Over Christmas break, I was sitting at my kitchen table, wondering about the state of the world and my place in it. Well, mostly, I was just doing the almost-but-not-yet graduated dance, wondering what I was going to do with my life. A particularly profound thought struck me that, as of May 23rd, I will no longer be under the control and guidance — and financial care — of the cash cow. I'm not referring to my parents — who I would never refer to as the cash cow, but something more refined, like the cash llama or the cash flying unicorn — but the illustrious institution that is Notre Dame.
This might seem a paradox, since Notre Dame is that glorious entity which sucks bucks from our savings accounts and parental send-my-kid-to-college pots, but in my experience, Notre Dame is a great place to get free money, also known as grants for unique study of a specific topic related to one's major. I am —as my smattering of readers already know — a music and film/TV major. I've gotten grants before, so it disheartened me greatly to realize that in three months I'll no longer be able to whip open the grant common app and develop a new project, completely funded by the woman atop the dome. Which is why I immediately texted a fellow music major and said, "Wanna go to Vienna for spring break?"
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Schumann, Mahler, Schonberg, Webern and Berg all had some sort of massive connection to Vienna. Most are buried there. And that's pretty much a greatest hits list of music history. So last week, three voice majors and I found ourselves sitting pretty, tight in the womb of Austrian Air, on our way to the original music city. This unique venue — my leg-roomy seat next to a fellow performance-minded Domer on an international flight — is where today's tantrum takes place. Might I now direct your attention to the delightfully fruitful state of children's animated film?
My musical comrade and I's choice for in-flight entertainment was the animated Disney film, "Tangled," which opened in 2010 and was politely ignored by most of the wider industry. I assumed it would be a pleasant little film, with voices by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, which would only be worth my time because I didn't really have much else to do. Instead, it was a great movie, with catchy music and truly funny moments. My friend and I were laughing out loud and smiling the whole time, except for the unpredictable climax, which had me clutching my stuffed ducky and staring intently at the little five-inch screen with the attention and devotion of someone watching Boromir's death scene.
It was a fabulous movie, and if I had kids, I would certainly have taken them to see it. When it was over I turned to fall asleep, but my friend, visibly delighted by the film, put his headphones back on and decided to watch it again. This got me thinking — is there any movie in the past year, or past five years, that I would honestly want to watch twice in a row? Nay say I, but in that moment I did honestly contemplate joining in a second time. Why? What was it about this seemingly throwaway animated movie that made me feel so content with my entertainment?
In the past year, "Toy Story 3," "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Tangled," all were released to strong reviews and achieved very successful box office numbers. Yet their coverage and popularity was all but drowned out by Oscar's heavy hitters such as "The King's Speech" and "Black Swan."
Last semester in Film Theory, our professor walked in and told us "How to Train Your Dragon" was the best film he'd seen all year. I rolled my eyes. A non-Disney animated movie? Seriously? But I saw it before Christmas, and it was, indeed, fabulous – especially the orchestral score. "Toy Story 3" is the only movie I've ever seen that made middle-aged men cry as hard as 13-year-old girls. And here was my friend, sitting on an airplane watching "Tangled" twice in a row. Which leads me to think — why aren't we going to see more animated children's movies? They are doing something right!
The Academy instituted the award for Best Animated Feature in 2001, with hopes that it would bring more prestige and attention to animated films. Unfortunately, it also pegged most animated films to a singular destiny of getting the honor of being nominated for an Oscar only to lose to Pixar's offering of the year, as has been the case for the past four years and counting. It also means that nobody bothered to vote for "Toy Story 3" for Best Picture, since everyone knew it was getting a golden haul anyway.
So here's my call to my collegiate cohorts: go out and watch the animated movies you planned on seeing only if it were on in your friend's room, or if you had to take your little sister. They are worth your time, and often far more satisfying than the big-name movies hogging the marquee. I saw "Black Swan." I was intrigued, scared and ultimately unimpressed. It doesn't take that much to act crazy and anxious for an hour-and-a-half. It is, however, quite an accomplishment to convince someone to be swept into a fantasy world and make a bid for human dignity. Especially when you're doing it with dragons.
