Drawing Lines

I really shouldn’t have been so shocked to see The Polar Express snubbed in favor of Shark Tale. If you recall, the first year that the Best Animated Feature category was introduced, the heavily-favored Waking Life was surprisingly passed over for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Apparently, the animators in the Animation branch don’t take kindly to live-action directors (Richard Linklater/Robert Zemeckis) treading on their turf, using new-fangled technology (rotoscoping/motion-capture) to essentially “trace” live performances (although there’s a lot more animated artistry involved than that implies, especially in the case of The Polar Express).

It may be payback for the bias that existed among the live-action Academy members against animated features for their first 73 years. Or maybe they simply let their five-year-olds vote for them (which would also explain the nomination for Treasure Planet). Either way, with this relatively new category, Oscar-prognosticators are still learning how to read the tealeaves. But I think I’m getting the hang of it now.