Some people were seemingly too distracted by “the slap” at this year’s Oscars to notice the odd way the Best Animated Feature category was presented. Presenters Halle Bailey, Naomi Scott, and Lily James joked that kids watch these movies “over and over and over,” much to the chagrin of their parents. And, earlier in the night, co-host Amy Schumer said that she hadn’t seen many of the Oscar-nominated films, but that she has a toddler so she’s “watched Encanto 190 times.”
But the thing is, animation is more than something for kids. So, Phil Lord and Chris Miller—who are behind some of the biggest animated feature films like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, and this year’s Oscar-nominee The Mitchells vs. The Machines— would like a word with the Academy.
In a guest column for Variety, Lord and Miller wrote about why the Best Animated Feature Oscars category shouldn’t be dismissed as being only for children, and should instead be recognized with as much prestige as the other categories.
“Framing the five Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure could be dismissed as simply careless. But to those of us who have dedicated our lives to making animated films, that carelessness has become routine,” they write.
The pair continue, “Animated films routinely demonstrate excellence in photography, design, costumes and performance. They are some of the most carefully and cinematically directed films of the year. They have some of the most intricate scoring and sound design.”
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Lord and Miller suggest that—instead of having presenters make crappy jokes about animation being for kids— the Academy could “invite a respected filmmaker to present the award and frame animation as cinema,” before suggesting Oscar-winning filmmaker Bong Joon Ho. They say that then Bong could explain “why he listed two of this year’s animated feature nominees (Flee and The Mitchells vs. The Machines) among his top 10 favorite movies of the year.”
The duo also say that describing the Best Animated Feature nominees as children’s movies isn’t fully accurate, since Flee is “a heart-wrenching animated documentary about an Afghan refugee” that “isn’t kids’ stuff, and neither are past nominees I Lost My Body, Waltz With Bashir, Persepolis and on and on.”
You can read their full op-ed here.