For a while, the Oscars have been known as the biggest and most prestigious award show there is. Many people can be against this show, but if it wasn’t for it, many great movies would slip under the radar of the majority of people. No one would know about “Moonlight”, “Manchester by the Sea”, Spotlight”, or “Boyhood”, just to mention a few. In the past few years, the Oscars has become a show in which actual storytelling is recognized. With a 1.5 million dollar budget, “Moonlight” can compete face-to-face against the 47 million dollar budget of “Arrival” and win. And with a 17 million dollar budget, “12 years a slave” can compete against the 100 million dollar budget of “Gravity” and win. It seems that the budget or celebrities have become secondary and the only thing that matters to Academy Award voters is the achievement of storytelling. With the exception, of course, of animated movies.
This year, “Zootopia” won the Oscar for best-animated picture against the way smaller and dialogue less “The Red Turtle”. “The Red Turtle” is a movie made in Europe tha
t follows the story of a man who lands on a deserted island after his ship crashes. It is a beautiful story about survival and humanity. As I was watching the guys from “Zootopia” receive the Oscar, I couldn’t help thinking: did “The Red Turtle” ever have a chance? And later on, how come “Moonlight” can win against “La la land” and “Arrival” but “The Red Turtle” can’t win against “Zootopia”. There’s something in there that just seems contradictory. And don’t get me wrong; I think “Zootopia” is a great movie. However, I also think that it is something that we’ve seen many times before (and we’ll keep on seeing in the future). Whereas “The Red Turtle” is something new.
While I do enjoy Pixar or Disney movies, at the end of the day, it feels like every single one says the same thing with different characters. And of course, as they are mostly intended for children and the creators want to also make toys based on them, the things that they can do are relatively limiting. “The Red Turtle”, on the other hand, feels like a personal movie that director made for himself and himself only. It is a movie that is not trying to make money, it just wants to say what it wants to say. I honestly don’t think that this a 
movie that children would like. It’s very slow and, as I said before, there isn’t any dialogue and it isn’t visually manipulative. “The Red Turtle” is not the typical animated movie that we are used to seeing in this part of the world. If it had been made here and the studio that made it was intending to give it a wide release, many many things would have changed. The animation would’ve been 3D, it would’ve had dialogue, and it would’ve been much more manipulative (with a lot of close-ups instead of having mostly wide shots). It also would have taken place here in America for sure. As a cinephile, I love watching something new like this movie. However, and unluckily for “The Red Turtle” (and to answer my first question), it is perhaps this distance from American movies what cost it its chance of winning the Oscar. At the end of the day, the Academy is mostly comprised of American voters, and it is perhaps hard to completely understand something so different. There are certain expectations we all have when we watch movies. And perhaps, “The Red Turtle” doesn’t fulfill many of the expectations people have when they watch animated movies.
As I mentioned before, for some reason, animated movies are not rewarded based on their cinematic achievement. They are rewarded based on their popularity. Perhaps because the voters just ask their kids about this category, perhaps because they don’t like animated movies and just vote for they one they know, or perhaps it is because they expect something very specific of animated movies and anything else won’t make the cut. Who knows. Evidently, last year “Zootopia” was by far the most popular animated movie of all, and so, it won. And also evidently, “The Red Turtle” was the animated movie with the best storytelling of the year. I have to admit that if it hadn’t been for the Oscars, I wouldn’t have watched “The Red Turtle” in the first place. I just wished that it had received the recognition it deserves. Hopefully, in the future, voters will start treating animated movies as they treat live action movies and reward the best one (even if it’s different) and not the most popular one.
I agree that there is a different treatment of animated films in the oscars. I think it’s treatment also displays how in the U.S. animation is often treated as a genre and not a medium. I also hope that animation will be given more fair judgement with awards.
Like you, I also see the Academy Awards as primarily a popularity contest. I get that over recent years the Oscars committee has worked on rectifying that problem by recognizing achievement of storytelling over box office production, but what concerns me is that the show often doesn’t represent the typical movie-goer experience. On the other hand, as you pointed out, most people simply wouldn’t be exposed to certain films any other way. Choosing which ones get a nomination and which don’t is understandbly an exceedingly difficult task. But, for some filmmakers, just an Academy Award nomination is more than enough. You mentioned that The Red Turtle seemed like a passion project for the director. And getting recognized by the Academy is obviously an honor on its own. However, the implication remains that animation still has some catching up to do with live-action and the goal is to bridge the gap between both categories eventually.
Sadly this is the world we live in, where big studios such as Disney and Pixar have a monopoly over awards concerning animation. Hopefully in the future we get to see indie animation and foreign films win more Oscars – though we may have a long ways to go.
It’s funny you bring up the Oscars and animated movies because I was reading an article recently about how members of the Academy vote for animated movies, because voting isn’t restricted to just those who have a background in animation, and you basically summed up how they do it. They just have their kids vote, or they just choose the most popular one, or the one that Disney/Pixar made. I also read that they are trying to make changes to the voting process so that the voting is more fair for animated movies. Hopefully in the future we can see a movie like The Red Turtle win an Oscar.
I somewhat agree with some of the points made above. Yes, animated films get treated differently than live action, and it is certainly not okay. Yes, Disney and Pixar do have a monopoly over the awards for animation (Oscars, Annies, etc.). With that said, I believe Zootopia had the right to win the Oscar. In some cases, the film was a similar concept to what Disney is known for, however the film was very innovative in its own ways (I won’t go into them, as that in itself could be a whole blog).
It would be amazing for a film such as The Red Turtle, or a film from a smaller studio win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. I’m positive we will get that some day, hopefully sooner rather than later.
I definitely agree with you. I connected with this post on a slightly different level. Back in high school, when I played baseball, I remember not starting my junior year because there was a senior in my place. This senior wasn’t nearly as good as me, but I was sitting on the bench. One of the assistant coaches told me that the head coach should play the best 9 guys, not the oldest 9 guys. I agreed, but because he was a senior, I didn’t get to play. For the record, I still really enjoyed that season and got a decent amount of playing time. Overall, I felt like a red turtle. I was talented, but I maybe wasn’t quite big enough or old enough to win that spot.
It’s weird that for the most popular animated film usually wins the Oscar, while for live action movies the most popular aren’t even nominated for the award. Overall, I think this will change with time as more and more interesting low budget animation comes out, but for know, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pixar movies keep winning the Oscar year after year.
I have heard a lot of complaints about Zootopia winning best animated film and the argument you bring up has made the most sense to me. The live action films that have been winning award (Moonlight, etc.) are great because I would not have known what the film was if it weren’t for The Oscars. I have not seen The Red Turtle, but I understand what you mean when you say that Zootopia is a story that we have seen one too many times. Did The Red Turtle win any awards at the Annies?