Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #52

Originally Posted on 03/24/2003 by Jeff Harris

I never thought they'd actually start off last night's Oscar telecast with the awards I gave a damn about the most.

The best animated film award went to Spirited Away, a movie Disney didn't even want to release. Because of Pixar Animation's John Lasseter's involvement in the film, the movie actually had a good chance of doing well. However, the film had a very limited release last September, and there's not much buzz about its upcoming DVD release in April. When Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (a story about a young girl who becomes lost in a mysterious town filled with gods and monsters and forced to survive by working in a bathhouse operated by a pair of witches) opened, it didn't do very well if you just look at the box office, which apparently the beancounters at the house of Mouse concluded. However, it not only had strong numbers in the very limited areas the film played, but it also became a favorite of film critics, who tend to have considerable pull in the industry. Of course anime fans have been mostly supportive about the film (of course, most of them would be astonished to find out that Mr. Miyazaki doesn't like most of the anime they like out there because they're too violent and too sexually-driven). The animation industry as a whole has also been supportive of Spirited Away. In fact, just a few weeks before the Oscars, Spirited Away walked away with the Annie (animation's highest award!) for Best Achievement in a Motion Picture.

Everybody hoped that an Oscar nomination would be near, but it wasn't a guarantee. Afterall, last year's nominations were limited to three choices, and all of them were CGI, something the academy REALLY loves. However, last year wasn't the year of computer-animated films, but rather the year of traditional animation, and instead of three choices, there were five:

Spirit: Horse of the Cimmeron
Ice Age
Treasure Planet
Lilo and Stitch
and Spirited Away

Disney did most of their campaigning for the popular Lilo and Stitch and a little for Treasure Planet. Spirited Away was left to let its own work speak for itself. Plus, some animation fans felt that the voters might confuse Spirited Away with Spirit. Fortunately, the voters aren't mostly in Florida. When the final tally was completed on Sunday morning and the winners were announced on Sunday night, only one animated feature stood ahead of the pack . . . Miyazaki's Spirited Away.

I almost screamed "FIX!" when a badly rendered Mickey Mouse came out to give out the Best Animated Short award. Thought he was going to give it to Disney/Pixar's Mike's New Car. Instead, when Mickey said "The ChubbChubbs," I calmed down a lot. I actually liked the short when it played with Men in Black II. It made fun of a lot of sci-fi icons, including some from Lucasfilms. It was Sony Imageworks' first short, and hopefully, it won't be their last.

After tonight, I could now say with a straight face this following statement:

Emimem is an Oscar-winning rapper.

He should have been nominated for his acting role in "8 Mile," but at least "Lose Yourself" gave Mr. Matthers an Oscar for best original song, a first for a rap artist. Not animation-related, but I figured it should have gotten some notice around here.

What is animation related is He-Man, who will be returning to Toonami next week at 5 PM EST/PST. My guess is that they'll show the episodes that aired during the first month of SVES, but I have been wrong.

He-Man is also joining the ranks of one of my favorite comic companies, Cross Generation Comics. Everybody's trying to break away from Image Comics once they get big, and MV Creations is no exception. Not only are the fanboys who did good are taking Masters of the Universe down to Florida, but they're also bringing with them a pair of comics based on Don Bluth animation games (Space Ace and Dragon's Lair) and a couple of other titles, helping CrossGen expand beyond their flagship "sigil" titles. Good luck to them on their endeavors.

Did anybody hear the word "damn" uttered on Rurouni Kenshin? Not that I'm a fan of profanity, but when it airs in the daytime in an edited version, it's a rarity, and it doesn't bother me. Some get carried away over it. I say only one statement about that:

It's just a damn word!

Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
March 24, 2003