An Ode to Animated Characters Attending Awards Shows
Let Mater go to the Oscars!
In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introduced the Best Animated Feature award to their annual Oscars ceremony. The three nominees were Shrek, Monsters, Inc., and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Also in attendance? The stars of Shrek, Monsters, Inc., and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
That’s right: Jimmy Neutron, Donkey, Shrek, Sulley, and Mike all made the trek to Los Angeles for the inaugural presentation of the Best Animated Feature category! There they all are, seated in the audience! Isn’t it great, folks?
This is an awards show tradition that is always objectively funny. It is funny to imagine Shrek getting into a tuxedo and walking the red carpet to enter the Dolby Theatre. It is even funnier to imagine Sulley and Mike from Monsters, Inc. sitting in the audience and clapping through gritted teeth when they ultimately lose to Shrek, who is sitting a few rows away. It is funny to imagine two empty seats reserved for “Jimmy Neutron” and “Jimmy Neutron’s robot dog.” This is funny! The Oscars should do it every year!
Unfortunately — and I say this as someone who has carefully watched every single Best Animated Feature presentation multiple times — this tradition was only ever reprised once more. In 2006, multiple animated characters were again seated amongst the stars! Even Mater and Lightning McQueen were there! Remember: They are cartoon cars! Presumably, they entered through the parking garage. I’ve seen it dozens of times and I still laugh every time I see their befuddled car faces sitting in the middle of the theater.
This has happened a few other times, but in a different form. In 2016, Buzz and Woody presented Best Animated Feature. At the 2018 Emmys, Rick and Morty presented Best Reality-Competition Program to RuPaul’s Drag Race. In 2016, Minions, of Minions and Facebook-aunt-meme fame, presented Best Animated Short Film. When Up won Best Animated Feature, there was a cute little clip of Coraline and Mr. Fredricksen doing press interviews. And of course, when The Aviator won Best Costume Design in 2005, who presented the Oscar but the iconic fashion duo of Pierce Brosnan and uh, Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
All of this is fine, but none of it compares to the raw thrill of seeing characters from animated movies sitting next to real people in the audience of a real awards show. If the Oscars had continued this tradition, we would have been able to see Ferdinand the Bull, Shaun the Sheep, and the Boss Baby sitting in the middle of Hollywood’s best and brightest! And that’s just the past five years! Think how invigorating it would have been in 2004 to see, say, the Robert De Niro shark from Shark Tale rubbing elbows with the real Robert De Niro! Why wouldn’t you do that?
And we don’t have to stop there. I want this to happen even when the characters in question do not appear in a nominated film. I want animated characters to be everywhere! Imagine your excitement when you realize that’s Venom seated next to Tommy Lee Jones while Best Sound Editing is being presented! What if we cut to a shot of Kate Winslet and Supreme Leader Snoke was sitting directly behind her, laughing his ass off at some bit Will Ferrell is doing onstage? Make Daniel Day-Lewis sit next to Turbo, the snail from Turbo! The Oscars’ slumping ratings would be reenergized overnight.
Look, at the end of the day, do we all want Detective Pikachu to go to the Oscars? Yes. Of course we do. Make it happen, folks.
