I’m not necessarily saying the movies/filmmakers I’m about to mention belong on the list, but I do feel like animation is getting the short end of the stick as far as how they’re judged. Looking through the 400 nominated films, only 9 are animated - 7 of those are Disney. This feels unnecessarily limited and I keep thinking of overlooked examples.
I know Nightmare Before Christmas and Don Bluth were mentioned already, but what about Charlie Brown, Fritz the Cat, or Rankin & Bass? These aren’t award-winning juggernauts, but they have definitely stood the test of time as being part of shared American culture. Austin Powers and There’s Something About Mary made the cut, so it’s not like we’re required to stay classy.
In going through the list, I was also surprised to see Waking Life and Scanner Darkly were not included - I’ve only seen the latter, but I feel like that was impressive enough technically to warrant a seat at the table.
Finally, what I think is making me feel so unsatisfied with the lack of animation on this list is that one criteria that can feel so limiting, which is they have to be American films. That’s a whole other discussion, but just to play devil’s advocate, what would this list look like if Wallace & Gromit or Miyazaki were part of the conversation? I’m sure there are dozens of other examples I’m unfamiliar with, but those loom so large in my mind.
Is it just me, or so animated films have to do it backwards and in high heels?