Better Animated Feature: 2007

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Eli: After the somewhat depressing year that was 2006, the only direction to go in ‘07 was up.

Not Up—we’re still two years away from that—but we’re back to the same studio: old reliable Pixar reclaimed the throne. Ratatouille, widely considered one of their greatest films, inspired millions and won Pixar their third Best Animated Feature award in five years.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum lies Persepolis, the brutal autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, depicting her early life through the Iranian Revolution. A rare PG-13 nominee for this award, Persepolis is certainly the least family-friendly contender to date, and possibly in the entire history of Best Animated Feature. On the bright side, Satrapi was the first woman director to earn a nomination for this award (sharing it with co-director Vincent Paronnaud).

Last but not least, we’ve got yet another movie about penguins, as Surf’s Up shares this distinction with last year’s winner Happy Feet, the lovely 2005 documentary March of the Penguins, and (if we stretch the definition of “about”) 2005 snub Madagascar.

And perhaps there was a mystery snub that the Academy ignored entirely? Well, scroll down to the very next section and see for yourself. Let’s discuss!

The Nominees

Ratatouille (won Best Animated Feature)
Persepolis (nominated)
Surf’s Up (nominated)
Meet the Robinsons (snubbed)

The “Best” Animated Feature: Ratatouille

Preston: Pixar had firmly hit its stride by 2007, and if the somewhat flawed, vaguely DreamWorks-ish Cars brought their run of form into question, Ratatouille quickly removed all doubt. It’s an understated landmark for the studio—arguably the first one which is visually up to snuff by their modern standards, with mainly stylistic tweaks to come in the 17 years separating then and now. It also adds an extra layer of polish on Brad Bird’s highly stylized approach, first deployed in The Incredibles, now perfected in a film that captures the spirit of 1960s Paris masterfully. (Again, as Eli mentioned when The Low Major previously covered Ratatouille for Pixar Pints…just ignore that it’s canonically set in 2006.)

The story, though, is a problem. Both of my fellow reviewers on this piece took serious issue with it in that initial review, and after rewatching the film recently, I have to say I agree with them.

Most obviously, Ratatouille aims to say something about discrimination and disenfranchisement: for the first time in Pixar’s oeuvre of “tiny things that are actually sentient and have a secret world we don’t know about” films, the non-human protagonists actually interact directly with the human world, and the dynamic is unquestionably one-sided. You’d think this would lead to a status quo-upheaving finale in which the clearly intelligent rats gain some form of acceptance in society, but the story just…never really gets there. The final scene plays off the loss of basically everything the characters have at stake for laughs, and the rats stay hidden to all but a select few for unclear reasons.

That leads into the other fundamental flaw with this film: its characters. I think you can kinda tell Pixar was hesitant to finally buck the trend and involve humans in one of these hidden-world dramas, because Linguini is way more hesitant to communicate with Remy at first than any other character they’ve put in his position.¹ And that’s with a non-human society that’s basically just the same as human culture, minus some aversions to the sort of things you’d expect from rats (walking on all fours, having dirty hands, and stealing), all of which Remy bucks the trend by having. Ultimately, this ends up muddying the point of telling a story about humans and non-humans at all, and it results in Linguini getting massive amounts of screentime to contribute nothing to the story aside from a human cover that shouldn’t be necessary and a subpar love story subplot.

It’s hard to hate this movie, or even really dislike it, sheerly because of how magnificently it captures its aesthetic. Music, visuals, sound design, even the way scenes are so thoughtfully shot and paced—it all builds into a stunningly delightful setting that’s easy to get swept up in. I don’t blame people for either not noticing or not caring about its weaknesses, because its artistic strengths and its core message (however poorly handled by the story) are so powerful.

At the same time, though, there’s no getting around the fact that Ratatouille is imperfect. 2007 is a year with a lot of imperfect movies, but just sticking the landing with an ending that doesn’t undermine the whole point of the film can give another option a serious argument over this winner. The door’s open for a Better Animated Feature to make its case; can any of the other contenders take advantage?

The Other Animated Features

Persepolis — Leah

Nominated

Persepolis is a departure from previous nominees in both content and tone. It’s the second PG-13 film to earn a nomination (the first being the more irreverent The Triplets of Belleville). The movie autobiographically follows the life of Marjane Satrapi as she comes of age through the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, being sent to Vienna as a young girl and later returning to Iran.

This has been one of my favorite animated movies since I initially sought it out after reading Part 1 of the graphic novel in my junior year of high school. I’d never learned about the Iranian Revolution, so both the book and the film were eye-opening experiences, seeing how someone around my age lived through a revolution and a war.

Because of this, more than most Best Animated Feature nominees, Persepolis has a strong argument for historical/cultural importance. Most nominees are very US-centric (not surprising for an American awards ceremony), so it’s refreshing to see a movie showing life in a part of the world a lot of us Americans aren’t familiar with. It also depicts historical events from a very personal lens. Understanding how war impacts the people living through it provides space for the viewer to develop empathy for hose affected and reflect on how society can do better in the future.

Stylistically, the movie is heavily inspired by the graphic novels, and it translates well to the screen. It leans into a monochrome aesthetic, giving it a distinct look and visually setting the tone. The character designs are stylish and feel grounded in reality while still taking advantage of the animated medium.

Overall, Persepolis is a very worthwhile film, but is that enough to make it a Better Animated Feature?

While Ratatouille is more impressive technically—I would agree with Preston that it set the visual standard for all future Pixar movies—I think Persepolis has the better story and message. Ratatouille muddles its moral on acceptance of differences, while Persepolis gives an honest portrayal of an Iranian girl’s coming of age. There isn’t necessarily one overarching message the movie tries to push like Ratatouille, which makes for less heavy-handed cinema. Instead, it gives the viewer a chance to reflect on the impact of revolutions and war on an individual and societal level.

One of my biggest problems with Ratatouille was how its internal logic prevented my willing suspension of disbelief. Treating the rats as humans or as rats when it was convenient for the plot led to conflicting messages. By virtue of being autobiographical material, Persepolis simply doesn’t have this problem. The events portrayed in the film were real things that actually happened to people. The only time Persepolis asks viewers to suspend their disbelief is when it uses its style and animation to portray realistic events in an unrealistic way for symbolic effect (e.g. a scene depicting Marjane growing up through a series of exaggerated proportions to symbolize how the changes to your body can be disorienting). In this sense, the movie uses its visuals to make a point, but it doesn’t seem at odd with the way it presents its own world to us.

Persepolis and Ratatouille are very different in style, tone, and substance, but when I compare the two, Persepolis sticks with me more. If you haven’t seen it yet, please go watch it! It’s an excellent film that takes great care to show the autobiographical experience of a woman who lived through historical turmoil, employing a unique and fitting aesthetic. There aren’t many animated movies like Persepolis, and what it accomplishes is worth every bit of the recognition it has received (and probably more). Hence why this is a:

Verdict: Better Animated Feature

Surf’s Up — Preston

Nominated

Much has been made of Pixar’s golden age in the 2000s: a series of staggering successes that started with back-to-back BAF winners Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, dipped only slightly with Cars, and returned to form with three straight BAF winners in Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up.² Now, obviously, not everyone aligns exactly with consensus on which of these films defined Pixar’s highs and lows—just read the rest of this piece—but it’s hard to debate that the studio was putting out fantastic stuff on the whole.

That said, it’s worth noting the lack of competition Pixar faced during this era. I’ve written about how Disney’s 2D efforts were on their last legs, with Atlantis: The Lost Empire getting snubbed and Treasure Planet not coming close to winning anything. And external contenders largely floundered: Studio Ghibli was repeatedly ignored after winning perhaps the most obvious BAF selection ever in 2002, countless other international studios were lucky if they even received a nomination, and DreamWorks struggled to capitalize on the runaway success of Shrek, often falling into a trap that ensnared many of Pixar’s potential rivals in this era: treating their audience like toddlers.

It’s remarkable how many otherwise-solid animated films in the 2000s handicapped themselves by failing to respect their viewers, hesitating to touch on the heavier themes Pixar was exploring at the same time, while simultaneously leaning into gross-out humor and oversimplified story elements that sometimes crossed the line into cultural appropriation. Surf’s Up suffers mightily from both of these problems, yet where it counts most—in the story—it surprisingly delivers fairly well. Better than Ratatouille, certainly, with a much stronger and thematically richer third act that underscores, rather than undercuts, its core message.

The road to that point is sometimes a messy one, though. Much like in Ratatouille, the structure of this animal society (and the frame narrative of an in-universe documentary film) works best if you just accept the illogical parts as they come. The film’s more crude comedy and its use of tribal stereotypes as a recurring joke weigh it down further, and a lesser movie would be a disaster with moments as bad as this one occasionally has.

Thing is, though…outside of these few, deeply loathsome scenes, Surf’s Up is a better film than Ratatouille and it isn’t even close.

Even with its off-color humor, Surf’s Up manages to be genuinely funny in a way so many movies of its era tried and failed to be, taking full advantage of the mockumentary format to throw in cutaway gags and throwaway jokes. Beyond that, though, the structure is used to its fullest in order to properly, distinctly characterize every member of an ensemble cast—a remarkably smooth way of ensuring nobody is defined by their relationship to any of the other characters, because almost everybody gets at least a little screentime all their own.

The story has been done before—plucky underdog gets his shot, can’t compete, struggles to convince a living legend of the sport to train him, and ultimately learns that “winning isn’t everything”— but good characters work wonders for a trite narrative. Great voice acting makes it stick, an outstanding feat given a celebrity cast list led by Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, and Zooey Deschanel. All three breathe life into their characters, and despite a bog-standard dynamic of protagonist-mentor-love interest, they feel genuine and fleshed out, a massive advantage over Ratatouille.

Ultimately, though, what gives Surf’s Up the edge is that third act. What happens is predictable from beginning to end—you could probably call it with about half an hour left and get everything but the minor details right—but it’s executed magnificently. (In particular, Mychael Danna’s original score for the film’s climax, “Boneyards”, is spectacular and more memorable than any of the licensed songs featured in the soundtrack.) Landing on such a strong note compared to Ratatouille, which writes itself into a corner and weakens its message as a result, makes it impossible to pick that film over this one.

Verdict: Better Animated Feature

Meet the Robinsons — Eli

Snubbed

When we first kicked around the idea for this project and I did my first scan through each year’s Best Animated Feature nominees, two movies stood out to me as flagrant snubs—not from winning, but from even receiving a nomination: 2014’s The Lego Movie and this year’s Meet the Robinsons.

For whatever reason, it seems to be codified into the Academy’s elaborate nomination procedures that the list of nominees for Best Animated Feature be an odd number in length. Seriously, go look it up; it’s always either three nominees or five. The Academy’s voting processes have never made a lick of sense to me—thus this entire series—and I’m not sure any amount of dense reading I could do on it would help, so if anyone has any tl;dr information on why it has to be this way, please let me know in the comments. My sanity is at stake.

I bring this up because I think it might have cost Meet the Robinsons a nomination. Aside from the three nominees for this year’s award, the only two decently acclaimed animated films of 2007 (by American audiences, anyway) were this and The Simpsons Movie. Film adaptations of TV properties basically never get nominated for Best Animated Feature—in 23 years of the award, only Jimmy Neutron and Shaun the Sheep (twice) have done it, and you could argue neither of those even count³—so aside from Meet the Robinsons…what, they were gonna nominate Bee Movie? Alvin and the Chipmunks? Shrek the Third? Slim pickins here.

Anyway, overlong rant in the rearview mirror. Let’s actually compare Ratatouille and Meet the Robinsons.

A lot of people seem to treat Ratatouille as a “vibes” movie. They place the central theme, “Anyone Can Cook”, in neon, bold, italic font and just kinda forget about everything else. There’s something to be said about a movie that so effectively imparts its message on so many people, but if you’ve read this far, you know I’m not one of them.

I am one of those people for Meet the Robinsons. The tenet of “Keep Moving Forward” speaks to me so deeply that I’m willing to overlook that the entire plot rests on a time loop that doesn’t seem to make any sense when you think about it for more than five seconds. In no uncertain terms: this movie makes me want to make the world a better place. I can name very few catalysts that have sparked my desire to create things more than Meet the Robinsons has.

Another big reason for this is that the main character, Lewis, is a foster child. I also spent some of my youth in foster care and, though I wasn’t in the system nearly as long as Lewis—I was adopted in early childhood—a heartwarming story about a foster kid finding his family really spoke to me. It still does.

You already know I don’t like Ratatouille, but at the risk of beating a dead horse, I feel it’s incumbent upon me to explain why Meet the Robinsons is a “vibes” movie to me but Ratatouille isn’t.

In Meet the Robinsons, you can poke holes in the intricacies of the plot but none of them really flatten the message. The fact that it’s not clear how Lewis and Franny originally fell in love if not for the events of the final scene (which only happened because of the time loop) does not detract from the point of the movie. There’s nothing in here to cheapen the fact that Lewis endured failure after failure, kept moving forward, and eventually succeeded. Even on this rewatch, 17 years later as an adult, I was moved by this arc.

The point of Ratatouille is completely murdered by the movie’s final moments, as Remy still isn’t allowed to take credit for his cooking outside of his trusted inner circle and Ego loses his livelihood for backing Gusteau’s.⁴ I get what Brad Bird was going for—really, I do—but the ending just didn’t click with me as the feel-good, inspirational resolution he intended. And that, to me, is a dealbreaker.

I feel I have to explain myself so much because Ratatouille is extremely popular and most fans of animation would say it’s better than Meet the Robinsons without a second thought. To be clear, in many ways, it is far better: the animation is phenomenal—era-defining, even—and the voice acting plays a big role in selling the setting. Comparatively, the animation in Meet the Robinsons is primitive, the aesthetic is fairly mundane for a movie about a whimsical future, and the voice acting is hammy and frankly kinda shaky. Peripherally, Ratatouille blows Meet the Robinsons out of the water.

But in the end, I just can’t endorse Ratatouille. I watch it and I think, “wow, it’s so motivational that Remy is allowed to cook without his life being threatened by trigger-happy grannies as long as he keeps it top secret”.⁵

Having watched both other 2007 nominees for this piece, I can confidently say that I agree with my friends above and prefer both films to Ratatouille. And so, Meet the Robinsons, nomination snub and all, gets my seal of approval as well. It’s my favorite animated movie of 2007, so I’m a little biased in its favor, but I also do legitimately think it’s the superior movie.

Verdict: Better Animated Feature

Running Tally

2001: 2 better (2 nominated; 3 snubbed)
2002: 1 better (4 nominated; 0 snubbed)
2003: 1 better (2 nominated; 2 snubbed)
2004: 0 better (2 nominated; 1 snubbed)
2005: 2 better (2 nominated; 2 snubbed)
2006: 3 better (2 nominated; 2 snubbed)
2007: 3 better (2 nominated; 1 snubbed)
TOTAL: 12 better (16 nominated; 11 snubbed)

I’m sure no one will be upset at Ratatouille being the first movie we unanimously agree should not have won Best Animated Feature. Join us in two weeks to see if we’re equally low on 2008’s WALL-E.

Next: 2008 (2 nominated; 0 snubbed)

1. Compare, for example, how often the stories of Coco and Luca just roll right through this sort of revelation without making a major conflict out of it.

2. Editor’s note: it’s four straight BAF winners if you expand past the aughts and include 2010’s Toy Story 3. —Eli

3. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius’ release paved the way for the cartoon series, not vice versa, and the Shaun the Sheep series was already a spinoff of the Wallace & Gromit movie franchise.

4. The movie doesn’t make it clear whether Ego publicly promoted a rat as chef or whether he was blackballed for merely suggesting people eat at a restaurant that was later found to have rats, but neither option is a good look.

5. This was sarcasm, in case the text didn’t portray that clearly.