Flow (winner)
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
What’s Missing
So it’s a new year, which means we’re back to Oscar posts. The one covering the Best Animated Feature category is traditionally the one in which I have the fewest suggestions. In fact, in this case, the only animated features from 2024 I have seen are the ones that were nominated. There certainly are some others I should watch, but in this case, I don’t have a single suggestion to add. If might be a fun choice, but it’s probably not animated enough to make the cut (but you will get a mention of my home town at 0:55:05).
Weeding through the Nominees
5. It’s almost certainly going to be controversial to put Inside Out 2 on the bottom of this list, but of the five nominees, it’s the one I like the least. The story isn’t a bad one, but it’s also true I think the story drags when we leap out of Riley’s mind and deal with her in the real world. It’s also worth saying that I find it unlikely that we’ll have a year where Disney and Pixar aren’t at least one of the nominees, and usually more. It’s fine, but I don’t think it’s really anything better than fine.
4. I like Aardman films because I love the quality of the animation, and I genuinely love the Wallace and Gromit characters. With Vengeance Most Fowl the throwback to the villain from The Wrong Trousers, which is the greatest of their films, and not by a little. That connection makes this film a special one, but it also invites a comparison that doesn’t do this film any favors. I enjoyed this just as I enjoy all of the Wallace and Gromit films. This does feel very sparse, though. I know Claymation is difficult and time consuming work, but at less than 80 minutes, this feels insubstantial in some respects.
3. I was not initially that excited about The Wild Robot and went into it with fingers crossed, hoping it would be worth seeing. It is; it’s a delightful film and a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Films for children tend to be about the message in one way or another, and I liked the message of this film. Roz is a charmer of a character. It says something about us that we can be drawn to robotic characters like this (and WALL-E, Baymax, and others) because we can see the inherent humanity in them. That’s a sign of good writing.
My Choices
2. I genuinely love the fact that Flow won this Oscar. An independent film, created over the course of more than five years, by Latvian filmmakers (a country with zero previous nominations) and using open source software is the definition of a long shot, and yet it won. I love that it was nominated for Best International Feature as a film with no dialogue as well. Flow is such a good story and such a genuine labor of love that I am fully satisfied that it has received so many accolades. It’s a hell of a good choice. It’s just not my choice.
1. Memoir of a Snail is my actual choice for this Oscar, even if I’m happy to accept Flow as the winner. Memoir is clearly not made for kids despite its appearance. It tackles real issues in a way that doesn’t come across as therapy speak or pie-in-the-sky dreaming. It depicts a world that is bleak and uncaring, but that contains little spots of love and kindness. I cried like a boy with a skinned knee for the last five minutes of this; these weird, ugly, blobby characters are so incredibly human and real. This is a masterpiece, and it would get my vote.
Final Analysis
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