The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1991

the first eerie shot of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The 64th annual Academy Awards, for the film year 1991.  The nominations were announced on February 19, 1992 and the awards were held on March 30, 1992.

Best Picture:  The Silence of the Lambs

• JFK
• Beauty and the Beast
• Bugsy
• The Prince of Tides

Most Surprising Omission:  Thelma and Louise

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Fisher King

Rank (out of 83) Among Best Picture Years:  #9

 

Top 100 Novels #44: Animal Farm

the Ralph Steadman illustrated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm

Animal Farm

• Author:  George Orwell  (1903  -  1950)
• Rank:  #44
• Published:  1945
• Publisher:  Secker and Warburg
• Pages:  128
• First Line:  “Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes.”
• Last Line:  “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
• ML Edition:  none
• Film Version:  1954;  1999 (tv film)
• Acclaim:  Modern Library Top 100 English Language Novels of the 20th Century #31; All-TIME List; Hugo Award (retroactively)
• First Read:  Fall, 1991

 

Disney’s Animated Films: A Complete Ranking

the lovely banner celebrating 50 Disney Animated Films

Now that we have finally seen Tangled this seems like a fitting list to do.  After all, there have now been 50 Disney Animated Films (actually, there have been a lot more).  So, with that in mind, I am here to rank all 50 of them – some of them are absolute classics and some of them, well, some of them are, shall we say, not good.  I’ve seen all 50 of them.  I almost started to write, “but there are probably a lot of people who have”.  But now that I think about it, it might be less common than I think.

First of all, there are a bunch of films that you probably are thinking of for this list that, technically, according to the people at Disney, not part of this list.  The first is of course, the Pixar films, all of which would be near the top of the list.  The second group would be the Studio Ghibli films (Hayao Miyazaki’s films), many of which would also be near or at the top.  There are of course films like Song of the South, Mary Poppins, Pete’s Dragon or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which combine live action and animation.  Then, finally, there are the DisneyToon films – like the recent Winnie the Pooh films, the films made from tv shows or the endless number of sequels to the actual Disney Animated Films.  And there are many of these films – especially the package films from the late 40′s or the lesser quality films from the last decade that you might not have actually seen.  But these are the films that count and we know which ones they are because conveniently, Disney numbers them.  Well, so will I.  But their numbering is in order of release.  Mine is in order of greatness.

 

Top 100 Novels #74: Watership Down

Richard Adams amazing story of rabbits - Watership Down (1972)

Watership Down

• Author:  Richard Adams  (b. 1920)
• Rank:  #74
• Publisher:  Macmillan
• Published:  1972
• Pages:  478
• First Line:  “The primroses were over.”
• Last Lines:  “He reached the top of the bank in a single, powerful leap.  Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.”
• ML Edition:  none
• Acclaim:  Carnegie Medal
• Film:  1978  (animated  -  ****)
• Read:  Spring, 1990

 

Great Director #42: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi): Miyazaki's 2001 masterpiece

• Born: 1941
• Rank: 42
• Score: 596.00
• Awards: Oscar / 2 Annies / LAFC (all for Animated Film)
• Nominations: 2 Oscars / BAFTA (all for Animated Film)
• Feature Films: 10
• Best: Spirited Away
• Worst: The Castle of Cagliostro

Top 5 Feature Films:

1. Spirited Away – 2001
2. My Neighbor Totoro – 1988
3. Princess Mononoke – 1997
4. Castle in the Sky – 1986
5. Howl’s Moving Castle – 2004

Top 10 Best Animated Film Finishes:

• 1985 – 1st – Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• 1988 – 2nd – Castle in the Sky
• 1989 – 2nd – My Neighbor Totoro
• 1992 – 2nd – Porco Rosso
• 1998 – 1st – Kiki’s Delivery Service
• 1999 – 1st – Princess Mononoke
• 2002 – 1st – Spirited Away
• 2005 – 3rd – Howl’s Moving Castle

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Animated Film

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit - the best animated film of 2005 (according to me and the Academy)

It took until 2001 before the Academy finally could be bothered to give a separate award for Best Animated Film. The Annies had started back in 1992. Various critics groups had been giving the award out for years. The switch also finally pushed the Golden Globes to give it its own category and stop throwing them in the Comedy / Musical category.