Beowulf may have taken the Number One spot at the box office, but is it animated? Several animators, plus director Robert Zemeckis, sound off.

(Writer's Note: This is Part #2 of a two-part story. For Part #1, click here)

Last weekend, Beowulf opened at #1 at the box office, making $28 million in its first weekend. Paramount has already submitted the film as a contender at next year's Oscars, vying for Best Animated Feature Film honours. The flick has now made the 12-film short list, which means that for now, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which runs the Oscars) considers Beowulf an animated film. But several prominent animators think the Robert Zemeckis movie shouldn't even be in the category.

"In my book, Beowulf is more like The Muppets Take Manhattan than Snow White," says animator Keith Lango (The Ant Bully), referring to the 1980's live-action puppets-with-humans flick versus the first ever feature-length animated film.

So What Is Animation?

If animators want to say what isn't animation, we need a definition for what actually constitutes an animated film. Enter Sheridan College of Animation professor Mark Mayerson.

"With animation, there is no motion that exists in the real world," he explains. "Animators construct motion out of stills and when the stills are rapidly displayed, they provide the illusion, not the recreation, of motion."

That's the "frame-by-frame technique" the Academy refers to when discussing the category. So what makes motion-capture different from animation?

"Motion capture starts with real world motion," Mayerson continues. "Artists may work on it afterwards to clean it up or to enhance it, but the basic motion begins as observable motion. From my perspective, anything done to that motion qualifies as a special effect, but not animation because the major part of the performance comes from real world observable motion."

AMPAS' Definition of Animation Flawed, Say Animators

However, under the "frame-by-frame technique" rule, Beowulf could qualify as an animated film. Right?

"I guess by the AMPAS's definition then sure, Beowulf is animation but then so is Annie Hall, Citizen Kane and Clerks," says Nelvana animator Barry Sanders. "Film is a frame by frame technique. What it fails to say is that animation requires a person to 'create' that motion frame by frame."

"I really don't care how the Academy defines animation," says Monster by Mistake creator Mark Mayerson. "The phrase 'frame-by-frame technique' is far too ambiguous and is responsible for the problems that exist with the Academy animation category."

But What About Rotoscoping?

Rotoscoping is an technique where artists paint images over pre-filmed stock. Many films have used the technique, including Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Even Walt Disney rotoscoped the human characters into his animated films all the way until 1961's 101 Dalmations.

Given that motion-capture is simply rotoscoping done on the computer, doesn't that squeak it into the category of animation?

"Even rotoscoping (which I also have some criticism of) requires someone to create something wholly new through the interpretation of existing action," says Sanders.

"Motion capture on the other hand is more what I would call an 'effect,'" he continues. "It captures motion in three dimensions the same way a camera captures the movement of images in two dimensions. Layering that recorded motion on various different characters models is similar to running filter effects on celluloid footage. I say that makes it a special effects film not an animated film but let's be fair to the artists because either way, it's a lot of work and it takes talent."

"Personally I think the term 'animated' has been altered and changed to mean 'rendered," says Lango. "Animation is a type of motion creation as well as artistic visual representation that implies a manual, hands on creation of things from scratch. Performance captured rendered films like Beowulf really only fit half of that definition (the visual representation part). Same goes for A Scanner Darkly."

So What Does Robert Zemeckis Think?

The most interesting opinion on whether Beowulf is considered an animated film comes from none other than the movie's director.

So far, Robert Zemeckis has made two films using motion capture: 2004's Polar Express and last year's Monster House, which he only produced. Gil Kenan directed that flick. Zemeckis and his ImageMovers Digital imprint is currently working on a motion capture version of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, starring the voice of Jim Carrey. The Walt Disney Company will distribute the flick, which doesn't have a release date yet.

However, Zemeckis denies that the format even compares to traditional, hand-drawn animation or even CGI.

"To call performance capture animation is a disservice to the great animators," he said at the International Broadcasting Convention last September. However, despite Zemeckis' statement, Paramount will still submit the film for consideration.

Is Beowulf An Animated Film?

"I just read that AMPAS just defined that Beowulf qualified for best Animated feature Film consideration," said Lango. "So I guess there's your answer for you."

However, the Academy can retroactively rescind a flick's listing if it decides a film doesn't make the category's criteria, much like it did with last year's Arthur and the Invisibles. However, that's highly unlikely. Warner Bros.' Happy Feet, which used motion-capture, won last year's Oscar. Given that Warner Bros., Sony and Disney have all gotten behind motion-capture, AMPAS is too much a political animal to make waves with such a decision.

More likely, if Beowulf fails to keep its box office numbers up, the Academy may simply duck the question by nominating three other films as finalists.

This year sees some very fierce competition from DreamWorks Animation's Bee Movie, Sony's Persepolis, Twentieth Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie, and Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille. Since there are less than 16 films in the short list, there will only be three animated movies nominated on Oscar night. So the numbers are against Beowulf already, if it doesn't become a roaring blockbuster a la Shrek 2.

Sooner or later, AMPAS will have to rule on whether or not motion-capture qualifies as animation. However, given the precedent set by Happy Feet, the studio bosses will likely win this round over the animators. We'll see more motion-capture movies shortlisted in the Best Animated Feature Film category.