The Oscars have been towering over the mountain of film and television art for many years. For some, mountaineering is a familiar path, but for many more, the mountain is so unattainable that even anyone thinks that the hard-working climber is much better than the one who sits firmly on the top. The Oscar goldinones always have a dazzling halo on their heads, but there is often a whirlpool of controversy flowing under their feet.

The Academy Award for Animation looks at everything

The Academy Awards, also known as the American Academy Film Awards. Needless to say, this honor has a history of nearly 100 years since its establishment in 1929, making it the world's oldest media award. Therefore, people have always regarded his status as a line higher than other film festival awards.

Overview of the Academy Award for Best Animation

The Oscar for Best Animated Film generally refers to the "Oscar for Best Animated Feature", which, as the name suggests, is one of the many honors of the Oscar feast. According to the regulations, the length of the animation must be more than 70 minutes to participate in the competition for this project.

However, compared to the long history of the Oscars, the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is an out-and-out naïve. The award was only introduced in 2001 and began to be presented at the 74th Academy Awards. Before that, animated feature films could only compete for the highest honor - the Oscar for Best Picture - just like ordinary films. As you can imagine, only a handful of nominations have been made.

The reason why the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film is regarded as an authoritative evaluation in the field of animation is probably more due to another Oscar award in the animation category - Best Animated Short Film Award.

From the name, the Short Film Award seems to be more of a technical award, not a heavyweight compared to the Feature Film Award. But in fact, the Short Film Award is one of the oldest Oscar awards, and has been established since the 5th edition. And compared to North American animated short films, the award seems to favor more artistic and bold European works. Among them, there are many masterpieces such as "Tango" (1983), "The Man Who Planted the Tree" (1988) and "Mona Lisa Walks Down the Stairs" (1993). Therefore, the Short Film Award is deservedly regarded as the most influential award in the field of animation in the world today.

By the way, before last year's "Paper Man", Disney, which represents the leading flag of American animated short films, had not won an award for 43 years.

On the other hand, the feature film animation awards, which have a short history, have attracted more and more attention as the history has gradually grown, and at the same time, there are more and more voices of doubt. Here first press the do not table.

On November 6, 2013, the news of "Madoka Magica's New Chapter" participating in the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film caused a lot of discussion in the animation circle.

As a fan of Japanese anime, I admit that I was a little excited when I heard that "Madoka Magical Girl" signed up for this year's Oscars, after all, I have also chased it and have some special feelings for it.

But at the beginning, when I heard that I was going to be on this issue, I actually refused (Jackie Chan's face),First I want to wait and see.,Because you can't say let me write this.,I'll write it right away.,And then I added a lot of big words.,According to the fantasies of Japanese comic fans.,How to create great achievements.,Promote Japanese otaku animation to the world.,Dominate the field of animation or something.。 No matter how bad it is, at least the old man Hayao Miyazaki can retire with his retirement halo and write it like this, and the audience will definitely scold me, there is no such result at all, which proves that the above one is fake

But after paying more attention, the author found that there may still be some highlights for Japanese animation's seemingly unsuspenseful candidacy for the Oscars.

First of all, some viewers pointed out that this "candidacy" is not the other "candidacy". That's why some people criticized those fans who were overjoyed when they saw this news: "This is just a shortlist, if "Madoka" is finally nominated or even if it wins, the braids of the 'round chefs' will not have to go to the sand machine on the other side of the Atlantic?" To explain why, we have to talk about it first:

The selection system for the Academy Award for Animated Feature Film

How many steps does it take to pack an elephant in the freezer? The answer given by Song Dandan is three steps: open the refrigerator door, put the elephant in it, and close the refrigerator door. In fact, to get the little gold man, procedurally speaking, there are only three steps: registration, nomination, and award.

Registration, as the name suggests, is to submit an entry form to the judging committee before the registration deadline indicating that you want to run for the election. Generally speaking, it is the film distribution company that is responsible for the registration. However, independent directors can also apply for registration on their own. In general, the deadline for entries is about 2-3 months before the awards. The message above really only goes so far.

Everyone has the opportunity to sign up, but nominating is a difficult task. On the one hand, the Oscar jury is responsible for selecting a very small number of nominated works from the submitted works, which puts forward requirements for the quality of the submitted works. On the other hand, it stipulates that all entries must be commercially screened in Los Angeles before the end of the year, otherwise they will be disqualified.

To be nominated, both of these conditions are indispensable. At the same time, the number of nominated films is not fixed: if there are more than 16 films, there will be five nominations, and if there are fewer than 16 films, there will only be three nominations. It is for this reason that it is the best to get the little gold statuette, but it is also regarded as a great honor to be nominated only.

If a film is lucky enough to be nominated, the next task is to pray that it will win. Up to 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will vote by secret ballot for their favorite films. A series of rigorous and confidential counting procedures will ensure the fairness and accuracy of voting.

The winner will be announced at the much-anticipated Oscars on the last Sunday of February each year (postponed to March 2 for the 14th year).

However, the seemingly fair and reasonable review hides many insider stories.

Past: 12 years of Oscar honor book

Let's take a look at the previous awards and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (the winning works are in bold, and the rest are the nominated works):

2002 Shrek (DreamWorks)

MonstersInc. (Pixar, Disney)

Jimmy Neutron (Paramount)

2003 Spirited Away (Ghibli, Disney)

IceAge (20th Century Fox)

"Star Baby" (Lilo & Stitch, Disney)

My Little Pony King (Spirit: StallionOfTheCimarron, DreamWorks)

Treasure Island (Disney)

2004 "Finding Nemo" (Pixar, Disney)

"THE LEGEND OF THE BEAR" (BROTHERBEAR, DISNEY)

THETRIPLETSOFBELLEVILLE, BrightAngelDistribution

2005 "THE INCREDIBLES" (PIXAR, DISNEY)

SHREK2 (DreamWorks)

SHARKTALE (DREAMWORKS)

2006 "WALLACE & GROMITINTHECURSEOFTHEWERE-RABBIT" (AardmanAnimations, DreamWorks)

Howl's Moving Castle (Ghibli)

ZombieBride (Warner Bros.)

2007 "Happy Feet" (VillageRoadshowPictures/Warner Bros.)

Cars (Pixar, Disney)

MonsterHouse (Sony)

2008 Ratatouille/Food Story (Pixar, Disney)

"I grew up in Iran" (Persepolis, Sony)

Surf's Up (Sony)

2009 "WALL· E, Pixar, Disney)

KungFuPanda (DreamWorks)

Bolt (Disney)

2010 "Up" (Pixar)

"The Amazing Fox Dad" (Fantastic Mr. Fox 20, Century Fox)

"Ghost Mother" (Coraline, Focus)

The Princess and the Frog (Disney)

The Secret of Kells (Gébéka Films, France)

2011 ToyStory 3 (Pixar)

How to Train Your Dragon (DreamWorks)

L'illusionniste (Pathé Django Films)

2012 "Rango" (Paramount)

KungFuPanda2: The KaboomofDoom (DreamWorks)

PussinBoots (DreamWorks)

Chico and Rita (co-publishers)

"Night Cats in Paris" (co-publishers)

2013 "Brave" (Pixar)

Frankenweenie (Disney)

ThePirates! InanAdventurewithScientists, Colombia)

Para Norman (Focus)

Wreck-ItRalph (Disney)

Compare reference 1

List of animated films nominated for the Oscars by Japan:

2001: Final Fantasy: Deep in the Soul

2002: Spirited Away (Won)

2003: "The Godfather of Tokyo", "Latias and Ladio, the Patron Saints of the Water Capital", "Millennium Actress"

2004: Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

2005: Steam Boy, Howl's Moving Castle (nominated)

2006: Red Hot Chili Peppers

2007: "Bad Boy"

2008: "Killer in the Air", "Alien: No Emperor's Blade"

2009: "The Goldfish on the Cliff"

2010: Summer Wars

2012: "The Law of Mystery", "The Poppy Blooming Hillside"

2013: "Letter to Momoko", "The Wind Rises", "Magical Girl Madoka Theatrical Version [New Chapter] The Tale of Rebellion"

Compare reference 2

The Japanese Academy Film Awards, known as the "Oscars of Japanese Films", have won and nominated for Best Animated Film (the award-winning works are in bold type, and the rest are nominated works):

2007: "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"

"Emerald Forest - Wolves and Sheep", "Detective Conan 2006: The Detectives' Soul Song", "Earth and Sea War", "Brave Story"

2008: "Bad Boy"

"Evangelion New Theatrical Version: Preface", "Detective Conan 2007: The Blue Coffin", "Piano Forest", "Kappa Summer"

2009: "The Goldfish on the Cliff"

"Doraemon: Nobita and the Hulk", "Detective Conan 2008: Trembling Score", "One Piece Movie Version 2008: Miracle Cherry Blossoms in Winter", "Killer in the Air"

2010: Summer Wars

"Doraemon 09 Theatrical Version: Nobita's History of Universe Exploration", "Detective Conan 2009: Dark Chaser", "Evangelion New Theatrical Version: Broken", "Abandoned Treasure Island"

2011: "Arietti, the Villain Who Borrowed Things"

"Doraemon: Nobita's Mermaid Sea Battle", "Detective Conan 2010: Ghost Ship in the Sky", "Unexpected Lucky Lot", "One Piece Movie Version 2009: The Strong World"

2012: "Poppy Blooming Hillside"

"Light Sound Girl Theatrical Version", "Detective Conan 2011: 15 Minutes of Silence", "Bean Fu Little Monk", "Osamu Tezuka's Buddha: Beautiful Red Desert"

2013: Rain and Snow, Son of the Wolf

"Evangelion New Theatrical Version: Q", "One Piece Theatrical Version Z", "Letter to Momoko", "Friend: Naki of Monster Island"

Analyze the award-winning works

Throughout the history of the Oscar Animated Feature Film Awards, except for "Spirited Away", "Happy Feet" and "The Curse of the Super Invincible Boss Dog Man Bunny", American Animation single-handedly won all the trophies (and "Happy Feet" and "The Boss Dog" are half of American ancestry, the former is produced by Warner Bros. in the United States, and is also one of the distributors; Although the latter is produced in the United Kingdom, it is actually a joint product between DreamWorks in the United States and Aardman in the United Kingdom, and the publisher is also DreamWorks).

Among them, the Pixar family occupies seven seats, and won four consecutive statuettes from 2008 to 2011, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the Oscars for animated feature films are Pixar's backyard (statistics: Pixar 7 times, DreamWorks 2 times, Paramount 1 time, Ghibli (Disney distributor) 1 time, Warner 1 time).

In 02, the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was awarded to "Shrek". Although this has raised some questions about "mainstream or non-mainstream?" Childish or mature? In fact, it is not surprising that "Shrek" finally won the award: 1. The number of entries in the first selection is small, 2. The box office swept Europe and the United States, 3. In fact, it is a mainstream and good-looking story with non-mainstream gimmicks, 4. A technological breakthrough is an artistic achievement, but it is not an artistic victory, 5. It is a popular story, but it is by no means a high-quality story

In short, this is a victory for the mainstream, but not a defeat for the non-mainstream. The inclination of the Academy Award for feature-length animation has not yet been revealed.

'03 was the only time 2D hand-drawn animation won the award, and it can also be said to be the only foreign work to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. "Spirited Away" is a very rare way to complete the recognition of oriental background culture from the perspective of the west, not only in the United States, but also in the Berlin Film Festival, which is an award for political topics, awarded the Golden Bear Award to the film. It can be said that Miyazaki lived up to the name of a master and pushed his personal career and reputation to the top with his perfect expression.

An interesting part is that in the previous award-winning pictures used above, director Hayao Miyazaki is the only one holding the Oscar, but instead of a picture of him receiving the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The reason is that at the time when the United States launched the Iraq War, as an anti-war activist, Miyazaki resolutely refused to go to the United States to attend the award ceremony, and in the end he had to be replaced by others.

In addition, although the producer is Ghibli, the Oscar application is in the name of Disney, its North American distributor. In that sense, it was the only time Disney scored in 12 awards.

There is nothing to say about the awards of "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" in 04 and 05, and typical American-style family animated movies have begun to sit firmly on the dragon chair all year round.

The award also marked an epoch-making technological advance for 3D animation, as there had been many doubts about the ability of computer animation to represent the underwater world before the film aired, and these fears proved unwarranted (perhaps because of the success of the film, which made the American animated blockbuster firmly pursue 3D production).

In 06, "The Curse of the Super Invincible Boss, Dog, Man, and Rabbit" used clay stop-motion animation, a wonderful art form from the West, as a unique expression method, and achieved success, which is indeed a highlight. It is not convenient for us to evaluate this work by "connotation" as a criterion. Clay stop-motion animation is a form of animation in which the plot and picture are highly unified, and fun and creativity will be the first criteria for judging such works. The award is undoubtedly a triumph for art – even though it is true that art is closer to the West.

This year is worth mentioning the nomination for "Howl's Moving Castle". It is rumored that Miyazaki will refuse to attend the award ceremony again, and the embarrassing scene will be repeated, which finally makes the award fall aside. But does "The Head Dog" really have the strength to beat "Hal"? In the author's opinion, "Howl" uses oriental faces, supplemented by Western art forms and Western stories, but is more attractive to Eastern audiences, but less attractive to Western audiences.

However, some people feel that the awards and nominations of "The Head Dog", "Howl" and "Zombie Bride" represent the Oscars' remembrance and tribute to the three traditions of clay, painting and modeling, respectively.

The rest of the award-winning films in '07-11 completely reflect the taste of the United States. Including "Happy Feet" in '07, although born in Australia, it tells a rather "American" story: a uniquely talented, maverick penguin, who is not recognized at first, but eventually becomes a hero who saves his people. There is no exchange of guns, the vast majority of people are straightforward and kind, and the protagonist is successfully influenced, which is a typical character and story setting in American animated films.

Even though there are amazing environmental films such as "Machine Qì Man Walli" in 09 that have won full praise, it still cannot change the value orientation of Oscar directly serving "the pursuit of freedom, yearning for the future, changing fate, kindness and sincerity, courage and unity".

Now: the Oscars are always the Oscars of the United States

We can't say that this orientation is backward and vulgar, and mainstream American animated films have always expressed the most basic and universal virtues of contemporary times, and these virtues are so universal and rich in a wide range of expressions that mainstream animated films can continue to innovate in form while converging values. But it is true that this value is not new and lacks digging depth.

This trend culminated in two things: the exclusion of non-American animated films from the nomination circle, such as Katsuhiro Otomo's "Steam Boy," and the award of "Brave."

In 2012, Pixar released "Brave Legends" and Pixar's owner Disney released "The Mighty Wrecking Dammer" — a novel that blends Pixar's humor with an authentic Western call to its bones. "The Invincible King of Destruction" is such a Pixar, rather absurd work. Because his setting is unprecedented in mainstream animated films, the character settings are extremely innovative, and many well-known game characters have brought countless joys to older audiences. People thought that the Oscars were finally going to Disney this time, but they didn't know that the little golden man was actually Pixar's.

So some people say that the old-fashioned judges of the Oscars, in order to show their "taste", once again stood on the opposite side of the trend of the times and the people.

In fact, whether it is "Brave Legend" or "Invincible Destruction King" winning awards, there is not much difference at all. These complaints are more wishful thinking on the part of Chinese who adore the Oscars. Even "Paper Man", which also won the Short Film Award this year, although it is regarded as a successful attempt to combine 3D and 2D, compared with many classic masterpieces in the history of the Short Film Awards, people are still more willing to believe that this is just a helpless choice for "the tallest among the short".

At the end of the day, the Oscar for Animated Feature is not a critics' award, but a society award. The society attaches more importance to tradition and attaches more importance to exporting the right of American discourse to the world.

The Oscars, after all, are still the Oscars of the United States.

The Future: The Oscars We Want

We all know that it is certainly impossible to please everyone. So having said all this, how demanding are people's expectations for the Oscars? Is it a requirement that the result must be perfect? What exactly do we expect from it?

Quoting Song Lei, a researcher in the animation industry of the Radio, Film and Television Research Center of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and deputy director of the Research Department of the China Animation Society, said: "It should be seen that this "young" award has not become an inclusive box and touchstone for various animation styles around the world like its "predecessor" Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, and has the purpose of encouraging the development of real animation and artistic animation. It has a purely commercial-oriented value orientation, and in terms of aesthetics, it is almost exclusively biased towards the 3D animation style dominated by the United States. It can be said that it only plays the role of the standard-bearer for the United States to promote 3D animation to the world and let 3D animation occupy the world's animation discourse, but does not fulfill the responsibility of an animation award to be inclusive of animation of various styles and themes. In fact, if Tim Burton's black-and-white stop-motion animation "Frankenstein" or Aardman's clay animation "The Amazing Pirates" won the award, then the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film really began to go to the world and enter the temple of animation art. ”

In April 2013, shortly after Disney lost to Valorant, it announced the shocking news that Disney would lay off 150 employees and that its hand-drawn animation division would be dissolved. This means that Disney's last hand-drawn animation division in North America will also cease to exist zài, and Disney will completely switch to producing 3D animation.

Anyone who really loves animation should feel a lot of pity when they see this news. It can even be said that there is a feeling that Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and The Lion King, who are childhood memories of a generation, have been abandoned all at once and become homeless children. Disney, as the pioneer and creator of the entire world animation field a hundred years ago, must have been very painful and forced when it gave up hand-drawn 2D animation as its own home.

We can't blame all of this on the Oscars' guiding role. Perhaps this is the result of the market that conforms to the objective law of determining the value of talent, but this is certainly not the result of the healthy development and progress of the animation field. Further fears are that the Oscars for feature-length animation will become a benchmark for "political correctness" in the same way that Big Brother awarded "Best Picture" this year to "Escape from Tehran" instead of "Life of Pi."

So back to the main idea of the title of this article, why do anime fans want Japanese animation to make a difference at the Oscars?

Japanese animation is to the Oscars

The reason why anime fans want Japanese animated films to win gold is because they represent the recognition that traditional 2D hand-drawn animation can still be recognized by the Oscars, rather than focusing on 3D animation in a cookie-cutter way.

Among them, if "Madoka", which is a representative of late-night animation and otaku animation, can be affirmed, it contains more of a layer of meaning that "not only limited to the values of the American main theme, but also in a relatively more non-mainstream and artistic way". To put it bluntly, the idea that "animation is not just for children" that I have been longing for for many years can be spread more widely. Of course, this is not to say that "The Wind Rises" or "Peach" is purely for children. It's just that if you really want to subvert it, then subvert it more thoroughly.

However, the estrangement of the Oscar feature film award from Japanese animation is not just a problem with the Oscars. I still have to take out "Spirited Away" separately here.

"Spirited Away": A double victory for the mainstream and the non-mainstream

On IMDb's famous authoritative list "Top 250 Movies", "Spirited Away" ranked 39th overall, ranking first among animated films. The author thinks that "Spirited Away" can be compared to "The Shawshank Redemption", which ranked first overall: both are "perfect" in terms of technology and story. They all conveyed mainstream values to those who needed the mainstream, and those who needed the non-mainstream conveyed the values of the non-mainstream, and they achieved great success in both business and art.

In the United States, since Toy Story in '95, 3D has become the mainstream of American animation. On the other hand, because superhero series have always appeared on the screen in the form of live-action films, American animated films have a diverse story but a fairly unified value orientation: the pursuit of freedom, the yearning for the future, the change of fate, kindness and sincerity, and the courage and unity.

Whether it is "Toy Story", "Shrek" that subverts fairy tales in terms of story, "Ice Age", or the recent "Crazy Primitives", a series of works that represent the mainstream of animated films have not been adapted in terms of values, and the exploration of human nature is almost limited to the necessity of expressing Xiàn's value orientation, and will not be further explored. Therefore, since the birth of the Oscar for animated feature films, film critics have worried about whether this award will become an accessory to the value orientation of American animated films.

And the victory of "Spirited Away" looks inspiring. It has a different appearance from Western animation forms: it is hand-drawn, incorporating a lot of Japanese cultural elements, and the music interweaves East and West. It also has a content that is different from Western animated films: it tells the story in a restrained style, portrays a truly ordinary little girl, and the lyricism is restrained and subtle and never straightforward, and it does not directly convey any value judgments. This qiē is very different from European and American animated films. In conclusion, the triumph of Spirited Away seems to be a triumph of the non-mainstream and the arts.

However, this is not the case. In terms of story, Chihiro's departure from the secret realm is not directly related to "the pursuit of freedom" and "yearning for the future", but those who want to read this meaning can naturally read it, including European and American audiences. On the other hand, in terms of form, behind the use of elements of Japanese culture, Miyazaki has created an isolated wonderland in the world of human civilization in a form of extraordinary opulence and mysticism, or magicalism: the baths are crowded with gods of different appearances, with incomparably brilliant colors and contrasts. This form is rarely used by Miyazaki, and the brilliance of the colors and the strangeness of the images create a strong and unconcrete sense of illusion, especially the character of the faceless man, who has no language and concrete appearance, is extremely abstract and conscious—although the content of the expression is Eastern, the method of expression is generally accepted in the West. In other words, Western audiences can read a familiar connotation in Spirited Away's unfamiliar exterior – whether that reading is accurate or not.

In addition to the story, the success of "Spirited Away" is inseparable from the huge commercial operation of its North American distributor, Disney, which spent a lot of money to increase the number of screens in North America in order to have more opportunities for larger-scale screenings. Leave no stone unturned in advertising and so on. These practices can be seen in every subsequent American 3D animated film blockbuster. As some critics have suggested, the feature film awards are more of a commercial contest. Of course, once the award is awarded, the greater business value it brings will prove that such an investment is very cost-effective.

As can be seen from the information given above, Japanese animated films are not completely careless about the Oscars, because they participate in the election almost every year, sometimes more than one. Combined with the previous "Japan Academy Film Award for Best Animated Film", it can be seen that the works participating in the selection are basically excellent works that have been affirmed in Japan.

Therefore, it has been difficult to get a nomination for Japanese animated films for many years, and in addition to the difference in Eastern and Western values, the lack of commercial operation in North America is also a major constraint.

Therefore, "Spirited Away" is indeed a victory for the non-mainstream on the outside, but it is still a victory for the mainstream and a victory within the system in the bones. The changes that have taken place since the Oscar for Animated Feature Films confirm this conclusion.

This year's favorite: "The Wind Rises"

Back this year, let's take a look at the Oscar prospects for "The Wind Rises":

Disadvantages: 1. The theme of the World War II zuò fighter jet that Americans may relocate, 2. Hayao Miyazaki may still refuse to attend the award ceremony, 3. There is a smoking scene in the film, which may have an impact as an animation, and 4. For the taste of American audiences, the feeling of watching it is similar to the previous contests "Goldfish on the Cliff" and "Poppy Blooming Hillside", and it feels bland. Since the first two works have not achieved anything, will there be a breakthrough this time?

Favorable factors: On December 2, "The Wind Rises" has been nominated for the Annie Award, which is known as the "Oscar for Animated Films" and is also regarded as the vane of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. According to the latest news on December 4, the National Board of Review Awards (NBR) and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards (NYFCC) successively announced that "The Wind Rises" won the Best Animation Award. Winning two U.S. awards in a single day brings the total number of international awards won by "The Wind Rises" to three (and one for the Mill Valley Film Festival's Most Popular Award), not to mention the various nominations.

The author originally thought that "The Wind Rises" had little hope of bidding for the Olympics this time, and Miyazaki may be more reliable to look forward to winning an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award or something like that with the aura of retirement. But with the current momentum of "The Wind Rises" in North America, the hope of an Oscar nomination is very high. Because in the past 10 years, all the films that have won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animation have been shortlisted for the Oscar for feature-length animation. As Miyazaki's real masterpiece, if he can really win the award this time, it will certainly be the best gift he has received in retirement (it is said that Miyazaki has said more than once that he wants to retire, and who knows if it is true this time).

But this year's Oscars are not simply because of Hayao Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises" that has caused heated discussions among anime fans. After all, in the past five years, Miyazaki's works or Ghibli's works have been contested three times. So the last thing to mention is naturally the foreshadowing that has been mentioned at the beginning:

Why do you think of Madoka Magi?

Madoka Magi is a 12-episode Japanese late-night anime that aired in 2011. Although it is based on the theme of the growth of magical girls that are common in Japanese animation. However, because of the use of a series of non-mainstream table xiàn techniques, coupled with ingenious ideas and plot arrangements, a heavy story is told with a surface packaging full of innocence, which caused widespread heated discussions after the broadcast, and even went out of the anime circle and reached the level of causing Japanese social phenomena.

Becoming popular and popular naturally means that it has also been a huge commercial success. So it was logical to make a sequel. In 12, the theater version of "Theatrical Magical Girl Madoka Pre: The Beginning of the Story" and "Theatrical Madoka Madoka Madoka: Forever Story" were released in 22 years, and then finally in 13 years, the theatrical version of "Theatrical Madoka Magica's New Chapter: The Story of Rebellion" with new content was released.

Some people think that the Oscar judges may want to balance both art and the minority, as well as business and the public. That's why the two animation awards will appear that the short film award is more biased towards art, and the feature film simply chooses the work that has the most American public taste and the most commercial achievements.

In the past, however, Academy members of animated films were placed in November to participate in the preview screening of films that fit the animation category, and the finalists were determined through the guò channel. Now, all Academy members can participate and evaluate the quality of all cartoons through the free DVD sent by guò. This unifies the judging channels for cartoons with other films. Because of this, it is very likely that none of the five finalists will have a blockbuster at the box office.

In addition, several participating works in the United States this year are generally weak, and the quality seems to be even lower than that of the previous year's "Invincible Destruction King" and "Brave Legend", not to mention that the content of the story is still the same set of old stories from the past few years, and the only thing that can fight seems to be "Ice and Snow Adventure", but Oscar, are you really not tired of this type of story? So many people think that this year is a good opportunity for Japanese animation - after all, there are three films in the competition, and the quality is good, why should Americans give at least one nomination, right?

The award of "Spirited Away" is actually a bit like the taste of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at that time, because cultural differences will always have a freshness, maybe the American audience will be amazed by this? (Of course, the quality of "Spirited Away" itself is indeed unparalleled), so the more distinctive style of "Madoka Magi-chan" has a chance.

The original TV version of "Madoka New Chapter" uses a lot of Kolachi-style techniques, and it has become a major feature of the fusion of pictures with various artistic styles such as paper cuts, collage patterns, and stream of consciousness. And it is said that in the theatrical version of "New Chapter", this feature has been further developed. In this regard, it makes the film more like a very artistic "120-minute animated short film" that came to the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Although the niche and literary European feature animation has never won an award, there are still a few nominations from time to time, such as "I Grew Up in Iran", "The Secret of the Book of Kells", "The Magician", "Cats in Paris", and "Chico and Rita", nominated last year, is a thoroughly adult animation.

Due to the increasing proportion of special effects in science fiction films, the Oscars analyzed above have been too biased towards promoting the development of three-dimensional animation, which has made the boundary between animated films and live-action films more and more blurred in recent years. A few years ago, "Avatar" caused a discussion about whether the film belongs to animation because it accounted for 60% of the proportion. Later, there were also "The Adventures of Tintin" because it was filmed using live-action motion capture technology, and the director zhì was considered not to be an animation and was not eligible for nomination. This year's hit film "Gravity" has abandoned the use of scene shooting, and the practice of using full CG to create a background like a space field has once again pushed this problem to the forefront (the current Oscar standard for animation is: most characters must be animated design, and the animation plot must be no less than 75% of the total length of the film).

So now the Oscars for animated films have also reached a point where we should consider whether we should return to traditional animation.

In short, these factors may increase the possibility of "Madoka New Chapter" winning the award. After all, in this era when animation is becoming more and more like live-action films, one of the biggest differences between the two is imagination (including imagination in the content of the table). The reason why animation is animation is that it is easier, better at it, and more should release the limited imagination of live-action movies. At this point, "Madoka" is undoubtedly more pure than "The Wind Rises", which takes the realistic route.

There are also people who worry about whether the Oscar judges who haven't watched the original "Madoka Magical Girl" and just watch the sequel movie will be able to understand the relatively obscure film. But in fact, as long as it is a film that belongs to the series, the judges will get a synopsis of the previous content before grading, so there is no need to worry that they can't understand it, after all, they are also professionals. The question is more about whether the judges are willing to put down their bodies and accept such a non-mainstream Japanese animated film.

Another important point is that the distributor of "Madoka Horizons" in North America is Warner Bros., who is famous and has Oscar-winning experience. This is undoubtedly as important as "Spirited Away" finding a good owner of Disney back then.

Madoka Prelude and Madoka Madoka Epoch were released in North America last year with only five screens and limited dates, but even these difficult conditions still achieved excellent results: the three-day weekend of October 19-21, 12, had the second-highest average box office revenue in the United States. The total box office revenue over the three days was $62,430, with a final box office of $18W. And that's just the first two movies that are part of the TV series.

And with the arrival of this year's new chapter, Warner naturally sees the business opportunities. After the popular North American premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood in Los Angeles on December 3, screenings will be held in 45 U.S. and 35 in Canada. At present, 107 movie theaters in more than 9 countries and regions plan to broadcast the production, and the scale is still expanding.

Even the opportunity for the film to sign for the Oscar can be said to have caught the east wind of Warner. Although there is still a long way to go from registration to nomination and even award. But "Madoka" can be registered, on the one hand, Warner has to take the opportunity to promote it first, but on the other hand, it can indeed reflect the level of the magical girl's campus. After all, film companies don't just take a movie and sign it up. "Gintama's New Translation of Red Sakura" is Warner's work, but Warner must not use Gintama to stimulate the nerves of the Oscar jury.

But having said all this, the above analysis is nothing more than a beautiful fantasy after all. And the likelihood of disillusionment is still very high. After all, the disadvantages of "Madoka" are too obvious - the alternative style, the dark style of the work is too unpopular in the Oscar selection.

However, experience tells us that "Madoka" is a very magical work, and there are many miraculous low-probability events corresponding to the content during the broadcast. So this time for the Oscars, can we expect another miracle?

Attached: Schedule of the 86th Oscars:

Monday, December 2, 2013: Cast and Crew Submissions Close

Friday, December 27, 2013: Nomination voting begins

Wednesday, January 8, 2014: Voting for nominations closes

Thursday, January 16, 2014: Nominations announced

Monday, February 10, 2014: Nominee luncheon

Friday, February 14, 2014: Final voting begins

Saturday, February 15, 2014: Academy Award Ceremony for Science and Technology

Tuesday, February 25, 2014: Final voting closes

Sunday, March 2, 2014: The 86th Academy Awards

Resources:

Multiple entries on Wikipedia

Multiple related anime news

Q&A thread on the ANN website "Answerman-OscarSchmoscar"

Bilibili Feature: The 86th Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and its comments

Time.com author gmzyq: Oscar animation registration record CG stop-motion hand-drawn has its own highlights

Time.com author Apollo: Everyone loves cartoons: Best Animated Feature Film and nominations at the previous Oscars

Bi Chenggong Blog: [07 Oscars November Preview] Best Animated Feature Film

Rotten hobbyわ post:[Inventory] Previous Academy Award for Best Animation Winning Films (2013 Latest Edition)

Time.com inside: Disney lays off 150 people, and the hand-drawn animation department will be dissolved

Short comment: Don't take the two Oscar animation awards too seriously

Is history necessarily a conspiracy? A brief review of the development of 3D animation in the United States

A brief review of Disney's sweep of the 2013 Oscars in the animation category

epilogue

The highlight of this year's Oscars is not simply whether non-American animations such as "The Wind Rises" or "Madoka" can win the championship, but whether the Oscars, who have been conservative for so long, dare to make choices, to change, to break through and innovate. Otherwise, we can only paraphrase a professor at Columbia University's film and television department: "Oscar?why-do-we-even-care?"