Best Picture: 1991

Sabin · Post by **Sabin** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:13 am

I've made my disdain for Damien's animation prejudice as well as PIXAR clear (which I think has one of the strongest track records in film today) but I must jump in...

Before I left America for my extended vacation, I caught roughly an hour of both 'The Lion King' and 'Aladdin' at a family function. Now, these movies were fairly formative for me growing up, and watched them quite a bit even though as a child, I never really cared for 'The Lion King'. Even then, it seems more like product than organic creation and after watching around twenty minutes of the thing in the background, I remained steadfast in my beliefs. It's kind of a piece of shit. And it's racist too. WE CAN'T LET THOSE DIRTY, SMELLY HYENAS IN OUR PURE PRIDE! OR THAT FAGGOT BROTHER OF MINE WHO ROLLS WITH THEM! It's pretty despicable stuff, livened up only by an impromptu Reifenstahl tribute number that's kind of offensive and random as hell. Contrast that with the far more daring Frollo number in 'Hunchback'.

Lousy movie as I thought it was as a child. Then I watched 'Aladdin' and really was kind of amazed by that one. I loved it as a child. Absolutely loved it. Then I watch it again...it's kind of obnoxious. Of course it's a very racist movie, but that's almost beside the point. The two leads have no personality to speak of, the music is hit or miss (you can find yourself actively mourning the loss of Howard Ashman during the film's Tim Rice numbers), and I suppose it's fun in parts but it really kind of is kiddie shit. No desire to return to 'Mulan' or 'Tarzan'.

I've come around a bit on Disney's "renaissance" in the 90's beginning with 'The Little Mermaid', which even as a kid I never had much use for. I think half of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' is amazing and the other a compromised piece of work that just happens when you make a Disney blockbuster (lousy music, beautiful score). 'Hercules' is inoffensive, fun, but slight.

That being said, 'Beauty and the Beast' was probably my favorite movie growing up and while I wish we could live in a world without the cloying antics of inanimate objects battling village idiots or the handsome prince at the end, it's a very beautiful film and possibly the most heartbreakingly lovely score I've ever heard. Only when I was 19 or 20 and I watched the movie again for the first time in years did I realize that this memory of a classic music score (perhaps attributive to something like 'Gone with the Wind', a lost Max Steiner piece of work) was actually that of a Disney movie.

...I began to trail off in my next paragraph so I decided to just bail. I will say that one of my best friends, a former Columbia student, has started a Blog about the feminist undertones in every single movie that she watches, and every movie she watches this year will be one supposedly about women, starting with 'The African Queen' and followed by 'Enchanted'. She has zero use for anything Disney has done and who could blame her?

Edited By Sabin on 1199788652

Steph2 · Post by **Steph2** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:27 am

I like Dumbo too. You should try Sleeping Beauty if you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a while), it's not like Cinderella and some of the other Disney crap from years before. It's like a Renaissance painting. Of the new Disney films starting with the overrated Little Mermaid, I've only been moved by Beauty and the Beast. The rest range from offensive (Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan) to just plain stupid (Pixar) and I wish I hadn't wasted time on them. I've heard Pinocchio is good but I haven't seen it since I was a kid.

Post by **Damien** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:05 am

Steph2 wrote:I'm not saying I hate all animated films. But for the most part, I can't really moved by them. I mean...they're DRAWINGS, you know??

Oh my God, Steph -- you are my Soul Mate! (There are a handful of animated films I love, starting with Dumbo.)

Steph2 · Post by **Steph2** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:47 am

Love you too Damien. And you have no idea how much I have to endure from (mostly) male students (film and otherwise) who respect and revere Pixar like its the first Playboy they ever glanced at (or Playgirl, as I suspect of many of them).

I'm not saying I hate all animated films. But for the most part, I'm not really moved by them. I mean...they're DRAWINGS, you know??

Post by **Damien** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:19 am

Steph2 wrote:Even Spirited Away, which everyone kept telling me would change my life and was the best thing ever, bored me silly.

Oh my God! I thought I was the only one (and I really did go in wanting to be awed by it). And all the slings and arrows I endured as a result.

I love you Steph!!! And, hey, I do have a handful of hetero nerve ends in my body. And a nice lap (at least my kitty thinks so)

Steph2 · Post by **Steph2** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:25 am

God yes! Don't even get me started on the obnoxiousness that is the cult of Anime. When 20-something year olds start to talk about it, you'd think they were debating the Mideast conflict, but no, it's just another peek into shallow, pretentious American fanboy geekdom. Even Spirited Away, which everyone kept telling me would change my life and was the best thing ever, bored me silly. Lilo & Stitch wasn't great but it was still marginally better than that pretentious crap. And Hiyao Miyazaki (sp) is a hateful man. I get that he's appropriately angry at the U.S. but in a New Yorker interview he said he couldn't wait for the day when our environmental sins came back to haunt us and New York was underwater. Yeah, way to lump a group of mostly LIBERAL people into one category dude. And it might surprise him to note that cities like New York are actually pretty "green" compared to suburban sprawl and the land of the SUV's. He's a bitter old idiot.

The only time I don't mind the atrocious price of movie tickets in New York is when it's an Anime film, because then I can chalk it up to a well deserved Nerd Tax.

Akash · Post by **Akash** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:54 pm

Maybe she should sit on YOUR lap Damien!

Steph, you never told me you didn't like animated films. Does this extend to anime as well?

Edited By Akash on 1199764468

Post by **Damien** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:43 pm

Steph2 wrote:I'm not really a fan of a lot of animated films. . .
And I admit I especially don't really care for any of the Pixar films. I just can't get into the computer animated stuff.

There's a term for these things

Steph2 · Post by **Steph2** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:40 pm

I'm not really a fan of a lot of animated films. I just can't care about characters that aren't real people? Of the Disney ones though, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Dumbo are at a higher level of art than the others.

And I admit I especially don't really care for any of the Pixar films. I just can't get into the computer animated stuff.

Zahveed · Post by **Zahveed** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:15 pm

Akash wrote:Beauty and the Beast is so superior -- and ages much better -- than the other four films in this category, it's ridiculous it didn't win. Another moment of Academy short-sightedness.

It makes me wonder if Ratatouillie would of stood a chance had the Best Animated category not been implemented and if 2007 had been weaker year for live-action films.

I voted for Beauty and the Beast.

Akash · Post by **Akash** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:26 am

Sabin wrote:'Beauty and the Beast' was my favorite movie for a good long time. I feel as though it's the greatest traditionally animated American feature next to 'Dumbo'. It's still pretty astonishing to me how mature its sensibilities are. Dare I say even Damien might not be able to dismiss this one.

Alan Menken's score is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

I'm going to cosign everything Sabin said here. It may be a "goddamn cartoon" Damien, but it's one of the loveliest ones, and you'd be hard-pressed to find scores more beautiful than the two Ashman and Menken teamed up for on Mermaid and Beauty. (I'd like to pretend the racist/hollow Aladdin isn't part of the Ashman/Menken union)

Beauty and the Beast is so superior -- and ages much better -- than the other four films in this category, it's ridiculous it didn't win. Another moment of Academy short-sightedness.

Edited By Akash on 1195799230

Archie Leach · Post by **Archie Leach** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:54 am

The Silence of the Lambs. That final sequence in the underground lair still gets me.

dreaMaker · Post by **dreaMaker** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:33 am

Silence of the Lambs and JFK are such perfect movies...
i m in awe..

Post by **Franz Ferdinand** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:21 pm

JFK because it is the most intriguing, though the other two are quite good as well. As for Silence and Beauty - how did they get here?? ???

Just kidding. Speaking of which, I suppose nobody here will be in a big hurry to pick up the 2-disc unrated extended cut of Bugsy that just came out, huh....

Post by **Damien** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:39 am

Silence is no Manhunter. Bugsy is a typical Barry Levinson lumbering bore. Prince of Tides is an embarrassment and Beauty and the Beast is a goddamn cartoon.

JFK, as nutty as it is, is the only possible choice.

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Best Picture: 1991

Best Picture: 1991