No love for The LEGO Movie at The Academy Awards

January 16, 2015 | 5

You’ve probably heard the news and the wailing and gnashing of teeth among armchair film critics, LEGO fans and pretty much every person who has watched The LEGO Movie. I’m no Roger Ebert but read my review to see what I thought of it.

When I first heard the news early this morning, I was understandably upset. I love movies – I love good movies and I love it when the Oscars roll around because normally you’d see the best films, filmmakers and actors get recognised for their outstanding work in advancing the art and science of the motion picture. I was quite pissed when How To Train Your Dragon 2 beat out The LEGO Movie for Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globes, so the Oscar snub infuriated me even further.

Ask anyone who’s watched The LEGO Movie and they’ll mostly say that they enjoyed it and it was one of the better films in theatres last year. 2014 was an interesting year for animated movies with the absence of Pixar, which meant that the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature was thrown wide open. Judging by the countless news articles today, many industry observers were shocked that The LEGO Movie wasn’t even nominated.

I love good movies. One of my personal mantras is that “Life is too short to watch bad movies”. I consider myself a decent armchair movie critic and I think I have good taste in movies. I love arguing with my friends over who should win the Oscar and which movies are overrated.

Well I’m here to tell you that this year’s Academy Awards nomination list is an absolute travesty. In fact, the omission of The LEGO Movie from the nomination isn’t even the biggest thing I’m outraged about. There were so many snubs this year, many more than usual.

Check out the full, disappointing list to really get your blood boiling.

I compiled a list of films and actors that have been royally screwed over by The Academy this year:

• Gone Girl – robbed of an Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Music awards
• Nightcrawler – robbed of Best Picture, Best Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal)
• Selma (haven’t seen this yet) – robbed of Best Actor (David Oyelowo)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel – robbed of a Best Actor nom for Ralph Fiennes

I haven’t watched the other movies, but people are also pissed that Jennifer Aniston and Amy Adams didn’t receive nominations. I’m quite confident that this is by far the worst Nomination List that The Academy has put out. In fact, this year’s nomination list makes me angrier than the year that Crash won over Brokeback Mountain. It’s also an open secret that the Oscars are all about politics than truly recognizing the best in cinema.

It’s okay. Made my own! pic.twitter.com/kgyu1GRHGR

— philip lord (@philiplord) January 15, 2015

I love Phil Lord’s (one of The LEGO Movie’s co-director) tongue in cheek reaction to the snub and is something that all of us, as LEGO fans should emulate. While there is legitimate and deserving outrage, not being nominated for the Oscar does not undermine The LEGO Movie’s amazing reputation as an animated film.

In fact, we can now say that The LEGO Movie is in the same league as Leonardo DiCaprio, who is famous for being the poster child of Oscar snubs. Also, it helps to be reminded that legendary director Martin Scorcese didn’t win an Oscar till 2006 for The Departed.

Not being nominated for this year’s Academy Awards doesn’t detract from The LEGO Movie at all. Not one bit. An argument can be made for the wasted opportunity of honouring Phil Lord & Christopher Miller for their outstanding work in animation (they also didn’t get a nom for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs), but hey at least they were recognized at the Critics Choice Awards (Best Animated Feature) and  a whole other bunch of accolades.

In fact, I’m gunning for The LEGO Movie to win big at the BAFTAs. Personally, I think the BAFTAs edge out The Oscars in every way except for the glitz, glamour and shameless glorification of the Hollywood elite that the Academy Awards is best known for.

So yeah, don’t take The Oscars too seriously. It’s not the end of the world that The LEGO Movie missed out. Everyone knows that the old fogeys at the Oscars know squat about films. After all, do you really trust the opinions of the bunch of dinosaurs that awarded Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan? Thought so.