When the Academy makes a monster clusterfuck of its nominations, it’s easy to respond, “Well they don’t matter anyway!”, which is true to an extent. But I won’t lie and say I’m fine that The LEGO Movie was snubbed. My immediate reaction was to tweet this. Yes, the film was critically acclaimed, did huge at the box office, and there are spinoffs and a sequel on the way, which means everyone in it will be fine (the snubbing of Selma is far more troubling). Nevertheless, it’s still surprising to see the lack of a nomination for a movie everyone thought was a lock in the category. Perhaps the voters in the animation branch thought it had too much live action, but then why does the film have six Annie Award nominations? Let’s just fall back on the Academy is terrible, which is true for many reasons. But The LEGO Movie co-director Phil Lord responded to his movie’s snub far more gracefully and cleverly than I did. He decided to build his own statue out of LEGO, which was a smart, fun, creative action, something the Academy probably wouldn’t understand (its president certainly struggled with the correct pronunciation of “Dick Pope”).
Hit the jump to check out the LEGO Oscar statue Lord built. — philip lord (@philiplord) January 15, 2015Movies Quiz / Movies By Lego (Oscar Edition) Can you name the Best Picture-nominated movie by its Lego reenactment? Also try: Movies By Lego You're not logged in! Compare scores with friends on all Sporcle quizzes. Gaming with LegosMultiple Oscar ActorsBest Picture Winners Slideshow ReportNumbers Quiz, Oscar Quiz, edition, Image Quiz, lego, Oscar Nominated Your Account Isn't Verified! In order to create a playlist on Sporcle, you need to verify the email address you used during registration. Go to your Sporcle Settings to finish the process. The LEGO® StoreFASHION VALLEY 7007 FRIARS ROAD, SPACE 965ASAN DIEGO CA 92108 Visit the LEGO Store at Fashion Valley!Did The Lego Movie have a better night than most of the movies that actually won Oscars? The animated film famously snubbed in its category didn’t win the best-original-song statue either, but thanks to the Lego Oscars handed out during the ebullient “Everything Is Awesome” performance, might have won the whole night anyway.
When you’ve got Oprah joyfully receiving your fake Oscar:And Emma Stone carrying it around all night:And Clint Eastwood holding it:And Meryl freakin’ Streep pretending it’s a gun:Is a real Oscar even going to be half as good? OK, fine, a real Oscar is pretty good. But a zillion points to The Lego Movie for making the most out of what could have felt like a disappointing night, and for making us covet an Oscar we can actually recreate in our own home. Who’s got 200 yellow Legos we can borrow?The Daily Edge uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Click here to find out more » Add an image URL Upload a video | Alternatively, you can email us at: tips@thejournal.ie Please log in to comment Please log in with facebook to become a fan Create an email alert based on the current article One email every morning As soon as new articles come onlineThe dust has settled somewhat on last week's Oscar nominations, and as is the norm, controversy has not been in short supply.
The more Oscar-friendly films - such as The Imitation Game - have already arguably been over-rewarded, whereas edgy, genuinely brave and daring movies such as Nightcrawler have been all but blocked out. To be fair, that's a surprise to virtually nobody: rarely have the Oscars ventured too far out of a mainstream comfort zone when it comes to giving out main prizes. Yet the snub this year that's got people talking the most is the bizarre failure to nominate The LEGO Movie for a Best Animated Feature Oscar. It is, to be fair, a fairly staggering omission. For many people, The LEGO Movie was the finest animated production of last year; a film bubbling with ideas, surprises, and a core desire to entertain its audience, and give said audience lots of things to remember. And that's before we get to that song. You know the one... Yet you know what happened next. When the nominations for animated feature were read out, it was the names of The Boxtrolls, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6, Song Of The Sea and The Tale Of Princess Kaguya that were read out.
Within an hour, The LEGO Movie was trending on Twitter. Where was its Academy Award nomination? Had the Oscar voting world gone nuts?But the thing is, though, is that an Oscar snub for a big movie is far from the be all and end all of it. Go down the list of Best Picture Oscar winners for the past 20 years, and most people will struggle to agree with half of the choices (apologies in advance if you're part of the A Beautiful Mind fan club). If you're after an arbiter of what makes an excellent film, the Oscars can never be it. The Oscars are, after all, an example of a democracy. And as with most democracies, they throw up strange decisions. In the case of The LEGO Movie, it's unlikely that Academy voters hadn't seen the movie - it's arguably the most-seen animated film of 2014 (perhaps behind How To Train Your Dragon 2), in truth - but maybe it just didn't appeal. The demographic of the Oscar voter suggests an older audience, and maybe that audience preferred the slightly more traditional Big Hero 6 (although even that takes some side turns) to the hyper-energetic LEGO film.
Bottom line: enough people, for whatever reason, didn't vote for the film. That, though, doesn't change any human being's opinion on the movie. So we just dismiss the Oscars as a load of nonsense then, and get on with our lives? Where the Oscars genuinely matter, and where they deserve to be given an awful lot of credit, is when it comes to shining a light on smaller films. The kind of films that would never otherwise get a multi-million dollar marketing budget behind them, and that otherwise the majority of people would never have heard of. This year alone should give the superb Whiplash the hefty push it deserves. Whiplash is a movie that first screened a year ago, but we'd imagine that most people have only heard of it in the last month. That's the power of awards season right there. In fact, let's go further: the existence of the Oscars, for better or worse, leads to some films getting greenlit in the first place. A studio will gamble a smaller budget on a film sometimes, knowing that if it gets awards attention, it'll be a profitable venture.
Awards are big business. The LEGO Movie, by the time we've got to Oscar season, has already banked over $450m worldwide. It's the biggest film of 2014 at the UK box office, and Warner Bros is planning at least three further LEGO films as a result of its success. That it deserves an Oscar nomination at the very least is true, but still, The LEGO Movie does not need awards validation. For a true measure of its worth, just take on a new superpower that calculates how many people watched and enjoyed it just this last weekend. And the weekend after that. The LEGO Movie has made a strong mark, and is a film loved by lots of people. That's not going to be diluted one jot by the Oscar snub.But then it's not alone in that camp. It was unfair when weird rules meant that Linda Fiorentino wasn't eligible for an Oscar nomination for her excellent lead turn in The Last Seduction. It was unfair when Forrest Gump swept the board against Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.
It's unfair that rules are working against The Babadook, and the stunning acting performance of Essie Davis (had The Babadook been an American studio film, surely she'd have an Oscar nomination at the least to her name). And it's unfair that American Sniper gets six Oscar nominations whilst something like Pride or Under The Skin doesn't get a sniff. Academy Award unfairness stories are not in short supply. Rest assured a new lot will be along in twelve months' time. But that's the Oscars, and they deserve to be treated as what they are: a further cog in the Hollywood marketing machine. Nobody can force on you your choice for the best film of a given year, no matter how hard we all seem to try. The Oscars is no exception. The upside of this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations is that more people may be tempted to seek out Studio Ghibli's The Tale Of Princess Kaguya and the hand-drawn Song Of The Sea. They need the attention far more than The LEGO Movie does, and whilst Chris Miller and Phil Lord deserve Oscar gold in their careers, they've still made a cherishable film that they'll be asked about for the rest of their lives.
In turn, their work there has inspired more people too to seek out the gleeful A Town Called Panic, that served as a degree of inspiration for their film. That, too, is a good thing. And ultimately, there's the kind of award that the Oscars don't have the power to hand out. I know of few people who dig out of a copy of Driving Miss Daisy to watch for fun, and that took home Best Picture. Out around the same time? That film continues to delight, enthral and move far more people, and it's not got an Oscar to its name. 25 years on, it's a film that's still widely talked about though. It's my belief that that'll be the case with The LEGO Movie. It's a less tangible prize for Chris Miller and Phil Lord than a statue to go in their toilet. But when, in 25 years' time, they meet someone who was inspired to go into the business when they saw The LEGO Movie for the first time - which will surely happen - then it may just be the prize that matters more. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here.