Animated films have always been viewed with prejudice when it comes to awards or film festivals. Rarely is an animated film present in the official section of Cannes or Venice, and you only have to look at the Oscars to realize that the Academy does not look at these films in the same way as other works. In the entire history of Hollywood awards, no one has won the Oscar for best picture – period – and only three titles have received the nomination: Beauty and the Beast; Up, And toy story 3. The latter two did so after the institution expanded the number of nominees in this category, which was partly due to the absence at the 2009 ceremony of two films like The Black Knight And Wall-E, the Pixar gem that saw films like Milk either The reader They were better regarded.
For them, they created this sort of consolation prize that is the Oscar for best animated film. A box set that highlights the best works of the year, but which ends up restricting films considered as a genre, instead of seeing animation as a technique. How is it possible that you film like The lion king, Spirited Away either Upside down weren’t they among the five or ten most notable works of their year? Ultimately, the category has created a glass ceiling that is difficult to break.
This ceiling does not only concern the premier category, but also the rest. It is difficult to watch an animated film in other categories. When they really like it, they recognize its script, or even on certain exceptional occasions its original soundtrack or sound. But doesn’t an animated film have production design or cinematography? Yes, but it is not appreciated in the same way as when things happen in real action.
This year, where the Oscar race is a little weak since no title seems to be the big favorite and where few obtain the absolute consensus of critics, many have seen in wild robot an option to break this barrier. Since its presentation in Toronto, the film has gained the respect of the media and appears in several predictions as a possible surprise among the ten works that end up being nominated for the award for best film of the year (of course, they give it as a reward more than the predictable winner of best animated film).
Toronto’s success was repeated at the San Sebastian Festival, where Wild robot ―which arrives this Friday in theaters― was presented in the Perlak section which includes the best of what has been seen in competitions around the world. In this case, of course, it was not in Cannes or Venice, but in the Canadian city that serves more as a market and platform for awards than a real festival.
It was presented by its director Chris Sanders (responsible for Lilo and Stitch either How to train your dragon) and Lupita Nyong’o, who plays the protagonist of this moving film with very beautiful animation tinged with impressionism. She is the robot that gives the film its title and is found abandoned by a storm on an island surrounded by wild animals. There she will have to live with them all and ends up being responsible for a duck who must learn to fly to join her species.
Animated films are the best instrument to convey emotions. I think it’s a different, more effective form of communication
Chris Sanders
— Director
Sanders himself acknowledged that they were trying to position the film to get “more nominations as a soundtrack or adapted screenplay”, but that it was difficult in other techniques like cinematography. “The perception is different, but if you go beyond the prejudices, you will realize that the way of working is the same as in a normal film, but with a different technique. I hope we can achieve this understanding, so the answer would be yes, there is a glass ceiling,” he commented.
Another still distant debate is whether voice work in animated films should also be considered at the level of “normal” performances. Many saw in the work of Scarlett Johansson Her even worthy of being rewarded despite the fact that he was never seen and only heard. For Lupita Nyong’o, this character was “a big challenge”, and that’s why she wanted to do it. “I work best when I’m uncomfortable and when I’m faced with something new,” she said.
The job isn’t just about doing voice acting without any added nuance, but “I had to use a voice to tell an emotional story, and do it with a character who really has no emotion.” A job that he describes as “very technical”. “The story evolves through her voice, and at the beginning she had a typical, somewhat robotic voice, which shows a kind of constant optimism, but as the story evolves, it has to be conveyed with her voice that she adapts, and so her voice does too. That’s why in the end we have a rounder, richer voice, with more nuances and more linked to the mother that she becomes. she said about her work.
Sanders defines this story as one about “tolerance, kindness, the spirit of cooperation and, of course, the environment,” but its plot also hides a plea about the power of storytelling and the importance of fiction to construct other possibilities. worlds. Nyong’o believes that it is precisely “this ability to compulsively tell stories and learn from them that differentiates us from other animals.” “We transmit everything through stories, we can’t do anything about it, we do it with cinema, with music, with poetry or art,” he adds, to which his director adds by saying that he believes that stories can make things better. learn something new. “It’s our power,” he said.
In this, he believes that animated films have even more strength and that “it is the best instrument for transmitting emotions”. “I think it’s a different, more effective form of communication. “I can’t explain how it works, but I believe the experience is more long-lasting and anti-aging than any other form of expression.”
