (The Rebellion Story) being submitted for this category. That would've been interesting.

Frozen

I love this movie so much. Are there things I could nitpick? Maybe. Is it odd that the film just kind of stops being a musical once the third act hits? Yeah, kinda. Do I care?

Also, "Let It Go" is nominated for Best Original Song. I'm hoping it wins that award, but I also hope that we bring back the Original Song performances. I wanna see Idina Menzel sing at the awards.

Ernest and Celestine

This is a French-Belgian production, and it looks pretty interesting. Though the story of a mouse befriending a bear and then both getting ostracized sounds like a story that has been done before, the style and animation look incredible. I do wish there was a way to see these movies (aside from torrents). The foreign animated movies don't really get screenings in my area, unless it's a Studio Ghibli film. Speaking of which...

The Wind Rises

So the buzz about this one was that it would be Hayao Miyazaki's last film before retirement, but then I heard something about him "rescinding" his retirement, and apparently he's been planning on retiring for a while now, I don't know. As for the film, I know little else about it, but I still want to see it. It doesn't come out here until February, a few weeks before the ceremony. I haven't seen all of Miyazaki's work, but I think Nausicaä, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle are enough reasons to go see this, for me at least.

So a good turn out, now let's see if I can go see a bunch of the Best Picture nominees.