Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

Are people still caring about Oscars? Ithought they lost their value like 10 years ago...

I'm even glad Lego didn't get them! LtM>Frozen.

And remember, The "everything is awesome song" was meant to be pop song that basicaly says "Don't worry, everything is fine, don't even think goverment will take care of you!". It won Oscars so that proves People nowadays are mindsless drones! yay!

Edited by Lordofdragonss
  • 1 month later...
Posted

Well.... Everything is Awesome lost to Glory from Selma at the Oscars (it was impossible to beat that majestic gospel song!)

It didn't deserve the nomination anyway

Posted (edited)

I used to be a big movie junkie and have followed the Oscars for many years (though, admittedly, in the past 10-15 years its been with more of a morbid curiosity than anything else) and, frankly, last night's awards (and the nominations before them) really didn't surprise me very much.

Trends swing back and forth with the Academy. There was a time when big, successful pictures would also rake in Oscar gold. There was also a time when a picture that opened in January had as much change of getting recognized as one that only played in New York and L.A. between Christmas and New Year's (in limited release to qualify as "coming out" in a given calendar year) rather than be summarily forgotten. I remember people complaining in the wake of major sweeps like Titanic (record setting box office, 11 Academy awards) that the Oscars had become a self congratulatory, "the richer get richer" sort of indulgence at a time when public schools were having to cut art and music programs from the curriculum for budget reasons.

That set the pendulum swinging in the other direction to mitigate the "Oscar doesn't care about the little guy" and set in motion long standing trend where being commercially successful can be a detriment regardless of the quality of the product and political correctness is king (this was also the time that ushered the phrase "and the winner is..." out the door in favor of "and the Oscar goes to…" because, you know, we're _all_ winners…)

Of course, "the little guy" by Hollywood standards is still pretty big, but even by that yardstick, look at last night's nominees: 8 films for best picture, most with budgets under 50 million USD and a _combined_ box office take (to date) adding up to less than half the revenue movies like Avatar or the Avengers made in their first month of release. In this context, American Sniper was the "blockbuster" of the group (earning more than the rest of the field combined) and, despite a respectable 6 nominations, only won one award for sound editing. Many people (correctly) predicted that as the popularity of the film grew between nomination time and the close of voting, most voters would flock to a smaller picture with a less famous director.

Similarly, the Academy has frequently tried to make itself seem more, for lack of a better word, important with respect to politically correct causes, hardship stories, etc. rather than reward the (often needed, highly enjoyable, but far from "high art") escapism and fantasy of "popular" Hollywood. It's been said in the past 15 years or so among actors that if you want to win an Oscar, you need to: be very attractive and play physically ugly or emotionally unpleasant character; and, be of sound mind and body while feigning a character with serious physical of mental impairments. Bookies used this formula to predict the winners for Best Actor and Best Actress the day after the nominations this year and guessed right (again).

So that puts our "lowly" Lego Movie in context with three strikes against it: profitable, popular, and escapist. While those who actually saw the film know that there was a "deeper" message or two about creativity, individualistic thinking and family bonding experiences, given that it was already shuffled off to the animated feature category, most nominators probably dismissed it out of hand as a two hour infomercial for Lego.

As for the song-that-shall-not-be-named, I really think that losing to Glory was a political move, not a measure of the merit of the piece. Personally, I didn't particularly care for Glory as a musical composition and found the lyrics to be mediocre (go ahead flame me in PMs, I also prefer coffee ice cream over chocolate - feel free to tell me that opinion is wrong as well…) I'm not belittling the subject matter of the song or the importance of the message, but as a stand-alone _song_ it struck me as middle of the road gospel choir fare, I've heard better original offerings from the various a cappella groups at university as an undergrad. It I really think the song won as a proxy for Selma and the message _that film_ (which the Academy was lambasted for snubbing in the press after the nominations were announced) wanted to convey. Take away the film and the the song doesn't really stand on its own at least not in the context of other previous winners in the category.

Out of curiosity, I sat down with one of my Academy award books and looked at previous winners in the Best Original Song category. From 1970 to 1990, I could recall the melody and a fair bit of the lyrics to _every_ best song winner save two. That's 18 songs from at least 25 years ago and the reason I remember them is not because I'm a great music buff (I'm not - BTW, I'm lucky to know that the Grammy's are given for music let alone who's winning them) but because _those_ songs are still getting played on the radio, used in movies and TV, even piped into stores at the mall. I just don't see Glory having that sort of staying power a quarter of a century from now.

In contrast, it may take 25 years for me to get that accursed Lego song out of my head...

Edited by ShaydDeGrai
Posted

Out of curiosity, I sat down with one of my Academy award books and looked at previous winners in the Best Original Song category. From 1970 to 1990, I could recall the melody and a fair bit of the lyrics to _every_ best song winner save two. That's 18 songs from at least 25 years ago and the reason I remember them is not because I'm a great music buff (I'm not - BTW, I'm lucky to know that the Grammy's are given for music let alone who's winning them) but because _those_ songs are still getting played on the radio, used in movies and TV, even piped into stores at the mall. I just don't see Glory having that sort of staying power a quarter of a century from now.

In contrast, it may take 25 years for me to get that accursed Lego song out of my head...

It's strange, I just did the same. 1970-1979, I know of only two of them plus a third not so much because of the original but a cover. 1980-1990 I know eight (I don't know '88 and '89). 1990-1999 I know six - three of the better Disney ones (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, that my kids now like) plus three others (Evite, Titanic, Philadelphia). 2000 onwards, I know Skyfall, Let it Go (again, due to kids) and the Lord of the Rings one.

1980-1988 happens to align with my teenage years.

Posted (edited)

wlshhME.jpg

(Okay, just kidding :tongue: ) I personally think this topic belongs to Culture & Multimedia forum since no set discussion involved. But I still leave a comment.

I haven't paid much attention to the Oscars in years, too. Not to assume that the judges are careless donkeys, I recognize the efforts of the creators. If there is a reason, I agree that The LEGO Movie still has a heavy sense of commercial advertising. This movie has difficulty in appealing audience who aren't fans of toys even if they go nuts for cartoon. The message behind the theme could also be unable to be received by the judges. I'd like to know if there is a possiblity for any future sequel getting an award?

"Big Hero 6" took "The best Animation". Whyyyyyyyy?! There are so many cliche in this movie!

LEGO cared nothing about that movie so it could be a LOSE-LOSE too. :p Edited by Dorayaki
Posted

I'm going to move this to culture and multimedia, might stay there better.

I think of it like this: Animated films are no less "film" than those not animated, but until animation is appreciated as an art form and not as a genre then any mainstream award is going to mean very little (Especially if it is in an Animation catagory).

Posted

Well, I'm not surprised that Everything Is Awesome lost to the more politically correct choice. But at least it had an awesome performance! :grin: Seriously, if you haven't seen it, go check it out on YouTube. I never really cared if it was going to win anyway.

And I agree, Big Hero 6 didn't really deserve the Oscar for best animated film. It wasn't bad, but there was just nothing original about it. Dragons 2 was better in every way, not to mention TLM. But since they only voted for whatever was more adorable or most appealing to their kids... :sadnew:

Posted (edited)

Well, I'm not surprised that Everything Is Awesome lost to the more politically correct choice.

Agree. Selma was snubbed like TLM because it deserved more nominations. It would have been controversial if the film gets nothing at the Oscars

And Glory is a beautiful and powerful song, anyway

Edited by Robert8
Posted

Dragons 2 was a poor showing, not as good as the first and should have been the one not nominated so TLM had a space. (So many problems with that film, so so many). But with Dreamworks behind it, well, Song of the Sea was art and thus got in over what was deemed an extended commercial for a toy. When three of the spaces were taken up by the bigger name studios (Disney, Dreamworks and Ghibli...) then there isn't much room for outliers.

The Book of Life was fantastic but ignored.

Like I said, industry awards count more when it come to Animation than the Academy.

Posted

People take the Oscars WAY to seriously! Its not so much a show to recognise talent as much as it is opinion based and a social convention to help with publicity of films, no need to get too upset, we are all afterall rather pasionate about the subject matter and yes it was a good film and did deserve recognition but at the end of the day we can all build our own Lego Oscar.

Posted (edited)

It's rather pathetic, really. The Oscar nominating system, that is, not the LEGO Movie. I may not like the song all that much, but it's still fun, and that's more than I can say for some of the other movies. And really, the point of these awards is supposed to be to award the best movie, not the one with the most important subject, whatever you may think that may be. It's possible to agree entirely with the message of the movie yet disagree utterly with the way it was handled, after all. Add to that the fact that the LEGO movie has a pretty good message anyway and it becomes completely unreasonable.

Edited by DraikNova
Posted (edited)

I just reengineered the LEGO Oscar designed by Nathan Sawaya. :classic:

page22-1000-full.jpg

page22-1001-full.jpg

The base will be finished soon. :wink:

Thanks Nathan

Edited by gerkenz
Posted

Are people still caring about Oscars? Ithought they lost their value like 10 years ago...

I'm even glad Lego didn't get them! LtM>Frozen.

And remember, The "everything is awesome song" was meant to be pop song that basicaly says "Don't worry, everything is fine, don't even think goverment will take care of you!". It won Oscars so that proves People nowadays are mindsless drones! yay!

Well.... Everything is Awesome lost to Glory from Selma at the Oscars (it was impossible to beat that majestic gospel song!)

It didn't deserve the nomination anyway

I actually agree, here. It's a great, catchy, pop tune that is really fun... but it's sung ironically in the movie and, like a lot of songs (like "Material Girl," "Come out and play") the actual intent of the song is completely backwards from what most people get from it.

That said, I don't care about Oscars or other award shows. That people like (and pay for) what you've created is the reward. The more they like it, the more they buy it, the more you get both financially and esteem wise.

I work in television, and I've been nominated a few times, and won a national Emmy once... and I think it'd be really cool to win again (the win was 1997)... but I still don't watch. I don't know why anybody does. As far as Oscars go, I read about it the next day. I wasn't going to miss The Walking Dead for Academy Awards.

Posted

Grammy awards are worse. No real musician cares about the Grammies. Oscars are at least still rewarding some art - not necessarily the best art - but most Grammies just take sales & popstar appeal into consideration, with art taking a back-seat.

Posted

I just reengineered the LEGO Oscar designed by Nathan Sawaya. :classic:

Nice work! :thumbup:

So... does this count as an event-exclusive set? :laugh:

Posted (edited)

I just reengineered the LEGO Oscar designed by Nathan Sawaya. :classic:

The base will be finished soon. :wink:

Thanks Nathan

That's nice. And the Oscar for best set reproduction goes to....

gerkenz. :classic:

Edited by dr_spock

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...