Underrated Showcase Sundays - Chico & Rita

Underrated Showcase Sundays is a pretty straight-forward: every Sunday I'll shed some light on a film which I think doesn't get enough love. The showcase will be largely unstructured (well, compared to my other reviews) and will often just be random thoughts. It doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. Tonight's instalment, though, is one that I hadn't seen before, and decided to post now as we near the home stretch for the Oscars.

In amongst the chameleon antics of Rango and the big franchise players Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots is the Spanish film Chico & Rita, which was lucky enough to get a place in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. It may not be in 3D, nor does it employ the almost 'realistic' looking animation that Rango did, but there is no denying that Chico & Rita is a beautiful, moving tale that could actually serve as a great companion piece to The Artist (I'm guessing). It is a simple tale of two people in love: Chico, a young piano player and Rita, a beautiful singer. Just as soon as they've fallen in love they are torn apart by the allure of fame. Rita is discovered by an impresario named Ron, and takes her to New York where she has a lot of success, and while Chico follows her there, he doesn't take as much as she does. As her star rises, his talent goes ignored, and there's no way that the two could remain together.

No Pixar, No Problem: I Talk Out the Animated Oscar Race.

This was posted this morning at the LAMB for their 'LAMB Devours the Oscars' series. You can check it out there, or check it out here...do as you please...

I actually wrote a post about the animated film category a LONG time ago, and I was predicting that should The Adventures of Tintin be eligible, it would sweep this category. I received confirmation that it was indeed eligible, but once it came for nomination time, no dice. If that didn’t win, I was gunning for Winnie the Pooh to take the prize, just because it was so awesome, but nothing happened there, either. So now, we have an extremely weird and incredibly ‘meh’ line-up for this year’s animated Oscar...without any PIXAR (suck on that, Cars 2). Let’s get into it, shall we?

A Cat in Paris

This one was the only animated feature I didn’t get to catch in time for writing this post, even though it is out on DVD here (it just continues to elude me). I’d always had a feeling that this would get in, but only if they took five nominees, which in other words means it has no chance of winning. But you can see just how much the Academy loves cats – this is the first of two movies to feature a cat. Maybe if Snowy out of Tintin was a cat, it would have been nominated?
The Drawcard: Generally positive consensus. Cats.
The Drawback: Not seen by a wide enough audience, and there are better films nominated.
Chance of Winning: 25%

Chico & Rita

Let it be said that this is not animation for kids, this is animation for adults. In a lot of ways, I felt like this one would have been better as a live action film rather than an animated film, mainly because its story is so beautiful, but also so overdone. As for the film’s chances, they’re about next to none. While being a perfectly good film, A Cat in Paris definitely beats it to the punch for being the ‘better’ foreign animation, and this one still remains to be seen by a lot of people. However, whilst watching it I was remembering The Princess & the Frog...this is a very Disney style animation, just a bit more adult. That could work in its favour.
The Drawcard: Being an animation for adults.
The Drawback: Has anyone besides me actually seen it? It stands virtually no chance.
Chance of Winning: 10%

Kung Fu Panda 2

This one came as a bit or a surprise to me, as I knew it had been quite positively received but I didn’t think that it would be enough to get it in. However, I just watched this one and its predecessor the other day and I was quite impressed. Being a long time since I’ve seen Rango (which I loved), I’m very much in the Kung Fu Panda 2 camp at the moment, and see it as the only one that could possibly beat Rango. Because, of course, it has twice the awesomeness.
The Drawcard: Generally positive consensus, good box-office take, original also got nominated in this category back in 2009.
The Drawback: Rango.
Chance of Winning: 50%

Puss in Boots

I caught this one on the plane, so forgive me if I didn’t think it was so spectacular on a 10” low-def screen. But no, this was quite a good movie, bringing light to one of my favourite characters from the Shrek franchise. However, since Puss was in the whole movie, I could tell how insanely creepy he was. Like, seriously, should he even be fronting a movie for kids? He is...well...quite seedy. Anyway, does this have any Oscar chances? Well, for me it was a bit of a surprise nomination, and I can’t see it beating Rango at all. It was pretty run-of-the-mill, but an improvement of the last two Shreks.
The Drawcard: Spanning from a popular franchise, being genuinely beautiful to look at. Cats.
The Drawback: The lead cat being largely inappropriate for target audience. Rango.
Chance of Winning: 40%

Rango

It is pretty darn obvious that this is going to win. Despite the fact that it came out literally ages ago, it has held up this entire time and people seemed to like all of the Western references it has going on in it. Rango is a really cool movie, there’s no doubting that, but I’ve yet to physically meet someone who actually liked it – I either mix with really bad people who don’t have taste or they’re seeing something that I don’t. Perhaps it is one for us people who like our movie references and chameleons...and hopefully the voters are one of us, too. I won’t be grumbling if this takes the prize.
The Drawcard: Everything, from the references to the impeccable animation to Johnny Depp.
The Drawback: Slightly hesitant response from the people of Dannevirke, New Zealand. That should hurt its chances badly.
Chance of Winning: 95%

And this is what a year looks like without PIXAR...how many more of these years are we going to see in our lifetime?