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We’re going to be open all night long to discuss the Oscars. We’re still waiting to hear the winners, but here are the results of Cartoon Brew’s Oscar Survey. Will ILM’s Rango and Pixar’s La Luna win the Feature and Short categories as our readers predicted, or will there be upsets in those categories.

While we’re waiting to hear the results, take some time to read our interviews with the five nominees of the Best Animated Short category:

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (Wild Life)

Enrico Casarosa (La Luna)

Grant Orchard (A Morning Stroll)

Patrick Doyon (Sunday)

Bill Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg (The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: A Cat In Paris, A Morning Stroll, Academy Awards, Chico and Rita, Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Kung Fu Panda 2, La Luna, Oscars, Puss in Boots, Rango, Sunday, Wild Life

The New York Film Critics Circle, which I can only presume is a circle of film critics from New York, has announced their picks for the best films of the year. This year, they chose not to hand out an award for best animated feature. It’s the first time they’ve withheld the honor since initiating the category in 2000, which is a bold (and arguably unwarranted) rebuke of this year’s crop of animated features. Then again, the group isn’t afraid to take risks and consistently acknowledges worthy animated films. The winners of their best animated feature category over the last four years have been Persepolis, WALL-E, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Illusionist. Compare that to the Academy, whose membership has handed the Oscar to Pixar for the past four years in a row.

Meanwhile, the mysterious National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, which is comprised of “a select group of knowledgeable film enthusiasts, filmmakers, academics, and student,” also announced the winners of their film awards, and they chose ILM’s Rango as their best animated feature. It’s notable in that they’d given the animated feature award to Pixar for the last five years in a row. When the National Board of Review can’t bring themselves to pat Pixar on the back, you know the Oscar race is wide open.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: ILM, National Board of Review, New York Film Critic's Circle, Rango

In its second weekend, Carlos Saldanha’s Rio dropped a slim 32% to retain the top spot at the US box office. Its estimated $26.8 million weekend pushed the US gross to $81.3M. More impressive, its worldwide total stands at $283.9M, pushing it ahead of Rango’s $235.1M worldwide take as the top grossing movie of 2011. The other animated film in the US top ten was llumination’s Hop which benefited from a 16% Easter Weekend boost to place fourth. Its estimated weekend take of $12.5M pushed its domestic total to $100.5M.

For those keeping track, this is the fourth straight week that an animated movie has topped the US box office. Through the first four months of 2011, four of the top seven films at the worldwide box office have been animated. Even more noteworthy, only one of those films was released by Disney or DreamWorks. In a year when fewer people in the US are attending the movies than any year since 1995, animation is coming into its own and dominating Hollywood as never before. With any luck, these successes will encourage greater experimentation and diversity within the medium.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: Hop, Rango, Rio

In case you were curious, the end titles of Rango were produced by Venice, California-based Prologue, the studio helmed by title designer Kyle Cooper. Watch the titles HERE.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: Kyle Cooper, Prologue, Rango

Haven’t seen Rango yet, but apparently the villain puffs a cigarette and the film is rated PG due to scenes of smoking. This has incensed the folks at Smoke Free Movies to start a campaign to get the animated film an R rating.

They took out an ad in the Hollywood trade papers last week to call attention to Rango and 21 other Oscar nominated films from 2010 (which include Alice In Wonderland and The Illusionist) that include scenes of characters smoking. Here’s an excerpt (below) from their full page advertisement published in the March 3rd Hollywood Reporter. See the full ad here.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Rango, Smoking