Up Wins Best Animated Feature

So Up won its Oscar for best animated film. I'm still pretty sure it won the award for this scene alone, though the rest of the film was a joy as well.

Hope they do as well in other nominated categories, too. Not holding my breath for Best Picture, however.

UPDATE: Aaaaand a win for best original score. Congratulations, Mr. Giacchino!

But wait a second. Logorama wins best animated short, with something like this in competition with it? I guess the Academy saw more in crappy Second Life animation than I did.

And a request: Now that Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker have won the big awards, can we stop with the Smurf photos on each and every Oscar story now? Please?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Alas, no. Now comes the hand-wringing from Avatar's media lackeys, such as Richard Corliss in Time. Avatar lost, by the way, becasue the Academy is a bunch of old, wizened luddites who won't watch a film if they can't see it on their old Zenith television set. Never mind if Avatar had won the Academy would be future-seeing visionaries who want to send a message.

Up Wins Two

It's no surprise to me that Up won a Golden Globe today for Best Animated Feature -- even with the film up against such powerhouses as Fantastic Mr. Fox and the cult favorite Coraline.

Even less surprising is that with Michael Giacchino at the helm, Up won in the category of Best Musical Score.

If you ask me -- and you certainly are, if you're reading this blog -- the win can best be summed up in the clip featured here, with animation and music summing up a life of happiness and bitterness in about 4 1/2 minutes. This bit from the film still makes me tear up. Dratted emotional manipulation that works because it pulls on exactly the right strings.

As far as I can tell, the only gash in the evening came with Best Animated Feature presenter Paul McCartney, who had to say a funny: "Animation isn't just for children, it's for adults who do drugs." What an idiot. Mr. McCartney, with all due respect to Your Beatleness, perhaps it would behoove you, for a moment, to get off that damned liberal high horse of yours and realize that the film genre you're talking about is a genre in its own right and that animation appeals to everyone because of the great storytelling, not necessarily because the characters are pixellated or drawn. So stuff your funny little drug reference down your throat.

Anyway, I'm pleased Up won a few. The folks at Pixar are excellent storytellers and voracious risk-takers. Who else would think a feature film with the stars being an annoying Wilderness Explorer and an old fart would work so well? Probably because like Russell, we, too, remember the boring parts the most.