THE LEGO MOVIE Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller Respond to Oscar Snub
GeekTyrant editor Ben Pearson published a "top movies of 2014" lists that had The LEGO Movie on it, and my unpublished list also included it. There are so many ways in which the movie should not have been good, yet despite all that it had a story that was original with true depth. Critics, directors, and fans of the movie were in shock at the complete snub it received from the Academy/Oscars in the category of "best animated feature." While the song "Everything is Awesome" did get a nomination, let's be honest: it's a throwaway category that always struggles to have enough good nominees.
The directors of The LEGO Movie, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, took to Twitter to graciously vent.
Lord and Miller spoke to Esquire about the snub:
"We're really in the black on this movie. We made it in order to inspire families and kids and people. And we've been justly rewarded for that and we feel really lucky. The award stuff is its own thing and of course we're disappointed, but it's not the reason we made the movie. There's no way to not be pleased with the outcome of this film."
Miller added, "Seeing the outpouring of the fans today was really something special."
James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) weighed in on the Oscars nominations yesterday, saying that The LEGO Movie snub was "just fucking ridiculous."
Gunn blamed the age of Academy voters:
"I think that Academy voters did not watch the movie. I really think that's the only possible way [it didn't get nominated]. Listen, when I heard there was a Lego movie I thought, 'That's a silly kids idea. I'm not going to see that movie.' And then people started telling me how good it was and I went to see it. The average Academy member is 63 years old. They get all these screeners and they don't know what The Lego Movie is so they don't watch it. But The Lego Movie is one of the very finest films of the year. It's a great movie that works on all levels and it should have been nominated for Best Animated Feature."
Hear hear! I really think the Academy is showing that it's out of touch with this and the snub on Selma director Ava DuVernay. The Oscars is losing the respect of a lot of people and it's a trajectory that been happening for a long time. I wonder if an influx of younger and more racially diverse Academy voters could turn things around.
Finally, the team at JoBlo created an edit of the characters in The LEGO Movie reacting to the Oscar snub. It encapsulates very well how a lot of people feel about it.