The Academy and Miyazaki Round 2

By David Rasmussen
12th Feb 06

Well, 2006 is upon us and that means another Academy Awards. The best of 2005 are about to be rolled out and judged… fairly or unfairly as it may be. After all it seems that in a year that wasn’t exactly sporting the most powerful Best Picture category movies we seem to have a shoe-in already with Hollywood leaning towards the “gay cowboy” movie Brokeback Mountain… yeah, cough cough, forget the fact Ang Lee (who ran off with voters hearts with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in the past) helmed this one, let’s just focus on the TV slash Print Media’s obsession with the gay cowboy slant… not. If it wins I won’t be surprised. It’s not like it had much competition to go against.
But we’re not here to talk about Best Picture, go Brokeback Mountain, we’re here talking about Best Animated Feature… and yes, Brokeback Mountain is not eligible for this one so we don’t have to talk about it. Here, we’re talking about another movie that should have made more waves, and yet because it didn’t may suffer in the end when the Academy does what it always does best… screw over good movies.
I am, of course, talking about the latest Miyazaki wonder to behold, Howl’s Moving Castle.
If we’re talking International Awards we have no problem finding awards it won, but here in the US of A? Let’s just say… critics should have played the same card two years ago.

Two years ago it was another Miyazaki movie, Spirited Away, that was sitting in the hot seat in terms of an Academy Award (for Best Animated Feature of 2003). And unlike now, two years ago critics played a very powerful card to get the Academy to “do the right thing” and get the movie it’s Academy Award… mainly the R card. And R? R is for Racist. Yeah. Critics gave out a unified outcry that should Spirited Away be snubbed at the Academy (for Disney’s Lilo & Stitch which was the frontrunner on the American side of the equation) then the Academy was racists, waving the flag of the US and A when a far superior choice was before them. The Academy blinked, and Spirited Away won… but of course they did make sure it was at the very top of the show so they didn’t have to linger on it too long, and rushed through the award ASAP as if pissed that they had to “do the right thing”. Yeah, that was a “heartwarming” experience on equality in award winning if I ever saw one.

Well we flashforward to 2005 and the movies out that could compete against Howl’s Moving Castle? Well, let’s just say they’re no Lilo & Stitch. We have only two, as a matter of fact, worth talking about. Dreamworks’ Madagascar and Disney’s first Pixar-less solo CGI animated movie, Chicken Little.
Great. A movie about dysfunctional zoo animals and another about farm fresh talking food products slash the occasional future victim of the H5N1virus… for joy. Miyazaki should be SOOOOooooo worried!
Yeah. If we were not talking the “racism” of Hollywood then Miyazaki really has nothing to be concerned about. Nothing that released in 2005 has even the slightest chance of overshadowing the grandeur and splendor of Howl’s Moving Castle. And even amongst the Anime releases… Appleseed is all I remember with no disrespect meant to Mr. Shirow Masamune… there wasn’t one that came close to rivaling the power of Howl’s Moving Castle. So, then, how will either Madagascar or Chicken Little even have a chance of making a dent against this animated powerhouse? Easy… they cheat.

Truth be told if we measured these movies (and maybe a few others in 2005 that came out worthy of mention, but which I can’t think of except for Appleseed which probably won’t be nominated since it came out at the start of 2005... A virtual deadzone of nominating since nobody remembers that far back when it comes to Animated Movie nominations) on the measuring stick of what makes a movie great we would have to give this year’s Best Animated Feature Award to Howl’s Moving Castle without complaint or argument. On the measuring stick of greatness Howl’s Moving Castle strives and achieves that greatness by being a splendidly done and crafted piece of animated wonder, vast and amazing in it’s scope this movie will amaze those who have yet to see it, as well as affirm the power of Miyazaki’s vision to those who have. This is what an Academy Award winning caliber Animated Movie should strive to be, and what Dreamworks and Disney should strive for in their releases year after year.

But since neither truth nor wisdom counts in Academy Award picking we’re left with racism.
Remember last year? That was a “Fun” award, and by fun I mean rigged. We had two better picks last year (for the Best Animated Feature of 2004 Award), that being Shrek 2 and Polar Express, yet both had the door slammed in their collective faces so that a weak voting line up could be shuffled in. Why? Easy, that way it would be easy to make The Incredibles the winner (of course). After all given the… ahem… power of the competition it didn’t take a Japanese programmer of Trauma Center : Under the Knife to cut to the heart of the reason behind nominating who they did in order to see The Incredibles take top spot.
If you want your movie to win? Make sure you give it weak competition, that way it would only be “logical” for said movie to win. Easy. Yeah, we did have Shark Tales (the movie formerly known as Sharkslayer… until somebody thought Sharkslayer was too kid-unfriendly), but even Wil Smith’s bad self couldn’t keep the movie from being underwhelming… sorry, Mr. Smith.
If either or both Shrek 2 and/or Polar Express (which I thought deserved the win) was up for it then it would have been a whole different story, but control the nominations and you control the victory. Simple.
Now before you ask I didn’t put in Ghost in the Shell : Innocence because we’re talking Hollywood here, folks! They may act in deep philosophical action sci-fi drama movies, but don’t expect them to understand much less comprehend deep philosophical action sci-fi drama movies! That’s asking too much of them!

Now back to the present. The only way they can keep Howl’s Moving Castle out of the spotlight, and away from that award, if it they don’t invite it to the dance in the first place. Huh? Impossible you say…? Not really. Disney did, after all, give Miyazaki the shaft again. Once again they undersold, under-released, underpromoted, and basically gave the movie the “red headed stepchild” treatment as they did with Spirited Away. Only this time, unlike Spirited Away, critics did not appear in droves to replace the lackluster “enthusiasm” of Disney with word of critic recommendation of the movie to keep it in the public eye, as well as the radar of potential Academy Award voters. Without that, as you will probably see, the movie is no doubt going to be overlooked and lesser fare will be nominated in it’s place.
And that goes right back to the accusation that the Academy Award voters are racists… or maybe they’re just ignorant. You know about Howl’s Moving Castle, I know about it… but do they know about it? Is it even on the ballot, which it should be? If the Academy didn’t put it on the ballot does the movie even exist to voters? I know, I know, too many questions. One at a time…

Do they know about it? Odds are… not really. With all the advertising done for Madagascar and Chicken Little you’ll either have to be incredibly hip, or a fan of Miyazaki already, to have known about Howl’s Moving Castle’s release… that or you’d have to be an Academy Award voter who lives near a art house theater and managed to catch a screening while it was out in limited release. In that venue odds are not enough people will vote for a nomination for the movie and it’ll get ignored.
Is it even on the ballot (thereby alleging racism by the Academy if they fail to give voters the choice to vote for Howl’s Moving Castle)? I don’t know. Honestly, I have no idea. And nobody who has a voting thing will tell me… maybe. I have to e-mail Mr. Campbell and see if he can at least divulge that much about the secret ballot… yeah, wishful thinking. Maybe my media contacts know something.
I checked, just to see if they picked nominees yet… I lost track of voting so I have no idea… anyway I’ll post a thread on it to keep you up to date on it on the Movies thread so stay tuned to that for the latest on the awards and the nominations for Best Animated Feature. Otherwise… well, let’s hope wisdom overcomes predictability when the first weekend of March rolls along.

-- David Rasmussen 12th Feb 06