Disney/Pixar has decided to put WALL-E into contention for Oscar's big prize.
According to The New York Times, the Mouse House is mounting a massive campaign to promote the Andrew Stanton flick for Best Picture.
“If we didn’t do it, I don’t think we’d be giving the movie its due,” Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, told the Times about their decision.
Disney's first salvo will be an ad that spoofs film mag Variety, changing it to "Variet-E."
Critics Think WALL-E Should Get Best Picture Nomination
"If the pattern of the past seven years prevails, WALL-E will be nominated for the Best Animated Feature category; if justice prevails, it will win," said the Wall Street Journal's film critic Joe Morgenstern on July 12th. "But WALL-E (is) a great motion picture by any measure, and has already been hailed as such — by critics who’ve called it a masterpiece (I’m one of them), by audiences who watch it in a state of enthrallment (which is one notch up from enchantment).
"In keeping with its singular distinction, Pixar’s latest gift to movie lovers should be a candidate for the most prestigious award, Best Picture, when Oscar time rolls around."
Even regular movie lovers appear to agree. On IMDb's Top 50 Animation Titles, WALL-E dethroned Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away, and landed at #32 on the Best Overall list.
AMPAS Rules Unkind to Animated Films?
There are two concerns about promoting WALL-E for Best Picture. The first is that, due to vote splitting, it will not only get the Best Picture nod, but it might also cost WALL-E an easy win for Best Animated Feature Film. Pixar has so far won three Best Animated Feature Film Oscars: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, plus a special award for Toy Story as the first CGI animated movie.
The second concern involves the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Best Animated Feature Film category, which debuted in 2001. Several film professionals felt this was AMPAS' way of ensuring that a cartoon would never ever take Best Picture, after Disney's Beauty and the Beast tried in 1991 (it lost to Silence of the Lambs).
"Ultimately, (the Best Animated Feature Film category) makes it perhaps too convenient for people to look at an animated film from an isolated perspective," said Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis to AP. "Somebody can say, `You know what? We have a place for that, so we don't necessarily have to give it broader consideration.'"
The Mouse House had contemplated a Best Picture push for Ratatouille because of its stellar reviews, but eventually decided against it. As a consolation, Disney placed the Brad Bird flick in the Best Animated Feature Film competition, where it easily won.
"Is this a case where (a film is) penalized and ghettoized because there's a separate category for animated fare?" asked Tom O'Neill of the Los Angeles Times, discussing the Ratatouille situation. "It seems to have the same respect in the industry and among film critics as Beauty and the Beast."
AMPAS president Sid Ganis denies that the Animated Feature Film category implies that animated films are automatically shut out of Best Picture contention.
"We and our animation branch love the category," Ganis told Morgenstern. "It's embraced and welcomed by everyone. But the important thing to be said here is that all systems are always go for any animated movie to be nominated as best picture."
Could WALL-E Get Best Picture?
It's possible that AMPAS could give WALL-E Best Picture, but not simply for the film's considerable merits. The Academy has a history of giving out Oscars that actually honoured a film professional's total body of work, not just a specific performance.
In 2007, director Martin Scorsese won Best Picture for The Departed. Many felt it was one of his lesser films, and a way for the Academy to recognize Scorsese's previous contributions, which included The Last Waltz, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver.
Other notable "warhorse" awards include wins for character actors Martin Landau (Best Supporting Actor for 1994's Ed Wood), and Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor for 1993's The Fugitive).
So the Academy might decide that they'll give WALL-E Best Picture, as a way of recognizing the studio's stellar catalogue over the past 13 years.
The Oscar telecast airs February 22nd, on ABC.
