(...Story Continued from Previous Page) The film, which is set in Paris and imbued with French culture, was
No. 1 at France's box office for six weeks in a row — surpassing a record set by
"Titanic." After making $206 million at the domestic box
office, "Ratatouille" made $410 million internationally.
Those totals are much greater than any of the best picture nominees, which
combined haven't grossed as much domestically as "Ratatouille."
New York Times film critic A.O. Scott listed "Ratatouille" as one of the five
films that deserved to be nominated for best picture. He earlier called it "a
nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive
portraits of an artist ever committed to film."
That judgment is notable in part because it doesn't make use of the word
"animated."
Lewis, who's working on directing a film for Pixar, cited fellow nominee "Persepolis" — an animated French language film about a girl
coming of age during the Islamic Revolution — as proof of the breadth to
animation today. (The third Oscar nominee is the more standard family fare of
"Surf's Up.")
"The type of filmmaking that's taking place in the animation category is very
broad," said Lewis. "And it's perhaps traveling beyond what people felt the
parentheses of the industry were before."
And considering the increasing role that digital animation and
computer-generated imagery play in the making of nearly all movies today, it's
becoming difficult to firmly say what is and isn't animated. Just as
"Ratatouille" reflects live-action filmmaking, live-action films like "King Kong" and "Transformers" often reflect animated works.
"It's folly to have a separate animated category because it hurts the chances
of a movie like `Ratatouille' for being in the best picture race," said O'Neil.
"But considering the academy history and the fact that only once did they have
the guts to do it, at least the little rat is getting the chance to be a big
cheese in one category."
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