|
By Jake Coyle
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Among the tales of depravity and violence that dominate this
year's Academy Awards race sits the bright and shining "Ratatouille." A rat never seemed so sanitized.
The Pixar film landed five Oscar nominations and was ranked by many critics
as one of the year's best, yet was never a serious contender for best picture.
Instead, it was relegated to the relatively new category of best animated
feature, which the academy began dolling out in 2002.
Directed by Brad Bird, "Ratatouille" has garnered an aggregate score of 96 on
Metacritic.com, ranking it above "Pulp Fiction," let alone this year's best picture
candidates: "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno," "Atonement" and "Michael Clayton."
And its other nominations across three different disciplines — best original
screenplay, best score, best sound mixing and best sound editing — suggest the
kind of broad consensus that often results in bigger awards like best director
or best picture.
Its five nominations rank as the most ever for a computer animated film, and
rate second among all animated films, only surpassed by the six received by
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." That picture, done in the traditional
Disney style in 1991, stands as the only animated film to ever be nominated for
best picture.
If not for the best animated feature category, it's safe to say "Ratatouille"
would have been strongly considered for best picture. Brad Lewis, the film's
producer, is quick to point out that he has no sour grapes with the academy —
and that he's ecstatic about the five widespread nominations.
Still, he has to wonder.
"Ultimately, it makes it perhaps too convenient for people to look at an
animated film from an isolated perspective," said "Ratatouille" Lewis. "Somebody
can say, `You know what? We have a place for that, so we don't necessarily have
to give it broader consideration.'"
Tom O'Neil, a columnist specializing in awards coverage for the Los Angeles
Times' "The Envelope" Web site, has pondered whether "Ratatouille" — which he
calls the best reviewed movie of the year — is the equivalent of "Beauty and the
Beast," only it had to deal with the specialized category.
"Is this a case where it's penalized and ghettoized because there's a
separate category for animated fare?" O'Neill said. "It seems to have the same
respect in the industry and among film critics as `Beauty and the Best.'"
"Ratatouille," made by Walt Disney Company and its Pixar Animations Studios,
is also not a conventional animated movie. Its framing is largely based on the
techniques of classic filmmaking, and the story of a rat who dreams to be a chef
has been called a Joycean "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Rat."
"I don't think people when they walk out of `Ratatouille' the first thing
that they're thinking about is `I went and saw an animated film today,'" said
Lewis. "It's partly because we're telling more sophisticated stories and I think
it's because we have a more sophisticated filmmaking tool."
"Ratatouille" also has the support of that great international critical body:
the French. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
Hotmail
