Last week, the Academy listed the nominations for this spring’s upcoming Oscars. And just like every time that these award nominations gets announced, there is usually some controversy and debates about most of the movies nominated, warranted or not. However, I don’t think there has been two movies that have had the biggest form of controversy and debate surrounding it than that of two animated movies that have been nominated for Best Animated Picture with Turning Red and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.
With Turning Red, this was already a movie that had debates and discourses surrounding it basically since the very first trailer for it released. Even taken out the 9/11 memes, there was already discussions surrounding the film’s content, such as a girl going through puberty and having her “red panda” moment, along with the animation which many found was too expressive, obnoxious and just plain “in your face”. Despite the film’s overall positive reviews it received from critics, the audiences reactions were much more divided because of elements like that.
With Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, it got the complete opposite reactions from the majority of people that saw it. While it was mostly a movie that slip through many people’s radar before it’s release, as it was a sequel that no one was really asking for and coming from a franchise that hasn’t had a new installment in over a decade, it arrived to near universal claim from both critics and audiences alike. There might have been some discussions as to whether or not the film was appropriate for kids with the mild swearing and tackling more adult/mature themes, there really wasn’t much that folks took issue with the movie. It’s been a big success thus far that it has potentially breathed new life into the Shrek franchise, so much so that we might even seen a Shrek 5 sooner rather than later.
In hindsight, I can see why certain folks would want to raise the pedestal with Puss In Boots: The Last Wish rather than Turning Red. After all, this is the award for Best Animated Picture, an award that over 90% of the time goes to a Disney or Pixar movie basically by default. Regardless if that film itself is any good or that other ones that go nominated were just overall better, that just seems like an award from the Academy that is made strictly for Disney and Pixar so they don’t always have to nominate them for the overall Best Picture every year. People being against Disney and Pixar winning an award for Best Animated Picture when other great animated films released that same year is nothing out of the ordinary. However, I still find this debate rather dumb because it involves two films that both deserve to win Best Animated Picture in their own rights.
Turning Red and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish are both two movies that while different from each other in a lot of ways, is able to achieve their goals in ways that are quite similar. Both films are animated features that dare to tackle more mature, grown-up-like subject matter that majority of “kids” films out there wouldn’t dare to tackle, dives into the inner turmoils of their main protagonists through animal-like figures, and uses a distinct and unique animation style that is absolutely “out there” for it to tell their multilayered stories. Both films are just as much as different as they are similar with each other. Which again makes me wonder why anyone would be opposed to either one of these winning for best animated pictures?
It’s not like if Turning Red wins for Best Animated Picture that it would be the worst example of the Academy showing bias towards Disney or Pixar. Need I remind you of the time that Brave won over Frankenweenie or ParaNorman and when Big Hero 6 won over The Boxtrolls, How To Train Your Dragon 2, and Song of the Sea (Not to mention, The L.E.G.O. Movie which didn’t even get nominated). Heck, you didn’t see me raging last year when Encanto won for Best Animated Picture over my favorite film of 2021, The Mitchells vs. the Machines. There’s been worse examples of this with much worse or at least lesser movies and there’s no need to act like if the inevitable happens, that Turning Red winning should act like some sort of exception.
The Academy Awards is just an awards show that is losing more and more credibility in each passing year. From constantly refusing to nominated horror feature films to always trying to change the formula with the way the show is run just to appeal to folks who will never like their show, it’s mostly become something to watch over the years just for the lols and memes rather than the thrills and anticipations of seeing the winners. Becoming more of a popularity contest than one that is actual rewarding the very best in film of it’s respective year. It’s like watching a car accident happening before your very eyes, it’s awful and terrible but you can’t help to look away and only see it through to the very end.
There is plenty of things wrong with the way the Academy is run and how they deal with the Oscars but whether or not Turning Red or Puss In Boots: The Last Wish wins for Best Animated Picture is not one of them. These are two great, wonderfully crafted animated pictures that both deserve a fair chance of taking home the Oscar for Best Animated Picture. Would it be nice for Puss In Boots: The Last Wish to win and let DreamWorks take home the Best Animated Picture for once (something which the company haven’t done since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit)? Absolutely! Would it also be nice for Turning Red to take that award, a Disney/Pixar movie that is actually deserving of it? Absolutely as well! Regardless, I promise you either one of these two pictures winning won’t be the biggest “WTF” winner for this year! Especially when Austin Butler will likely win for Best Actor over Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser.
If you’re someone that likes to compare these two movies just to claim which one you like more and just for the fun of it all, then that’s fine. For anyone that saw my Best-Of-The-Year list, you would know that I ranked Puss In Boots: The Last Wish and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio over Turning Red. Even so, I still did really like all three of those animated films, so much so that I had all three of those movies on that list. That was because, animated or not, I thought those were three of the best movies I saw in 2022. However, when I made that list, that was never under the assumption that I believed at least two of these movies would be match together as to which one is better than the other. I put them both on the list because I felt both movies deserved some love. And even a month later, I still do.
You can like what you like and dislike what you dislike but there’s no need for silly debates like Turning Red vs Puss In Boots: The Last Wish because there’s really no need for it. The Academy has enough problems as it is with how they are run but there’s no need to make a certain problem of it that it really doesn’t have. There’s plenty to complain about with the nominations this year but with what is nominated for Best Animated Picture is not one of them. If anything, that was one of the things it got right. Which is why it’s best to turn our attentions to the ones they got wrong and leaves the ones they got right well enough alone. Hopefully then we can avoid another instance like say, Zack Snyder’s Justice League taking home an award based off some Twitter poll.
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