WALL-E, Waltz With Bashir Win at Golden Globes

HFPA Honours Disney/Pixar, Sony Pictures Classics Movies

Jan 12, 2009

WALL-E and Waltz With Bashir won in their categories at this year's Golden Globes. Plus, WALL-E wins at People's and Critics' Choice Awards.

Disney/Pixar's WALL-E, and Sony Pictures Classics' Waltz With Bashir, won their respective categories at last night's Golden Globe Awards, put on once a year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But, in a move that could be indicative of WALL-E's chances at a Best Picture Oscar, it wasn't even considered for any of the main categories.

WALL-E easily won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film, beating out DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda and Disney Animation's Bolt. However, the Peter Gabriel song from that movie lost to Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" in the category of Best Original Song, and WALL-E didn't even receive a nomination for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy category.

Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona won that category, while Danny Boyle's live-action film Slumdog Millionaire took home 4 awards: Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), and Best Original Score (by A.R. Rahman).

Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir, an autobiographical film detailing one man's struggle to remember his role during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, won the Best Foreign Language Film category.

WALL-E also took Best Animated Film at the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, while Waltz With Bashir took the Best Foreign Language Film category. Slumdog Millionaire repeated its multiple wins, taking awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Young Actor/Actress (Dev Patel), and Best Original Score.

Since The People's Choice Awards (handed out Thursday) doesn't have an Animated Film category, WALL-E won the Favourite Family Film category, beating Kung Fu Panda and the live-action The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It also doesn't have a Best Foreign Language category (meaning Waltz With Bashir was completely ignored), and Slumdog Millionaire didn't show up on that show's radar, not getting a single nomination.

If these award wins are any indication, it appears that if Disney/Pixar wants to garner critical respect outside of the animation ghetto, WALL-E likely isn't the vehicle for its ambitions. Right now, the Andrew Stanton film is a certain win for Best Animated Feature Film. However, Disney has made it plain that it wants a Best Picture nomination for the film.

“If we didn’t do it, I don’t think we’d be giving the movie its due,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, told the New York Times about Disney's decision to make a Best Picture run for WALL-E.

However, despite the film winning every animation category it's been nominated for, it hasn't even been a presence outside of the toon ghetto. Although the final nominees for this year's Oscars haven't been announced yet, it won't be surprising if WALL-E doesn't even get a nomination for Best Picture.

At least it will be among good company: despite becoming the 2nd highest grossing movie of all time, it's doubtful The Dark Knight will get any Oscar respect beyond the technical awards, and a posthumous Best Supporting Actor nod for Heath Ledger.

Ironically, Disney/Pixar's previous film Ratatouille would have been a stronger choice to take to the awards season. Despite a weak marketing blitz by the Mouse House, that film won a groundswell of support by virtue of the fact that it was the best reviewed film of 2007, getting more kudos from critics than that year's Best Picture Oscar winner, No Country For Old Men.

WALL-E, while still making countless critics' top 10 lists, wasn't the #1, especially when compared to live-action standouts like The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire or The Wrestler.

Ultimately, WALL-E is going down in cinematic history as yet another brilliant Disney/Pixar movie, which is good news for its catalogue sales but not for its award aspirations. Much like director Martin Scorsese (until last year's warhorse win for The Departed), Disney/Pixar's creative output is doomed to being a critical and fan favourite, but a perennial also-ran when it comes to Oscar glory.

The copyright of the article WALL-E, Waltz With Bashir Win at Golden Globes in Animated Films is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish WALL-E, Waltz With Bashir Win at Golden Globes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.