This movie is WAY TOO OVERRATED, and I personally love the animated movie from Japan "Spirited Away". It was released in the same year as this, so I think it should have won Best Picture instead of this movie!
shareWRONG! It was released in 2001.
Want three steaks?... My mistake. Four steaks.
Spirited Away did win Best Animated Feature that year. I agree that it should have won the Best Picture award; it's a unique, moving and intensely imaginative film that far outclasses Chicago. Chicago has always impressed me as second-rate and pointless.
sharecompletely agree. spirited away is still and will be for years talked about, while i never hear anyone talk about chicago with its 6 oscars... the story appeals to a wider audience and miyazaki might be the best animation film director to date, so i guess hollywood wasnt ready for animated films.
shareOf course "Spirited Away" is a better movie than "Chicago". But how it works is that the AMPAS created the "Best Animated" category to keep animated films from willing the prestigious Best Picture award, because the AMPAS was created to promote and publicize the movie industry as a whole, and is currently run by conservative older types who think that only serious dramatic films should win the big gong.
And in 1991 "Beauty and the Beast" was a better movie than any of the Best Picture nominees, and is popular today while the winner "Dances With Wolves" has been forgotten.
I dunno... I love anime and hate musicals, but I though Spirited Away was a boring excuse for a lot of pretty and wild animation, while Chicago is the only musical I've ever loved and I was very impressed with it.
But yes, Dances With Wolves was a very forgettable movie.
I'm not seriously into anime, but I absolutely adore "Spirited Away". It's beautiful and haunting and spooky, and speaks to the childhood fears permanently lodged inside every human on Earth, the primal fear of separation from the parents.
Although I might actually like "Howl's Moving Castle" more, that one is more personal somehow, and perhaps more gorgeous.
Yeah, I need to see Howl.
However, first on my list from this director is The Wind Rises: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/
I've done my best to see all the Miyazaki films, and "The Wind Rises" didn't interest me much.
The two great ones are IMHO "Spirited Away" and "Howl", and I also really like "Castle in the Sky". For what that's worth, of course.
And in 1991 "Beauty and the Beast" was a better movie than any of the Best Picture nominees, and is popular today while the winner "Dances With Wolves" has been forgotten.
It WON because it's the best musical in DECADES! End of the story
shareYour ego is WAY TOO OVER-INFLATED if you think your opinion is fact.
I despise the word 'overrated'. There is no such thing - there are only differing opinions.
If you feel so strongly about it, write us a short essay - a few paragraphs - to back up WHY you think one film is better than the other.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds
It's impossible for Spirited Away to win best picture since it was not nominated
shareI love Chicago the musical, am obsessed with Bob Fosse, think Gwen Verdon was the greatest triple threat Broadway has ever had, love Kander and Ebb's score, loved the Brechtian and vaudeville style of the original production (and the revival which minimized it somewhat), etc. I defended the film version's win at the time because I loved the source material so much and I honestly wasn't too hot on the other nominees for Best Picture that year.
Now, though, this movie really was not really great cinema. I think it was a clever adaptation of a musical that is seriously difficult to translate on film (so much of what makes it work is due to it being live) and I think they did an all-around good job. However, this is not one of the best movie musical adaptations filmed. I hated Moulin Rouge and still do, but even I see how much more cinematic that was compared to this. I also am now a bit less forgiving of the above-average but not great performances here as well. I never bought CJZ as Velma. I felt her singing was a bit odd as was her manner of speech and didn't think her dancing was that great. Maybe it would have been if the choreography wasn't dumbed down (even moreso than the current Broadway revival was compared to Fosse's original choreography in 1975) and cut and edited to the point where we can even ascertain the choreography. I liked Zellweger's Roxie but after seeing the show live a few times, I realized she really just did a good job as she, as an actress, does not really elevate the material. Richard Gere has no charisma or personality in this role whatsoever. Queen Latifah was great but her rendition of "When You're Good to Mama" pales in comparison to other versions I've heard. I actually thought John C. Rielly gave probably the best performance on the film but even he was directed to be a bit too "aw shucks".
I agree with you that Spirited Away was one of the best films that year and was probably my personal pick for Best Picture. I think Spirited Away, Adaptation, Far From Heaven, About a Boy, Y Tu Mama Tambien, and About Schmidt were better films that year. Funny enough, none of them were nominated for Best Picture.