Animation Feature Oscar: Spider Vs. Heron

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Credit: Sony Animation

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for 2018. Its sequel Across the Spider-Verse is a front-runner for the same award this year. The race is between Spider-Verse and Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki has won in this category for Spirited Away (2001) and is regarded as a master in the field, so he may be primed for a second Golden Guy. 

It's a tough choice. I watched Spider-Verse on Netflix and was totally stunned. There was so much happening in every frame, it was overwhelming. I did not see the 2018 film, so at first the plot was kinda confusing. But gradually we can figure out that we're in an alternate universe where Spider-Man is not Peter Parker, but Miles Morales, the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. In this world, there is also a spider-powered version of Gwen Stacy--or is she from yet another world? Evidently, there are an infinite number of universes, each with their own Spider-Man or Woman. For reasons not immediately clear, Miles is taken to a Spider- World where EVERYBODY has Spider powers. The plot is not as important as the action which is jam-packed and the multiple Spider heroes are fun. There's even a Spider-kitty and a Spider-dinosaur.

The Boy and the Heron has won almost every major pre-Oscar Award including the New York Film Critics Circle, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc. But Spider-Verse has taken the top prize and six others from the Annie Awards, the Oscars of the animation field. I liked both films, but I would vote for the beauty of Heron over the hyper-action of Spider-Verse. Plus the Academy voters may want to award Miyazaki over the Spider feature because the previous film won only a few years ago.

Now I've seen all the nominees in this category except Robot Dreams which doesn't seem to be available anywhere. I have only a few films left to see--The Color Purple and the Mission: Impossible film--in order to catch up with all the Oscar nominees

The Boy and the Heron

2023 Potential Oscar Nominated Films Seen So Far
Oppenheimer (34th Street AMC and again on Amazon Prime)
Barbie (Regal Union Square)
Asteroid City (Angelika)
Golda (County Theater, Doylestown, PA)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Regal Kaufman Astoria)

Rustin (Netflix)

The Killer (Netflix)--Tilda Swinton could nab a Supporting Actress nod
Maestro (Paris Cinema mezzanine and again on Netflix)
May December (Netflix)
Past Lives (Amazon Prime)
Poor Things (Regal Kaufman Astoria)
The Holdovers (Regal Union Square--and again on Amazon Prime)
American Fiction (AMC Empire 25--Times Square)
Anatomy of a Fall (Amazon Prime)

Nyad (Netflix)

Napoleon (Amazon Prime)

Society of the Snow (Netflix)

The Zone of Interest (Angelika)

Perfect Days (Angelika)

El Conde (Netflix)

The Creator (Hulu)

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Disney +)

*Still: A Michael J. Fox Film (Apple TV +)
Les Menus Plaisir--Les Troisgros (Film Forum)
20 Days in Mariupol (Frontline/PBS/Watched on the Passport app)
American Symphony (Netflix)

*Beyond Utopia (Independent Lens/PBS)

*Stamped from the Beginning (Netflix)

The Eternal Memory (MTV Documentaries/Paramount +)

Bobi Wine: The People's President (National Geographic/Disney +)

Four Daughters (Amazon Prime)

Elemental (Disney +)

The Boy and the Heron (AMC Empire 25--Times Square)

Nimona (Netflix)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Netflix)

Short Films
Live Action
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Netflix)
The After (Netflix)

*Yellow (YouTube)

Knight of Fortune (New Yorker/YouTube)

Red White and Blue (YouTube)

*The Shepherd (Disney +)

Invincible (YouTube)

Animated
*Boom (YouTube)
Pachyderm (YouTube, again at IFC)
*Once Upon a Studio (Disney +)

*Pete (YouTube)

Letter to a Pig (YouTube, again at IFC)

*Eeva (YouTube)

Our Uniform (IFC)

Ninety-Five Senses (IFC)

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (IFC)

*Wild Summons (IFC)

*I'm Hip (IFC)

Documentary

*How We Get Free (Max)

Island in Between (NY Times/YouTube)

*Deciding Vote (New Yorker/YouTube)

The Last Repair Shop (LA Times/Searchlight/YouTube)

*If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis (Independent Lens/PBS/watched on the Passport app)

*Between Earth and Sky (POV/PBS website)

The Barber of Little Rock (New Yorker/YouTube)

*Camp Courage (Netflix)

The ABCs of Book Banning (MTV Documentaries/Paramount +)

*Last Song from Kabul (MTV Documentaries/Paramount +)

*Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games (ESPN +)

Nai Nai and Wai Po (Disney +)

*short-listed but not nominated