HAPPY FEET WINS THE OSCAR!

Why so glum? You just won an Oscar!

Some people are surprised, others are not. But the fact remains that Happy Feet has won the Best Animated Feature Film Academy Award for 2006.

But what does this mean for the future of animated films? Will the motion-cature process become the new thing? Is 2D dead? Is CG on the way out? Even Disney is now jumping on the mo-cap bandwagon, setting up their very own department dedicated to motion-capture.

A quick look at this year's animated films tells us that not everyone is switching over to mo-cap...yet. Shrek the Third, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Bee Movie are all CG and the hand drawn Simpsons Movie is sure to be a big hit this summer.

But you can probably bet that because of Happy Feet's success, every studio will start production on a mo-cap movie and have them out as early as next year.

Also, Torill Kove's The Danish Poet won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject.

ANIMATED SHORT NOMINEE: MAESTRO

"Five minutes before the Big Performance. The Maestro is getting ready for the execution behind the curtains. Time is slowly ticking away..."

If you have seen this animated short yet, please take a few minutes to screen it.

Maestro is a five-minute, computer animated short by Hungarian director Geza M. Toth. The filmmaker, who has a very hefty resume, has created about 150 animated commercials and short films but this is the first Oscar nomination that he has received.

If you didn't the first time, pay close attention to the camera and sound design. Upon watching it for the first time, I was wondering why it was nominated. The animation is nothing spectacular and there was no story (until the end). But once you know the premise then everything falls into place.

A great film indeed but I don't think it should win.

OSCAR SHORT SUBJECT NOMINEE: THE DANISH POET

A Canadian animator has been nominated for an Academy Award this year for her film The Danish Poet. It follows the story of a young poet who gets 'poet's block' and goes on a self realization journey in Norway. Events unfold and he finds that everything that happens in his life happens for a reason and it all unfolds in this 15-minute film.

Torill Kove, an animator from Montreal, made this film for the National Film Board of Canada. It is narrated by famous Norwegian actress, Liv Ulmann.

The Danish Poet is the second film for Torill Kove to be nominated for an Oscar. The first was My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts in 2000.

I couldn't find the whole film online, but here is a clip:

2006 OSCAR NOMINEES

The nominees for the 2006 Academy Awards have been announced! Here are the results of in the animation category:

Best Animated Feature Film:

Cars
Pixar Animation Studios
John Lasseter

Happy Feet
Warner Bros.
George Miller

Monster House
Sony/Columbia
Gil Kenan

Best Animated Short Film:

The Danish Poet
Mikrofilm and National Film Board of Canada
Torill Kove

Lifted
Pixar Animation Studios
Gary Rydstrom

The Little Matchgirl
Walt Disney Pictures
Roger Allers and Don Hahn

Maestro
A Kedd Production
Geza M. Toth

No Time for Nuts
A Blue Sky Studios Production
Chris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier

Randy Newman's Our Town from Cars was also nominated for Best Original Song.

There is quite a bit of controversy over the fact that two of the nominees for best Animated Picture are not really animated. I'll talk more about this next week.

I will also begin a look at each of the Animated Short subjects (just for you, coolshades!) over the next few weeks.