Not So Golden

It's old news by now, but yes… The Golden Globe nominations are out… And I'll put it bluntly, I'm not pleased with the animation results.

Only three nominees this year. A paltry three, instead of five. Who made the cut? The Croods, Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. Aside from Frozen's nomination - which I'm totally fine with - my reaction is a resounding, "Are you kidding me?"

No offense to anyone who enjoyed or loved The Croods or Despicable Me 2, but where is The Wind Rises? Oh wait, that's nominated for Best Foreign Film. Sheesh, these people like to put animation in its own category, yet don't nominate what is arguably the year's greatest animated film as Best Animated Feature. Who would've thought?

Where's Ernest & Celestine? Apparently that wasn't good enough, or they didn't even see it. Then again, we are talking about the same people who completely snubbed ParaNorman last year yet allowed the much inferior Hotel Transylvania to make the cut. Apparently box office plays a major role in this ceremony too, sorry, I don't follow it enough. I should know…

Anyways, if box office performances are taken in account, then… (and this is the biggest question…)

Where is Monsters University???

Did the voters truly not care for this year's Pixar offering? Or was it a clear case of them thinking, "It's a sequel/prequel, and Pixar totally fails at making those!" Probably the latter, but maybe the former. Monsters University garnered better critical reception than The Croods and Despicable Me 2, I certainly felt that it was way better than The Croods. I didn't see Despicable Me 2, but I for the life of me don't understand the appeal of The Croods. Good as the animation and art direction was, I couldn't get into it. All I saw was a good-looking movie with a bland story, one-dimensional characters and major tonal imbalances. Was it trying to be a good for-the-whole-family adventure? Or a slap-happy gabfest for little kids?

Basically, meh to this line-up. It should've been five slots, that way we get both Monsters University and The Wind Rises in. If they can't nominate The Wind Rises, then they need to rethink their ways a bit. I don't care if The Wind Rises was made in Japan, it's still an animated feature-length film. It should have been nominated for Best Animated Feature, simple as that. By leaving that out, they also leave out the praised Ernest & Celestine. Had it been five slots, those two could've gotten in and could've sat alongside the three American films.

Oh well, we'll see who wins… I'm guessing it'll most likely be Frozen, since that got the best reception of the bunch, is well-liked and touted as a new Disney masterpiece, and it is the safest choice. After all, Brave took the grand prize last year. Predictable, but damn… The results this year are disappointing as all hell. Hopefully the Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature are a little more balanced…

What's your take? Do you think the choices for the nominees are just fine? Or do you think certain films got snubbed? Who do you think will win? Sound off below!

Setting Animation Back 50 Years

Hayao Miyazaki's swan song The Wind Rises is getting closer to closer to American cinemas, although the film is being shown in Los Angeles right now so it can compete in this year's animated Oscar race…

And already, the film is getting complaints…

There are concerns over how American audiences will respond to the film's themes, as it was already very controversial in South Korea, they saw it as a "celebration of Japan's wartime aggression". It also generated a lot of brouhaha in its home country, the New York Times states that Japanese conservatives didn't take too well to the film, declaring it unpatriotic.

But this is the usual for animated features. Need I bring up how many Americans embraced WALL-E? Or how about when someone freaks out over something as harmless as The Lorax because of a lightweight environmental message?

The other complaints are idiotic. Concerns over smoking? Seriously? Imagery of bombs and tuberculosis? My goodness, think of the children!

Oh wait, this is not a children's film. It is not a family film, either. It's carrying a PG-13 rating and it's being released under Disney's Touchstone banner!

This is proof that we have a loooooooooong way to go. Animation still doesn't get the full respect it deserves in America, we're still in 1966 apparently. Everything animated must be "for kids" or "childish" to some degree, animation can't tackle "serious" stories. This is one good reason why more artistic foreign films or films with adult-oriented content in them have a hard time catching on here… Unless the films in question have innuendos, raunchy humor and crap that makes immature 12 year olds laugh. A Family Guy Movie would easily make $150 million domestically.

Then there was the whole issue with the film's 126-minute running time, and how some people at a screening said it was too long. Yeah, because animation can't cover two-hour epics, right? Right? They can't be serious films, they gotta be short-n-sweet romps with dancing farting animals and goofy action! To people used to 90-minute diversions, something this long is apparently unheard of.

Animation just keeps getting sent back to the kiddie corner by the ignorant adults here… Oh well, here's hoping that The Wind Rises tries to reverse this and is actually something of a domestic box office surprise hit. Pipe dream...