Topic: Movie thread.

@Sunsy Ikr? It’s kinda why I think it might be a graphics issue. That movie was not trying to look graphically impressive (Though that food) so I guess people got mad at them for that? Idk, I really can’t understand.

I didn't watch this film but I got the plot twist spoiled for me, and I thought it was a brilliant twist... if it hadn't already been done to death over the past decade. The whole 'shadow self' trope is practically a safe by-the-book technique in storytelling. Not saying that going by the book when telling stories is wrong, but when you refrain from including any originality or spice into the mix, I'd much rather dig up some TV show or movie from decades ago with fresher perspectives to spare. Life is short, and I can't support every single movie that comes out if they don't offer me anything new under the sun even if they're competently made films.

Watched Grease tonight, classic movie, one of those movies my mom and I both like. Mom wanted to watch it and I think you can sadly guess the reason why too.

@Mioaionios Interesting, I always thought it was one camera type and they're changing the aspect ratio for some scenes. Ever since seeing Guardians, it was something I noticed the movie did. Thought it was just something special they did for the movie, but then I noticed the IMAX enhanced on Disney+. Thanks for the answer.

@Snatcher The food in Turning Red always looks great, it actually made my mother want to order Chinese food one night. Me niether, it sounds like we saw two differing opposing opinions. Me being about the "bean mouth," and the you seeing it about the animation.

@Sunsy I'm going to watch Xanadu on friday. In memory of her, plus I've never seen it and my Mom has and says it's super campy and all the cheese. I love a good slice of cheese.

@Kermit1 Yeah, mom and I were surprised by the news about Olivia Newton-John today. I never seen that movie either, but I've heard of it. Enjoy the movie!

Oh absolutely. It's one thing I've noticed with American (sometimes Western in general) movies, they always go at breakneck speed. Luca has this problem, though it was used in a good way. Not this time. There's always something that has to happen in the background. Everything has to be necessary otherwise it's not worth doing.

That's not always true. By comparison lots of story-driven JRPGs have more scenes without much story weight, but stuff that builds the world, explores characters more, or just gives them a good time. It's a shame... same with the comedy. I did like Buzz' comedy since there were callbacks to his lines from Toy Story (you're... mocking me, aren't you?). Everyone else is terrible.

@Mioaionios That sounds on point. A lot of action scenes, if not all of them, were due to some mistake. I dunno if they’re trying to send some kind of message about how rookies are just as competent as Space Rangers… but it didn’t land.

@HotGoomba Fair. You’d think that Buzz would be a little more serious in his own movie. But Buzz has always been a comedic character. His defining trait was always acting like a Space Ranger despite actually being a toy, if that doesn’t say comedy I don’t know what does.

I feel like the humour was surprisingly basic compared to what Pixar is known for though. The Incredibles was really special since it had both adult and child comedy. Slapstick and also twofold jokes that were funny as a child and then when you grew up. This by comparison feels a little cheap humour wise.

@Sunsy I think up until a certain point I would have said it was a decent movie. But introducing the new cast ruined it. Shame, the set up as you say was pretty interesting.

@Maxenmus Yeah I knew the whole plot of the film before I saw it… I just didn’t care all that much. That’s the issue with some films nowadays, they’re not even bad enough to get a reaction out of me, just apathy. But ah well, you’re right.

Today I learned that The Boss Baby got an Oscar nomination... over five other anime films in 2018.

The Boss Baby. Let that sink in.

Thank god I've stopped watching the Oscars for a decade now, but it also goes to show how little appreciation American award shows have for foreign Japanese animated films. Yeah, Japanese, not "foreign" 'coz obviously a bunch of French animated films got tons of awards. It's just "anime" 'coz they're still considered to be this weird, weeaboo niche for basement dwellers, apparently.

Edit:
Let's see, in Oscars 2022, we have four American animated films (Encanto, The Mitchells vs The Machines, Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca) and one Danish animated film (Flee). Not a single anime in sight.

@Maxenmus
The Oscars still is, and forever will be, a popularity contest. Every award show is a popularity contest.
If a certain movie, doesn't matter how good it might be, doesn't get seen enough, it has no chance of winning. And let's be honest here, most foreign movies don't get seen on a wide scale by the Academy members, this is true for live action movies as well.

@Mioaionios So much for "diversity" and "wokeness" I guess.

And people wonder why sometimes there aren't English dubs for anime. If your entire country shows no appreciation for their media, why should they bother to pander to you? There's no profit to be made, no popularity, as you said. Might as well keep the rights to the films within their country.

@Maxenmus Let me just say, I'm not big on anime, but the fact that crappy DreamWorks and Disney • Pixar movies are getting Oscars over passion projects and actually good movies is disgusting. There's a reason why nobody takes the Oscars seriously anymore.

Why did Toy Story 4 win Best Animated Feature in 2019 over How to Train Your Dragon 3 and Klaus? Why did Big Hero 6 get the 2014 Best Animated Feature award and not Song of the Sea or How to Train Your Dragon 2? AND WHO THE #### THOUGHT THAT Brave was better than Wreck It Ralph, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, AND The Pirates?

I feel like everyone at the Oscars council thingamajig is so braindead, that I'm still genuinely surprised (and happy) that Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse won an award over Ralph Breaks the Internet and Incredibles 2.

Well-deserved American animated films aside, I guess I shouldn't all that surprised that an American academy would favor American and western films films over Japanese or even Asian animated films. Way to keep nationalism and tribalism alive in 2022, folks.

@TheJGG Yeah, I was actually surprised they had a different voice for Buzz too. I guess watching Toy Story, you just get use to Tim Allen voicing Buzz instead of Chris Evans.

Speaking of Pixar and voice acting, I'm surprised John Ratzenberger hasn't voiced in a Pixar movie for some time, given he appears in each one, even if it's a very very minor role.

@Maxenmus To be fair, that channel is very specific to anime content, which as far as I know, is pretty niche here in the US. That's not to say, there's anime movies I loved such as Okko's Inn and A Silent Voice. The other day I watched Girls und Panzer das Finale 2. I enjoy anime, these were movies I liked. If it weren't for Mirai being nominated, I wouldn't have known about it, which is weird since I haven't followed the Oscars for years.

I haven't followed the Oscars for one simple reason, they barely nominate any of the movies I like, and give awards to movies I like. That simple really, 2022 had Luca nominated, but that was very rare chance something I liked got nominated. I don't watch or follow them. Because of that, I was surprised to find out Trolls was nominated for best original song in 2017, I never watch the Oscars so I didn't even know. It's not even mentioned anywhere on the DVD or the Blu-Ray case either. I have Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, right on front it said "Academy Award nominated." I found out via a featurette for the movie.

Also, I don't think they don't take animation seriously and pretty much see it as the "Disney" category, looking at @HotGoomba's response, it's pretty much is. There's lots of animated movies not by Disney I thought were great, this is coming from a Disney fan too. Sad really since animation from all over can be great. As silly as it sounds, I like the Maya the Bee movies. While it's not an award winning movie series, I loved how it's animated. The meadow world the movie takes place in is beautiful IMO, and it's not even a US-made animated movie, it's from Australia and Germany IIRC.

@Maxenmus
You are aware that films have to be submitted to the academy - they dont just survey every film released that year then draw up a shortlist. It's a good possibility that may non-american films were not submitted for the animation category.

Why this is the case - well, the Oscars are a total boys' club of Hollywood insiders, friends, and hangers-on, so mainly vote for their own.

For example, how many non-english language best pictures have there been?

Like I said, it makes sense that the Oscars, an American company, would be more biased towards American and western films than Japanese or Asian films, but that fact doesn't make me, an anime fan and non-American/westerner feel any better. I guess I shouldn't really care whether if Americans acknowledge the quality of anime films or not seeing as I don't even live there, but still, I feel like America is a significant enough of an influence in the world and the global economy that when it doesn't approve something I like (like visual novels for another example), it makes me rather defensive and insecure about it. America is like the big boys in the neighborhood after all in terms of global influence, possibly even more than China on some level. I know America's always trying to tap into China's market, but I still feel like America is still quite a significant economic superpower in 2022 in its own right. Whenever America does something, the world often pays attention to it for good reasons. The country's decisions and pop culture often influence the market of Asian countries too, especially those that try to westernize their society like Japan or even Singapore. Our Singapore news coverage, for example (a South-East Asian country), contains American affairs half of the times. So when American films finally have more Japanese or Chinese actors as the main stars, it makes sense why the rest of the world finally exhaled their bated breath and went, "Finally."

I guess anime is probably more acknowledged and respected in certain non-American countries though, especially Asian countries, but I feel like their influence isn't far-reaching enough to affect the kind of games they would release on Steam (American) for one thing. For another, I just can't help but enjoy American films somewhat more than most foreign films, probably because I grew up on them. So when certain American films or TV shows do decide to incorporate "anime style" (like Into the Spider-Verse and Avatar: The Last Airbender), it does make them that much more enjoyable for me as an anime fan to see my two favorite visual styles come together.

I think it's also why a niched anime YouTube channel like that would be vocal about anime films being left out of the Oscars. People tend to be vocal about their favorite things not being included at the popular table.

Probably not many, but I've seen a lot of French or Spanish animations nominated, rarely Chinese or Japanese ones. The western biasness is strong.

Pftt, fake woke Hollywood! If they are really woke then why won't they let the anime about the underage panty and cleavage showing waifu who fights tentacle love demons win best Oscar!

@jump Way to generalize anime like you did any research at all about your statement instead of coming off like a troll, but okay, you totally convinced me.

I can name at least two animes not like that

@HotGoomba I think a lot of people could. lol It's not that hard in 2022 if one simply pays attention.

By the way, can we please stay away from the term "woke"?

@Mioaionios Fair enough. It's just a term Hollywood (and the vast majority of the world) throws around in interchangeable usage with "diversity," but I didn't mean anything offensive by it. My apologies.