Awards, awards, awards. Yep, this is another one of those posts. Awards Daily has the latest batch of For Your Consideration ads, and DreamWorks have the majority of them for us; today we get a massive haul of Variety covers promoting the studio's latest, Rise of the Guardians, to Academy voters. Any other year, Guardians would be almost certain for a nomination, but 2012 has been a particularly strong year for animation, and with Frankenweenie all of a sudden emerging as a top contender, DreamWorks are promoting their film as hard as they can (with a strong, but lesser effort for Madagascar 3).
The bold Rise of the Guardians (directed by Peter Ramsey) ads tout some of the film's accolades (including its recent Annie nominations) and tote the simple-but-effective line: "Believe in the best animated film of the year". Check 'em out after the jump break.
The varied and visceral colours of the ads is testament to the legitimate claim that Rise of the Guardians is certainly the year's most visually stunning animated film. Check out our review of DreamWorks' great latest here, and reader Damien's Guest Review here.
Laika continue their strong, hand-crafted approach to promoting ParaNorman; although, to be honest, despite the Golden Globes bizarrely ignoring it, the Coraline studio's second outing is pretty much a cert for an Oscar nomination, and more than likely a win too.
Here's a Wreck-It Ralph ad from the start of November that I somehow missed too; another strong one, look for Ralph to be a major playing come Oscar season as well.
Want to know what's got me a little disconcerted though? Why no FYC ads for Aardman's The Pirates!? The Peter Lord directed stop-mo is one of the year's absolute best animated films, and the Academy have looked very favourably on Wallace and Gromit in the past. That said, as things stand now, four of the five films I think will be nominated are:
- Brave
- Frankenweenie
- ParaNorman
- Wreck-It Ralph
As for the fifth spot, it's pretty open at the moment: it may well be Rise of the Guardians, or the Academy might still decide they liked The Pirates!, but it's very likely that we'll see an international film, like The Rabbi's Cat get the final nomination. I'd expect to see Frankenweenie or ParaNorman win it, but I'd love to see Brave or The Pirates! take the award home - and I can only imagine how fond I'll be of Wreck-It Ralph come its UK release in February.
Check out previous rounds of FYC ads here, here and here. Keep your eyes open for the 3rd Annual A113Animation Awards this coming February too.
I must say, DreamWorks really is pushing for "Rise of the Guardians" to win, being a well-received film and one that looked more ambitious than their previous efforts (I still haven't seen it so I can't say if it's great, good or meh).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Disney should get a little more pushy with "Wreck-It Ralph". The two posters they have tout one review and show a few images. They should really aggressively push for this to win.
I'm guessing Columbia and Sony don't see "The Pirates!" getting a nomination since the Academy Awards snubbed "Arthur Christmas" (a bad move on their part) They should at least try with one FYC ad.
Oh, I really loved Rise of the Guardians! Not quite as good as I was hoping, but still a helluva lot of fun.
DeleteYeah, I get it's sensible if they think they don't have a chance, but you never know if you don't try! Really hope Ralph and The Pirates! get nominated.