Oscarless Animated Films Bonus Round

Oscarless Animated Films Bonus Round: In This Corner of the World (2016)

Warning! This movie is rated PG-13, so if kids are reading this, they should ask a parent to read it with them.

There has been a big change for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature: There has been a new rule stating that everyone at the Academy of Motion Pictures and the Arts should decide together on which animated movie deserve the award, and not just the animation experts and professionals. These are the finalists for Best Animated Feature.

From left to right: The Breadwinner, Ferdinand, Coco, The Boss Baby, and Loving Vincent.

This has flabbergasted millions of people that The Boss Baby got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, and superior films like The LEGO Batman Movie, Captain Underpants, and Cars 3 got snubbed. This especially angered anime fans, since two critically acclaimed anime films made it to the US this year and got really good reviews. These two movies are In This Corner of the World and A Silent Voice. Today, I will be talking about In This Corner of the World.

Based on the manga by Fumiyo Kouno, In This Corner of the World tells the emotional story of Suzu, a young girl from Hiroshima, who's just become a bride in the nearby city of Kure during World War 2. Living with her husband's family, Suzu has to adjust to her new life, which is especially difficult by regular air raids. But life must go on, and Suzu, through the help of her new family and neighbors, begins to discover the joys of everyday life in Kure. Much is gained in Kure, but with war, many things cherished are also lost.

It's extremely surprising that this movie didn't get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. It is so much better than many of the mainstream American animated films released in 2017. For starters, the animation is stylized and Ghibli quality.

The story is also very compelling and more engaging than Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, which was also set in World War 2.

In case you forgot/didn't know, The Wind Rises looks something like this.

The characters, mainly the protagonist Suzu, are also very likable and relatable, though not as compelling as other contemporary anime classics like The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Your Name, or, even though I haven't seen it yet, Wolf Children.

In conclusion, In This Corner of the World is an anime film that deserves to get the 2018 Oscar for Best Animated Feature nomination instead of The Boss Baby. instead, however, I reward this movie five trophy Emojis.

For those kids reading this review, you'll have to wait until you're at least 12 to watch this movie.