January 2017 – The Animation Commendation

Actor John Hurt Dies at 77!

English actor, Sir John Hurt, has sadly passed away at the age of 77. Sir John Hurt (1940-2017) was known for his roles in many films including The Elephant Man, A Man for All Seasons, I, Claudius, Alien, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, three Harry Potter films, and the recent Jackie, among others.

But, he was no stranger to the world of animation. Some of his voice roles include The Horned King in Disney’s The Black Cauldron,

Hazel in Watership Down,

Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings,

Snitter in The Plague Dogs,

and Mr. Mole in Don Bluth’s Thumbelina.

He shall be missed!

89th Academy Awards Nominations Announced!

Well, the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards have been announced today. And as usual, I’ll list the animated film categories below. If you want to see a list of all the categories and their nominations, then click here.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

-Kubo and the Two Strings

-Moana

-My Life as a Zucchini

-The Red Turtle

-Zootopia

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM:

-Blind Vaysha

-Borrowed Time

-Pear Cider and Cigarettes

-Pearl

-Piper

Other related nominations include:

-My Life, Animated (Best Documentary Feature)

-Can’t Stop the Feeling-Trolls (Best Original Song)

-How Far I’ll Go-Moana (Best Original Song)

-The Jungle Book (Best Visual Effects)

-Kubo and the Two Strings (Best Visual Effects)

I’ll post my Oscar winner predictions in the coming weeks, but for now which films do you think will win? Which do you want to win? What do you think of the nominations, in general? Let me know in the comments below!

My Thoughts: THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (2016)

When the trailer for Illumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets was released, I was honestly surprised as to how positive/optimistic many people seemed to be towards it. Almost everyone I knew said that the film looked cute or funny or had an interesting premise or was a film that they were looking forward to seeing. I, on the other hand, seemed to be in the minority opinion!

I thought the trailer seemed kinda stupid. It seemed to be pushing the ubiquitous “funny jokes for kids” trope that we see in a lot of animation and I didn’t really find any of the jokes funny. The plot seemed very reminiscent of past films such as Toy Story and it seemed that the only reason Kevin Hart, Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet were cast as voices were just to have popular celebrities’ names attached to the film. Heck, I’m not even a “pets” person, so I couldn’t even identify with that aspect of the film that many pet owners seemed to readily identify with! I was much more looking forward to Illumination Entertainment’s Sing than this film.

Eventually, I ended up watching this film. Was I as disappointed as I thought I was going to be? Or was I surprisingly impressed? Read on to find out what I thought of The Secret Life of Pets.

By the way, there will be some SPOILERS!

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