Troy's Avatar Thread...

[Troy]

While I agree with your sentiments re; Sigourney, you really can't call any of the principle Na'vi characters "cartoons" since their movement was done by direct motion capture. They are more like enhanced visual representations of the actors. In effect the Avatars were digitally painted onto the actors. Certainly there's no scene in the whole film that looks "cartoonish" in any way.

Maybe to you. While Avatar is quite advanced over past motion capture characters, there is still no mistaking that they are animated. And they have features that are exaggerated. Cartoonish? That's just semantics. Do they have to appear cartoonish (IE: like Elmer Fudd) for the animation to be considered a cartoon? I say no. Animation=Cartoon.

This actually bring us an interesting conundrum. There's no way that Avatar is not going to get nominated for a host of Oscars.With that being said, how would you go about awarding something to Zoe Saldana? Best Actress? Certainly she's done much more than voice over work, and in any other movie that's what she would get nominated for. Remember it's not just the gross physical motion either, all the facial expressions were done by direct capture too. Does that diminish the actor's input to the point of NOT being able to be nominated for an award?

Motion capture=animation. Period. Animated characters have never been eligible for acting oscar® contention.

Yes, MC introduces an interesting conundrum. I have no idea how you determine where the line is for an actor getting a nomination if the character they portray is animated.

Certainly if the academy overlooks Zoe's performance, one that I thought stood out as very Oscar worthy, they are going to piss off both her and more importantly Cameron, and you don't piss off your #1 money maker. Avatar may wind up to be the highest grossing movie of all time! It's going to be interesting to see how the academy figures this all out. They might even have to add a new category, or several!

Well, I'm gonna disagree, there isn't a single acting performance in Avatar (animated or otherwise) that deserves a nomination, so we don't have to worry about it. Yet.

I suspect most actors don't like the idea of animated characters getting oscar® noms, whether they are MC or not.

I also think that your " you don't piss off your #1 money maker." comment, as it applies to acting nominations doesn't hold water. While this is true for most of the other major oscar® categories, the acting oscars® usually have nothing to do with box office. A look at nominations of the past will bear this out.

And to anyone that finds the writing in Avatar to be good, I direct you to this hilarious gem I found on the internets: