Tag Archives: Pixar

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 2001

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

At the 73rd Academy Awards, for the third time in the Best Voice Performance category’s short lifespan, four of the nominees were from the same film.  This recurring issue caused considerable frustration among Oscar fans, and there was even some talk about doing away with the category in the months after the ceremony.  However, 2001 was shaping up to be a more promising year for animation, so much so that a new category was announced for the Oscars, that of Best Animated Feature.  This was thought to be an acknowledgement of the progress made by animation, which consistently ranked among the top grossing films of the year and was now attracting some of the top talent in the industry.  The question was how this would affect the Best Voice Performance category and whether a winner in one category meant that the film would also win the other.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1999

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

After the return of Pixar turned out to be a bit of a disappointment at the 71st Academy Awards, eyes turned to 1999, and the hotly anticipated Toy Story 2.  When it was announced that the original cast would be returning for the sequel, people immediately began speculating that the Oscars might see a rematch of the most exciting duel that the category saw.  No one could forget the competition between Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and the possibility that both might score nominations drove all other predictions to the sidelines. Continue reading →

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1995

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

When Jeremy Irons won the award at the 67th Academy Awards, the general consensus was that the category had finally produced a winner that represented the dramatic performance quality that the award had been created in order to recognize.  There was still some grumbling over the fact that the nominees were largely dominated by one film, but The Lion King had been so impressive that it was hard for people to complain too much about any of the individual nominees.  Disney was set to release another animated film in 1995, Pocahontas, based on a time period and series of events ripe for drama, and featuring the voice of Mel Gibson, who would go on to have a huge year with Braveheart.  But what no one could have predicted was Toy Story and the emergence of Pixar. Continue reading →

What is Tomorrowland?

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Tomorrowland Logo

At the end of my D23 movie news roundup from yesterday I mentioned Tomorrowland.  I didn’t want to go into the film there because I feel like it needs a bit more explanation, especially considering how little we still know of the film.  You have to go back to last year for the earliest reports of the film.  Brad Bird, who wrote and directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille for Disney/Pixar was announced as the director for a new film for Disney, bumping his rumored project with Pixar about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  People immediately began speculating that Bird was returning to Disney for a sequel to The Incredibles (something, incidentally, that needs to happen).

That wasn’t the case, however, as the title for his new film was revealed to be 1952.   Continue reading →

D23 Movie News Roundup

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This year’s D23, a conference every two years exclusively for members of the D23 fan club, was full of news about upcoming projects, but unfortunately it wasn’t the news that people were expecting to hear.  There was no Star Wars casting announcement, no surprises from Marvel or Pixar, no Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.  What there was, however, was lots of smaller casting announcements, plus an in-depth look at some films which we previously only knew the title of.  I’m a D23 member, but I wasn’t at the conference this year, but read on for the highlights of what was announced and shown, along with some of my opinions. Continue reading →

Review: The Blue Umbrella

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By this point it’s well known that all new Pixar films are accompanied in the theater by a Pixar short.  Over the years, these shorts, ten of which have been nominated for Oscars, have become as much a part of the Pixar experience as the feature films.  This year, Pixar attached a short entitled The Blue Umbrella to its release of Monsters University.

In some ways it’s difficult to review a film that only lasts six minutes.   Continue reading →

What’s your favorite Pixar movie?

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With the recent release of Monsters University, many blogs and news sites have been ranking all of the pixar films, so I thought I would do the same with my favorites.  There is some flexibility here, as films tend to move up and down depending on my mood, but the general trend doesn’t change.  (You can also find my ranking of comic book superhero movies here.)  Read on for my list and for a poll.  Let me know what you think in the comments! Continue reading →