In Contention

Tag: Bill Plympton

  • Animated titles up to 12

    I’ve been making notes on this in the comments section of yesterday’s Off the Carpet column throughout the morning, but it’s looking more and more like the magic number of 16 won’t be reached in this year’s animated feature film race.  By my count, we have 12 titles.

    One of them, Bill Plympton’s “Idiots and Angels,” may not have submitted the proper paperwork (I’m unsure at the moment).  But it opened last week in New York regardless and will hit Los Angeles screens on October 29.  Wouldn’t it be great to see Plympton in the mix, though?

    I had originally though the Japanese “Tales from Earthsea” would be eligible, but while opening in a foreign territory one year prior is permitted (more of this arbitrary nonsense — it’s scattered throughout AMPAS rules and regs), more than that is not.  The film opened in 2006 in Japan.

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  • EDINBURGH: Animated pleasures

    Mary and MaxToday’s Edinburgh talk may have centered on festival opener “Away We Go” (more on that to come), but the day’s real delight was “Mary and Max” (***1/2), an alternately disarming and disconcerting feature debut from claymation maestro Adam Elliot, who won a 2003 Academy Award for his short “Harvey Krumpet,” and carries that film’s decidedly adult-level cuteness into his new effort.

    As “Up” continues accumulating valentines from critics across the board, “Mary and Max” forms some interesting parallel points to Pixar’s mega-hit, with both films employing the gentleness of the animated form to address difficult themes of loneliness and social isolation, and doing so via an unlikely friendship between misfits young and old.

    Of course, the relationship at the core of “Mary and Max,” which details the accidental but long-enduring friendship of correspondence between a neglected 8 year-old girl in Australia and a middle-aged New York man emotionally crippled by Asperger’s Syndrome, will likely raise far more eyebrows than “Up,” which is probably why the film is still seeking a U.S. distributor months after its warm reception at Sundance.

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  • 12/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in Australia• John Patterson on the legacy of Harvey Milk. [The Guardian]

    • Robert Abele talks to “Frost/Nixon” star Michael Sheen. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Rebeca Hall, meanwhile, discusses her involvement in the film with Jenni Miller. [Premiere]

    • Peter Knegt chats with visionary “Hunger” director Steve McQueen. [indieWIRE]

    • John Anderson profiles animation legend Bill Plympton. [New York Times]

    • Jean Oppenheimer on the hopeful rise of recognized female directing talent. [Variety]

    • As “Australia” leaps into the marketplace, Kevin Maher offers a how-to for making romantic epics. [The Times]

    • David Carr gets some in-house, on-the-record defense for what has been considered an unfair Mickey Rourke profile in some quarters. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Karina Longworth runs down the most disappointing films of the year. [Spout Blog]

    • Anne Thompson files briefly regarding last week’s “Dark Knight” soiree. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Jeff Wells, meanwhile, is hearing murmurs of a surge for the film among AMPAS ranks. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Peter Bart on the off-screen serendipity of “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Peter Bart]