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Back in 95 or 96, the Accademy Awards had two best score catagories – that lasted all of two years or so. Why did they stop? What a great idea it was. Anyone know why?
Yeah, they separated the score category into “Best Dramatic Score” and “Best Comedy / Musical Score” because basically Disney had been dominating fo several years in a row. Alan Menken won for LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and ALADDIN and then Zimmer won for THE LION KING. From 87 – 94, if they got nominated, they won.
Once they split it in two, however, the whole Disney crazy wound down a bit and non-Disney scores started winning consistently. Is it because Menken stopped scoring them? Is it because the films saw something of a drop off in quality when Katzenberg departed? Who knows. In any case, Academy members, in an attempt to shorten the ceremony (as is attempted each year), decided to recombine the cateogy into one. Personally, I think it’s a good move. As nice as it was to see 5 additional composers honored each year, I’d rather there be one “Best Score” as opposed to two. The think the award has more impact that way, just as the single “Best Picture” Oscar has more impact than the “Best Comedy or Musical” and Best Dramatic Picture” Golden Globes.
Totally off-topic, but are Disney animated films still getting 4 out of 4 stars simply because they’re Disney? (And the critics are hoping they’ll return to their former, late 80s-early 90s glory years?)
-E (the only girl in her elementary school class who didn’t like The Little Mermaid)
how can u not like the little mermaid? thats like saying beetlejuice sucks
Sorry; I just don’t. There are Elfman fans who don’t like “Red Dragon.’ Why? It comes down to a matter of personal preference – and “The Little Mermaid” just doesn’ t do it for me.
-E (whose favorite Disney movie is 101 Dalmations, because Cruella has a bad ass car! Granted, it stars animated talking dogs, but they’re dogs nevertheless – which makes it infinitely endearing in my book…)
I agree. Disney isn’t good at all anymore. Have you tried watching the Disney channel lately? If you value your sanity, you shouldn’t.
Okay, I missed something–when was Disney good? Sorry, but I only give ’em credit for backing The Nightmare Before Christmas–everything else is just too….cute.
I just think the whole meshing of animation and CGI doesn’t work. In my book, go one way or the other, don’t mix the two. If you do that, you will have these very real looking backgrounds with these really fake looking characters (like say…Titan AE even though it wasn’t Disney). I am all for the full CGI films though (like Shrek), but even then make sure you put enough attention to the backgrounds and characters so they will match, otherwise it just looks bad (like, say, Final Fantasy). It also pisses me off that back in the day when Jurassic Park came out, those Dynos still look real in my book, yet most of the CGI in live action movies nowdays looks like crap (I am not even gonna meantion these ones). Anyhow, as long as we have excellent original scores in film, I will keep a part of my sanity.
Knight (The CGI Expert)
When I was growing up I wanted to be an animator, then as I found out what they did I wanted to become a Disney imagineer. The ability to breathe life into inanimate objects have always appealed to me. The fact that some now use computers instead of paper and pencils hasn’t changed that. To anyone who would like to be an animator, or is thanking about a career in animation, I’ll recommend only one book: Disney Animation – the Illusion of Life. When I was 12 I got this 500+ page book for Christmas (at a $75 dollar price tag no less). Animation, and the process behind it, is something that has interested me my whole life, and I owe most of my sense of humor and love of classical (and film music) to it. Fantasia is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I consider Ray Harryhausen to be part of the film firmament that brought us to where we are in computer animation now. Ask almost any computer animator to name his or her heroes and they will say his name.
Music and animation go almost hand in hand because of the lack of sound, and the possibilities created by that lack of sound. Animation is a laborious operation, and anyone that has worked on such projects are true film makers. The fact that most people think of Disney as a corporate entity is sad, because of the actual personalities that bring pictures to life. Less we forget that Tim Burton was an animator, and Elfman lists Harryhausen as a hero.
As far as song writing goes, I have said this before, listen to the process by getting the 4 CD collection: The Music Behind The Magic – which contains Menken and Ashman’s demos and original tapes (mixed with finished songs) from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. I spoke of passion and inspiration in a previous post, well, this is the real thing. The people behind these wonderful films had a passion for this, and weather or not you like the films, you can’t deny that they were inspired to but pencil to paper and created something alive where there was once stillness.
So I say, let the film project (24 frames per second) and let the music play – for all of it is a miracle, and a blessing to be a part of.
Nat – hope I haven’t scared anybody
Nat, you are beautifully clear on your passion–and I hope you never lose it. It’s driven persons such as yourself that make create tremendous works, of art, music, literature, etc…
Since we are slightly off topic here, I would like to know what eveyone’s favorite animated/CGI/claymation film is and there favorite scores for the same things…
Mine:
The Lion King–I almost wet myself during the trailer and cried during the “Circle of Life” 6 months later because I had been waiting so very long to see it. I just recently saw it in IMAX and loved to see the detail in the artwork since everything was so friggin’ big.Nightmare Before Xmas–Well, duh. I never tire of watching it, and Danny sounds better and better each time I listen. I still find new things everytime I watch/listen.
More Recently….
Spirited Away–Limited theatre release. It comes out on DVD/VHS around April. VERY COOL. I love the story, and the soundtrack just kicks my a$$. Especially track 7 “The Procession of Spirits”There’s my animated pic picks. Anyone else?
Jo the little animated elfgirlMine’s “Waking Life.” It’s been a while since I’ve seen it (can’t find it on video), but it used the outlines of real people (sorry guys, I know there’s a technical term for it but I”m not that well informed on art vocab), and presents existentialism at its best!
Quite frankly, the best cartoon I have ever seen – hands down – is Ren and Stimpy. I’m a big fan of television cartoons, and their use of classical music (as in the older Warner Brothers cartoons) along with truly bizarre humor tickles me to no end. I watched R&S and Rocko’s Modern Life religiously in late elementary/junior high school. I love absurdity and rarely, if ever, take anything seriously – nothing fits that description better than cartoons. Funny this is, I’ve always said that one (of many) dream jobs would be to think of cartoon plots and have the talent to bring those characters to life. I can do it well enough with words, but as we all know, a picture is worth a thousand of my scribblings. A good cartoon, imo, takes reality and twists it into a vaguely familiar shape, so much so that you may not recognize it as being reality until you tear your eyes away from the screen.
It’s a strange combination of science fiction and satire (some might say that the two are synonomous) that makes cartoons enjoyable for me. Take Sheep in the Big City for example: reality is kept hanging on by a thread because Sheep never actually talks. However, the idea that we have some sort of covert-op tracking a bit of livestock around the country for governmental purposes is satire at its best, bordering on the absurd. (Then again, I really adore livestock humor – can you tell?) The music for SITBC is hilarious as well…it takes a jazz base and then inserts random male voices singing “Baa!” in a recognizable rhythm. Absolutely brilliant, if you ask me (which you didn’t, but I”ll tell you anyway).
Oh geez, I took what was supposed to be a simple “I like cartoons” thread and twisted it into something bordering on analysis of the social values in cartoons! Bottom line: I love cartoons. If I could be a cartoon think-tank, I would. I really need to shut up and get to bed.
-E (who gets annoyingly talkative after taking cold medicine)
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