oscars and junk

so the oscar nominations were announced today- did you notice? check them out if you want

Here's my notes on the nominations that matter:

Animated Feature
Howl's Moving Castle
Corpse Bride
Wallace and Gromit

I think Wallace and Gromit have this category. There are a few interesting things about this category. Corpse Bride was almost universally panned as being 'not as good as Nightmare' (which didn't get very good critical acclaim when it came out either), so it's interesting to see it nominated. Maybe some people will begin to look twice at this film. Howl's Moving Castle is a beautiful film, but again 'not as good as Spirited Away' (which may or may not be true). Interesting as well is the lack of CG features this year (no Pixar feature... go back to my March 12, 2005 entry for my statements about Robots). Anyway...

Animated Short
Badgered
The Moon and the Son
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
9
One Man Band

I haven't seen all these films- when I do, I'll tell you. I'll say the following:
After seeing John Canemaker's 'The Moon and the Son,' narrated by John Tuturo, I never thought I would be able to feel again. 10 minutes later, 'The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello' made me feel again. They are both incredible films, but I think that Jasper Morello may win this one. One Man Band was not picked for part of the travelling Annecy show. It is not a particularly remarkable film, and it doesn't seem to 'push new boundaries' in CG animation. When I see Badgered and 9, I'll update you.

Visual Effects
Narnia
King Kong
War of the Worlds

I think King Kong is going to get this one. Rhythm and Hues deserves an oscar for their work on Narnia, but overall, Kong just had better work. War of the Worlds is worth mentioning, but wasn't phenominal.

Walk the Line wasn't nominated for original screenplay, which is a dissapointment to the directing program as one of the professors wrote it.

March of the Penguins will probably win it for documentary, even though it omits penguin homosexual relationships.


Otherwise, I'm very excited to watch Jon Stewart host it. That should keep me interested for a few hours.

My thesis committee review is tomorrow. Why did I just spend half an hour writing about Oscar nominations?