Disney's Rich Ross is really crazy: He thinks Pixar should win a best picture Oscar

If there were ever something that Hollywood should be embarrassed about, it’s that Pixar has never won an Oscar for best picture — despite making 11 consecutive commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies. In fact, until last year, when the motion picture academy enlarged its best picture nominee list from five to 10 films, the animation house had never even landed a nomination in the category. It finally broke through with “Up,” but the movie was never a serious contender for best picture, which went to “The Hurt Locker.”

This year, Pixar has spawned another cinematic delight, “Toy Story 3,” which has made more than $1 billion around the world and garnered what are arguably the best reviews of the year, earning a 99% positive review score at Rotten Tomatoes. Disney, which bought Pixar in 2006, is so frustrated that the studio’s boss, Rich Ross, has publicly announced that, instead of settling for a best animated film Oscar, he’s going for the big enchilada.

Ross has boldly laid his cards on the table. “We’re going for the best picture win,” he said in a recent interview with insider showbiz news blog Deadline Hollywood. “For some reason an animated film has never gotten best picture and I always wondered was there not an appetite? We decided this year we have the biggest and best-reviewed film of the year. If not this year, and not this movie, when?”

Ross is putting his money where his mouth is. In the past, Disney has often skimped on its Oscar campaigns. But the studio has launched an ad blitzkrieg in the trades and in The Envelope (published by the L.A. Times) attempting to woo Oscar voters by linking “Toy Story 3” characters to familiar images from past best picture winners.

I hate to break the news to Ross, but he’s wasting his studio’s money. Even worse, if Ross keeps boasting about how he won’t rest until he’s scored a best picture statuette for Pixar, he’s going to end up like Harvey Weinstein, who staged a similarly noisy campaign for “Gangs of New York” trying to win a best director trophy for Martin Scorsese, who’d never won an Oscar. That backfired. When Scorsese finally won for directing “The Departed,” Scorsese didn't campaign at all.

Although “Toy Story 3” represents another great chapter in the Pixar history book, the film doesn’t have a prayer of winning best picture. Because Ross is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, I guess I should explain to him how this whole circus-like Oscar process works. (No one at Disney, from Ross down to Tony Angellotti, who handles the studio’s animated film Oscar campaigns, would talk about the studio’s award season efforts.) Still, Ross raises a fair question: Why shouldn’t his film win?

Ross has every reason to complain about Pixar getting the short end of the stick. “Wall-E” didn’t get a best picture nomination in 2009, even though it was just as good as “The Reader.” Ditto in 2008 for “Ratatouille,” which was just as good as “Atonement,” or “The Incredibles” in 2005, which was just as good as “Finding Neverland.”

But here’s the sad truth. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t appreciate, much less understand, animated film. Everyone also points the finger at the actor’s branch of the academy, which represents by far the largest chunk of members — presumably members who, being actors, would never vote for a film that has no actors on screen. But the problem goes much deeper.

The real issue is that Oscar voters over the last few decades have completely lost touch with their original mandate, which was to reward the films that best represented the craft of filmmaking.

If you look at Oscar winners from the 1930s through the 1960s, they were often crowd-pleasing films that were rewarded for their entertainment value, not necessarily for any weighty drama or social themes. The winners list includes such popcorn pictures as 1934’s “It Happened One Night,” 1942’s “Casablanca,” 1956’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” 1963’s “Tom Jones!” or 1968’s “Oliver!” Even as late as 1976, “Rocky” beat “Taxi Driver” and “All the President’s Men.”

But since the “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” generation came of age inside the academy, virtually every victory has been for seriousness of purpose. It’s been more than 30 years since a comedy won best picture. Sci-fi and superhero movies are roundly ignored.

Pixar films are triumphs of storytelling craft, heart-tugging sentiment and technical polish, but Pixar’s warm, suburban vision of America isn’t held in especially high esteem by the academy. If I had a dollar for every mom I know who cried when Andy and his mother took one last look at his room, its shelves emptied of all his belongings as he headed off to college, I could afford to bankroll my own Oscar campaign. But heart doesn’t cut it with best-picture voters, not unless you’re actually cutting out someone’s heart, as you could easily imagine some of the central characters doing in such bloody best picture winners as “The Hurt Locker,” “No Country for Old Men,” “The Departed,” “Gladiator” or “Braveheart.”

Pixar faces another insurmountable problem. In an era when the best-picture Oscar winner is synonymous with audacious filmmaking, no one in town has heard of most of the great Pixar directors. The other day, when a top studio executive was saying how much he admired “Toy Story 3,” I asked if he’d ever met with the film’s director. “Ughm, what’s his name again?” he replied. (It’s Lee Unkrich, not that most academy voters would know.) In an industry that has firmly embraced the auteur theory, few people take Pixar directors seriously because, until recently, there were usually two or even three directors listed on each picture.

Auteurs can be many things but not co-directors. If Ross wants to throw money at his Oscar best-picture problem, he should start taking out ads promoting Pixar’s roster of stellar filmmakers. “Driving Miss Daisy” is the only film since the early 1930s to win best picture without earning a best director nomination for its filmmaker. But no director of an animated film has ever won a nomination, and it’s hard to imagine things being different this year.

When it comes to best-picture glory, Pixar has gotten the shaft over and over again. But spending millions of dollars buying clever Oscar ads isn’t going to make a difference, although it will surely inspire wonderers to wonder about the whole pay-to-play aspect of the Oscar game. The only way an animated film will win a best picture Oscar is if the academy changes its mind-set about what represents a great film. For now, if you’re Pixar, you’ve earned our eternal cinematic gratitude for making movies that appeal to our childlike sense of wonder, sorrow and delight. But you still haven’t earned the right to be taken seriously by the motion picture academy.

Photo: Rich Ross arriving at the 2009 premiere of "The Princess and the Frog" in Burbank.   

Credit: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times

 

Comments

[Marcus]

Toy Story 3 was the best film of the year, and animated movies are as enternal as live movies, it's unfair what you said. I think everybody deserves a chance, so it's sad that you're taking your time to write about things that are not related to you or your life. It's easy to talk, but making things are diferent.
Who are we to judge others?

[Gray64]

I agree with you entirely. Given that Toy Story 3 is easily one of the year's best films, it should logically be a contender for best film.
However, something a lot of people seem to lose sight of is that the Academy Awards are by, for, and about the movie industry. It's not the People's Choice awards. It's not about box office receipts or film popularity, or really even which film or performer or what have you was the best for it's year. It's about who industry insiders feel like giving the award to. It really has nothing to do with you and me or anyone who's not a member of the Academy. I know so many people who seem to get really upset about the Oscar's "snubbing" aomeone. The Academy Awards belong to the Academy. For them, it's "La Cosa Nostra". The rest of the world has no say in it. Isn't that how it should be?

[Sam]

Here's another reason it won't win - It has a 3 in the title.

[Sam Mills]

If the Academy had a different Best Picture for Drama and Comedy, then it may have a chance. I'm sure it will win the Golden Globe for Best Picture (comedy) much in the same way Toy Story 2 did.

Alas, this hasn't exactly been a great year for high profile nominees. I actually think Inception may indeed win this year, and it would totally deserve it. I can't think of another film that has come out this year that even comes close to the buzz generated by it.

Indeed, sci-fi and comic book films are ignored (unless you count LOTR: Return of the King, the closest to sci-fi you'll find among the Best Picture winners). It just goes to show the Academy has a one track mind when it comes to its selections.

And yet, the tides may indeed change. There's always room for a surprise here, and the Academy will always go with the revolutionary choice when there isn't anything standard to award. This year may indeed be one of those years...but it's a long shot.

[Anonymous]

"Disney, which bought Pixar in 2006, is so frustrated that the studio’s boss, Rich Ross, has publicly announced that, instead of settling for a best animated film Oscar, he’s going for the big enchilada."

They're so frustrated they're going to do what? Patrick Goldstein and James Rainey on entertainment and media, there is a reason you're blogging on LA Times instead of covering real stories. You are both talentless hacks unworthy of an editor. You guys are an embarrassment.

Also, Toy Story 3 deserves this win.

[Bravura]

"Wall-E" was boring and bloated.

"Toy Story 3" was a plaything's version of Schindler's List, only more depressing. Every frame of it dripped with a forced, overwrought angst your average televangelist would be ashamed to employ.

Pixar is teetering on the edge of hubris. Rich Ross may be *fabulous*, but even he has no chance of gaining an Oscar for movies where pixels instead of actors do the emoting.

[Maddie]

while I do agree that the Academy voters should be more open minded unto what they decided to honor, I do not believe that they need to vote for what the public wants. Do we really want Jackass winning any oscars?

[Marie]

Frankly, I don't care about the Oscars. I've long ago stopped paying attention to the awards they hand out, as I've found that they are absolutely no indication of a film's ability to appeal to me. But, I think when it boils down to it, Toy Story 3 was the best movie released this year.

Of course, with all of the internal politics and stupidity that's ramapant in the industry, it won't win. But it deserves to. I don't think fighting for something you deserve is ever a waste of time, even if you're destined to lose that fight. You don't change anything by just throwing your hands up in the air and giving up before you've even fought the fight.

[Michael Flinn]

I'm with Mr. Sean-Collins Smith. Are the chances of TS3 winning high? Not really. But how can you succeed if you don't even try?

@Josh, More like Nolan doesn't stand a chance against Fincher, The Coens, or Aronofsky. And yes, I have seen Inception, Social Network, True Grit, and Black Swan. All were EXCELLENT.

[fancritic21]

Its too bad though Toy Story 3 was an amazing film. It truly was brilliant even better than Up and Beauty and the Beast(2 other films animated nominated for best picture) not only in my own opinion but it has higher ratings on imdb and rotten tomatoes. I honestly wish that Toy Story 3 or Inception could win best picture but its most likely going to go to The Social Network. Which don't get me wrong was an excellent/great film but it just doesn't compare to my top 2 Toy Story 3 and Inception. I just hope for this years Oscars that Christopher Nolan gets his Oscar(whether in orginal Screenplay or directing most likely screenplay) and Toy Story 3 will win more technical awards and obviously best animated feature. I mean it'd be cool if Toy Story 3 also got another major category hit like best adapted screenplay or director but that's not likely.

Either way its safe to say that in my opinion Toy Story 3 will have a good place in movie history since the Whole Toy Story Trilogy is brilliant/amazing just like The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or The Star Wars Trilogy(original obviously). Inception also has a good place in film history as well. Remember the Oscars aren't everything.