Best Animated Film: 2006

[Sabin]

I'm pretty torn on which film to vote for. A vote for Happy Feet rewards a story that goes in unexpectedly crazy directions. A vote for Monster House rewards a film with a stronger story that loses most of the spark of its premise as it goes along. The biggest problem with Monster House isn't its ugly animation, the kind of technological "breakthrough" that Roger Ebert routinely lost his mind over. Although it should be said, the ugly animation does not serve the funny script well at all. The biggest problems is that most of the ingenuity lies in the first act and as it goes along it loses some of its spark of ingenuity, gearing itself towards a loud finale. But also, there is a lack of clear personal stakes. These characters are one dimensional with no clear reason to be doing any of this. But there's so much charm in the film's premise, of an 80's neighborhood scarer where the house across the street itself is alive that I'm tempted to give it my vote. Some of its appeal might be elusive today because nostalgia has overtaken everything, but Monster House was for me a real breath of fresh air back in 2006, a $75 million underdog. It's also quite a funny script full of good jokes as well as funny visuals. My favorite is a sign advertising Mayville housing, with a little aside that boasts "We drained the lake!" I'd be interested in reading the original script to see what was changed by Spielberg/Zemeckis from Dan Harmon's original draft. His fingerprints are all over this film. Funny that it cast both Jason Lee and Jon Heder, both of whom are the 2006 equivalent of T.J. Miller.

I think I'll go with my original choice because it's closer to the fuller meal for me, but Happy Feet is no bad loser and it's nice that George Miller has an Oscar.

This evening put me through an aughties crush tour with Brittany Murphy in Happy Feet (eluding to the singing career we never got to see her embark on) as well as Maggie Gyllenhaal playing the animated version of her anti-authoritarian cool girl in animated form.

[Sabin]

Somehow I missed the memo that George Miller had used whatever commercial pitch for Happy Feet as an excuse to indulge in Antarctic desolation imagery and a bleak environment message. Not that I should have been surprised. I mostly enjoyed the first half of the movie (the part that engages with the slight premise) for the remarkable "camerawork" in chase scenes and how Mumble towers over those tiny penguins. I found myself wondering how it was going to stretch out to feature length. And the answer is... it doesn't. It becomes an entirely other picture as Mumble embarks on a hopeless mission to appeal to the better nature of the "aliens" who have stolen their fish. The ending with Mumble's return is total nonsense; he never returns from his encounter with the "aliens." But everything up to and including that scene was so not what I was expecting that I found myself grateful enough for the experience, especially considering that by that point in 2006 I was so penguin-ed out that I didn't want to touch this thing with a ten foot pole.

Not sure if I would vote for it over Monster House (need to rewatch it) but possessing quite a bit more personality than I thought.

Side note: it's astonishing to me how long it's been since Brittany Murphy's passing. So sad.

[OscarGuy]

If Over the Hedge had been nominated, I would have voted it for it without reservation. It's a hilarious film. I saw it again about ten years after its initial release and it was still funny.

[Okri]

The challenge with assessing animation is that mainstream, English language animation has essentially been for kids. And kids love to see the same thing over and over again. Of my most watched films, the majority of them would be films I watched repeatedly as a child. So when talking about the first half of the Oscar years for this category, you don’t have much to say. That changes but it still makes these categories a slog.

What makes it even worse is that none of the options seem very inspiring. I see on my screening log that I did see Over the Hedge, but fuck me if I can remember anything from it. I did not see The Wild and Open season, but they do look like the same movie. I didn’t see The Ant Bully, but what an odd plot description. So while this is an uninspiring line-up, it comes from an uninspiring collection. So whatevs.

My choice is Happy Feet. I actually found it surprisingly bugfuck. I remember the rushed ending and laughing my ass off – it’s terrible, but it feels very much like George Miller wanted it to be terrible – “I made a dark film about a dancing penguin who’s gonna die alone and those studio hacks wouldn’t let me do it. So I'm gonna shit all over it.” Cars is fine and boring. Monster House is more fun but less crazy.

[gunnar]

I saw Cars and Monster House in the theater (the latter in 3D). I loved Cars, even though I initially thought the concept was dumb when I first heard of it a year or so before it came out. Monster House was fun, but I thought the plot was fairly simple. Happy Feet was fine, but would place in third for me out of this lineup.

[OscarGuy]

Never got the chance to see Monster House. It looked slight, so I was in no rush to see it. Then I missed it. Between Happy Feet and Cars, Cars easily wins. I understand people have a problem with the film, but I thought it had a potent message that was drowned out by Mater, one of the worst characters in animation history. That he got so much attention is beyond my imagination. That said, Happy Feet was cloying in that not-so-fun way. It's the worst thing I've seen George Miller do and I've seen all the Mad Max films.

[Sabin]

Well, this is another category in which I can't vote because I still somehow haven't seen Happy Feet, which accounts for George Miller's sole Oscar as well as the only winner in this category with the Warner Bros. logo on it (to my knowledge). This one I'll get around to because it's the only winner of the decade I haven't seen. My sense from the trailer was "Goddamn it, more penguins?!" but I remember breathing a sigh of relief when it won because it meant Cars lost. I'll check it out.

I just revisited Cars. I'll just reiterate my biggest problem with the film. I don't care that the universe makes no sense or even that it doesn't have an idea about cars in the same way that the Toy Story movies found such a rich text in the toy metaphor. My biggest problem is boredom. It's such a slow-moving thing. This is a world rich for at least one-dimensional satire and it's content to spend a full ten+ minutes on the opening race instead of bopping around the world. Back in 2006, I gave it credit for being stunning in a few regards but it's a bummer of a film.

My choice at the time (and might still end up being) the imaginative Monster House, a fun nostalgia piece that I fear has been a little too forgotten as well as the closest thing to a Zemeckis mo-cap film nominated. I had a blast watching it back in 2006 and found its love for 1980's nostalgia infectious (before it overran the market). Truth be told, I don't remember too much about it today. I suspect it's one of the more forgotten nominees but it doesn't deserve to be. I'll do my part and give it a rewatch (along with Happy Feet) before casting my vote.