Rango, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore win at the Oscars
In a night of Hollywood nostalgia (and the victories for The Artist and Hugo), the 2D ILM feature by Gore Verbinski and voiced by Johnny Depp, Rango, took home the top honors for best animated feature film.
Gore Verbinksi, best known for his Pirates of Caribbean series, faced in his acceptance speech the topic of Rango being too adult for a children market with the following: 'Someone asked me if this film was for kids and, I don't know, but it was certainly created by a bunch of grownups acting like children and we just had the best time'.
In his backstage interview, Verbinski admitted that, if it wasn't for Johnny Depp, the old-fashioned Rango would never have been made outside the big animation studios.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, an independent US film from Moonbot studios, won at the Short Animated Film category. Already an ipad application, it was created by the ex-Pixar designer William Joyce and co-directed by Brandon Oldenburg. It tells a life story of a person suddenly transported (in a Wizard of Oz way) to a place full of books.
William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg in their acceptance speech listed their love for cinema, and the countless influences they have absorbed, 'these two swamp rats from Louisiana'.
In their backstage interview, they honored their smaill, 35-gifted employee Moonbot studios, and they revealed their plans for Numberlys, a short film that 'is a remake of Metropolis, but for kids'.
Pixar and Dreamworks left empty-handed from the ceremony. Cars 2 was not even nominated, and the beautiful short La Luna (Enrico Casarosa) failed to win the award. Dreamwork's nominations with Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2 were not successful.
In a related field, The Muppets and the NewZelander composer Brett McKenzie won Best Song for the Jason Segel-performed tune "Man or muppet" On the other hand, the almost hand-drawn, European nominations in the feature animation field (Chico & Rita, A cat in Paris) only confirmed that a fine film does not need state-of-the-art technological innovation to be appreciated as such.
Watch film excerpts below:
