ANN reports that starting in 2007 the Golden Globes will bequeath animation with its own little box of ticky-tacky; HD weighs in.
A few years ago a separate Oscar award was spun off for “best animated feature”, and according to ANN the same thing has just happened with the Golden Globes. While the increased exposure this will bring animation is certainly a positive development, I think it can be argued that by setting aside a special category based purely on the film’s media it is greatly decreasing the chance that an anime could win one of the more prestigious awards (best picture, best screenplay, even best foreign film).
What do you think about this? Boon for the industry, or another nail in the coffin of anime’s artistic integrity? I tend to see it as the latter, and think division along media lines is an injurious and purely arbitrary distinction – look at Lord of the Rings for an example of a film so hyped up on prosthetics and special effects that it might as well have been animated, and yet was able to score several top awards.
Admittedly the vast majority of animated films aren’t there yet in terms of serious contention for the big awards, but creating a special subclass for them is practially assuring that they’ll always be seen as subordinate.
Golden Globes is American and American is not the entire world.
Animation is seen as subordinate because of the culture’s perception. The only way for animation to win a prestigious award is for the entire culture to embrace it as more than ‘just for kids’ or ‘smutty programs for Comedy Channel’.
IMO, why do I care that animation never wins a prestigious award presented by Americans? I don’t watch a show only because it won an award. I care if animation makes it into the US mainstream. I would like to watch subbed anime broadcast on TV and talk with people about it without getting weird looks. However, I realise animation brings with it cultural baggage (eg. cartoon is for kids) that prevent winning a prestigious US award.
So this is a non-issue for me.
(Hypotheical prediction: The first animation that wins a best film in the Golden Globes will be American-designed.)
Another thing I think is worth pointing out is the sheer genre spans of anime films as compared with most American animated films. Anime ranges from bouncy and childish all the way to more than mature. But it’s sort of being tossed into a category that will be predominated by Pixar and Disney-style (same thing now I guess) family oriented stuff. Leading from that, I completely agree it’s sort of unfair to lump animation in with the other genres, but it sort of seems to be the same sort of segregation that happens with games, and anime in America. Don’t even get me started about my “doll” collection.
And how about Star Wars: Episode 3? That thing only has like 4 real actors in it. With Square putting out awesome work, it’s only a matter of time before the voice actors take over the world of entertainment anyway. Ok, maybe not, but it couldn’t be all that bad.
>>LoA
I’m not sure I agree that a culture has to embrace anime for it to win major awards (Spirited Away winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival comes to mind), though it’s true that America pigeonholes the medium to a far greater extent than Europe.
In the end, America’s self-centered media culture is probably to blame here – not just in relation to anime, but to any foreign media that hasn’t been thoroughly processed by the production and marketing machine (live action films, music, other art/entertainment are similarly shunned). As you say, animation has the additional stigma of being “kid’s stuff”, a label which despite a few exceptions from the world of anime it usually does live up to (or live down to).
I don’t particularly care whether or when an anime picks up a major Golden Globe award or and Oscar, but I would like to see the medium (and the surrounding culture that judges it) mature to a point where it could be seen in the same light as other television and film. Not likely to happen any time soon, I think.
>>Randall Fitzgerald
You raise a good point; considering that the media is dominated by the American kid-oriented giants, and that five [insert generic kid’s anime here] movies are produced in Japan for every Steam Boy or Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, that’s not a particularly inspiring field to choose from.
I don’t think the distinction between anime and live action is the same as the distinction between anime and games, if that’s what you’re implying; I do agree that games get the shaft from most people who take their entertainment seriously and from that perspective gamers and anime fans are definitely allies in the war for cultural respectability. I’m not going to touch the “doll” issue with a ten-foot pole. :)
I didn’t mention Star Wars because I don’t see it picking up much in the way of international acclaim, but as far as movies that mimic animation go (and fail pretty miserably in the process) they would be high up there.
Putting on my optimist cap for a bit, I think that as anime continues to gain wider global interest and acceptance and attracts more money and talent it will naturally diversify even further away from its kiddie base into more experimental and significant areas. A problem animation will always face, though, is that when played to its strengths it naturally tends toward the fantastic – which despite recent exceptions (LotR) tends not to play very well with the Academy.
Um, last time I checked, it was something like Ocsars >> Emmys >> Screenwriters Guild Awards >> Daytime Emmys >> Spike TV’s VGA >> Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest >> Golden Globes >> TV Guide Awards Featuring Joan Rivers. Remember, Spirited Away did win the Oscar in 2002 beating out 2 Di$ney movies. Howl is nominated this year.
True enough, though from what I’ve heard the Golden Globes have become considerably higher profile in recent years, at least as a bellwether for what the Academy is thinking.
Spirited Away won the animation Oscar, which might as well be a Golden Globe or a TV Guide award for what it means relative to the big-ticket numbers. I’d like to see anime from Japan break into the big leagues, but I’d settle for animation from any studio in the world, Pixney (has an appropriate bastardization been coined yet?) or otherwise. It’s less the status of the award than the arbitrary division of media that I find troubling, though.
Shingo:
Yeah, I was saying that, as pertains to cultural understanding, gaming has a hard time and suffers from the same “kid” stigma that anime does (Damn you 4Kids!!).
And by “dolls” I was talking about what everyone calls my PVCs. I guess my reading HD does sort of leave that area open…
The point you make about the generic kid oriented movies is a good one, I think. You see the Naruto movies and such that have no real point and the more… movie savvy types at the Academy and Hollywood Foreign Press might form some negative opinions about the genre at large, like they tend to do with comedies. But then, they nominated Murderball for an Oscar, so maybe we’ll see an anime get a nod in a different genre sometime.
>>Randall Fitzgerald
I generally picked up on your “dolls” remark, but I’m still not sure how to treat it in reference to the other media we’re talking about here. They’re, uh… “action figures”, I guess. “Collectibles”. Something like that.
If and when James Cameron’s Battle Angel gets off the ground I’ll be interested to see how it’s recieved. Still not quite an anime, but with a computer generated protagonist and a manga-based plot it’s about as close as an Oscar-winning director will have ever come.
It’s LoA again. This is more a question than a reply to the article but it’s related. Are there any big animation awards?
Would this one as reported in http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention.php?id=41 be considered big?
I don’t know much about animation-specific awards. There are the Annies, and a whole raft of Japanese awards of which the TAF award is one; you raise a good question. I know that there aren’t any that are nearly of the profile of the Academy Awards, though.
>> Golden Globe or a TV Guide award for what it means relative to the big-ticket numbers.
I just don’t think so. During the Oscars, Animated Film doesn’t get the same time Best Drama gets, but it does get clips shown and the winner gets to make a speach. Sure, it’s not going to be as popular as the AVN, but it does recognize good movies over movies with $$$ backing. BTW, Spirited Away was one of Amazon’s top DVD sellers back in 2003, beating out a lot of Hollywood movies (not just Harold and Kumar Goes to White Castle). Currently, it’s still in the top 200 at Amazon, which is amazing for a 3 year old DVD. I wouldn’t small change the Oscars… they’re still the Strike Freedom to the Golden Globe’s Mobieus Zero. Nathan’s Hot Dog would be a custom Zaku, of course.
Sorry, I was playing fast and loose with my phraseology there. What I meant was that the difference between winning Best Animated Picture and Best Picture is like the difference between winning one of the lesser awards you mention and winning an Oscar – and even though winning Best Animated Picture has the significant economic impact you suggest, it’s still arbitrarily marginalizing a form of media that isn’t strong enough to stand or fall on its merits against live action film in the eyes of the Academy.
I didn’t mean to turn this into Oscars vs. Golden Globes, and could have made the point I’m trying to make entirely by referencing the ghettoization present in the Oscars themselves. It was today’s headline that reminded me of the issue, though.
As an aside, I’d say the fact that Howl’s Moving Castle made the nomination shows just how weak the selection of animated films was this past year, as I came away from it with the impression that it was Miyazaki’s weakest film to date. Where was the Academy in 1984?
i’ve never liked the Golden Globes. it’s an overrated show generally seen as a preview for the Oscars which doesn’t mean much. all the ass-kissing they do it just annoying. i was glad that the Oscar chose Spirited Away as best animated feature but one day, i hope anime movies that truly move us will gain higher respectability like the Studio Ghibli features. the day that an animated film (from anywhere in the world) wins Best Picture at the Oscars would be an absolute treat.
>> Shingo said
>>> Where was the Academy in 1984?
Heh. You have the hots for Nausicca too. Me too. XD
On sum I’d say Nausicaa is my favorite Ghibli movie, especially when reinforced by the manga. It’s not quite as glitzy as Miyazaki’s more recent stuff and the pacing is rather slow, but I have a soft spot in my heart for it. Although she is wearing pants.
Laputa seems to be pretty popular but for me, it’s Nausicca. The revival scene with the “lalalala” theme still makes me cry like a girl.
Laputa is def my fave Ghibli feature of all time ever since I saw a Canto-dubbed version on tape when I was a kid. the score is just awesome.