Disney/Pixar's WALL-E keeps getting the love from critics.
First the National Board of Review called the Andrew Stanton flick the best animated film of 2008 (the 4th time a Pixar movie has won that award). The Washington D.C. Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Associations agreed, also naming it their favourite feature-length cartoon.
Veteran film critic Roger Ebert gave WALL-E major props in his year-end Top 20 List, calling it "Hugely entertaining, wonderfully well drawn, and . . . merciless in its critique of a global consumer culture that obsesses on intake and disregards the consequences of output."
WALL-E Best Film of 2008: L.A. Film Critics Association
The L.A. Film Critics Association went even farther: they named WALL-E their favourite film of 2008, beating out Christopher Nolan's smash hit The Dark Knight and Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which was the NBR and the D.C. Critics' choice for film of the year. This is the first time in the LAFCA's 33-year history that they've given an animated film the top award.
However, the LAFCA didn't automatically hand WALL-E the Best Animated Film award as a bonus: that prize went to Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir.
WALL-E Best Picture Oscar?
Disney has made no secret that they'd like to see WALL-E get at least a Best Picture nomination at the 2009 Academy Award, and perhaps win.
Certainly the film has its boosters among the critical elite. On July 12th, Joe Morgenstern, film reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, said, "Pixar’s latest gift to movie lovers should be a candidate for the most prestigious award, Best Picture, when Oscar time rolls around."
There has only been one animated film previously nominated in that category: Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It lost to Silence of the Lambs, and many commentators felt that the Best Animated Feature Film category (instituted in 2001) was a way to ensure that a feature length cartoon never won AMPAS' top award.
Disney animated films have received two honorary Oscars: one for 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (for being the first feature length animated movie, presented by Shirley Temple) and another for 1995's Toy Story (the first CGI animated movie).
At this point, a Best Animated Feature Film award is a lock for the Andrew Stanton flick: Disney/Pixar has pretty much dominated that category, winning 3 times in the past 7 years. So it's not surprising that the Mouse House wants a bigger prize for what may be the most critically praised film in the Pixar canon.
But can it get Best Picture? At best, it's a dark horse candidate. AMPAS prefers to give its top award to R-rated dramas like The Departed or No Country for Old Men. The last comedy to win Best Picture was Woody Allen's Annie Hall in 1977. So the fact that WALL-E is an animated family film automatically hurts its chances.
It deserves a Best Picture nomination: it and The Dark Knight are probably the best-reviewed films of 2008. However, it's a safe bet that AMPAS brass don't want to see a cartoon or comic book-derived blockbuster take the top prize.
So Disney/Pixar will nab yet another Best Animated Feature Film award – while Heath Ledger gets a posthumous statuette for his performance as The Joker – and neither film will get any other respect from the Academy. At least let's hope that this year's Best Picture winner is not another Crash.
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