Overlooked, by Arthur Tebbel & Chris Toia – Pop Art… and Chris #9

January 26, 2009 Arthur Tebbel & Chris Toia 5 Comments

Dear Art & Chris,

This past week we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh computer and it should have been a banner week for me.  I was in charge of developing the first one.  However the Academy Awards really threw a wet blanket on my week when WALL-E was denied a nomination for Best Picture.  The Reader?  Really?  How angry should I really feel about this?
– Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.

Steve,

Sure you should be angry, the Oscar voters are a bunch of ancient buffoons, but not that angry.  You may be on a leave of absence from your day job (and feel better by the way) but you took a company with a group of die hard fans and turned it into one of the most respected brands in the world.  I mean I guess there are people out there without iPods but I wouldn’t want to meet any of them.  You also built a successful animation studio from the ground up and when you had beef with Michael Eisner over your deal with Disney you basically decapitated him.  I mean sure you got dissed this week but you’ve got a lot to be happy about.

The biggest problem with the academy is that they can’t tell a good movie from whatever movie Harvey Weinstein has sent them in a gift basket full of coupons for the early bird special at Spago.  I’m not saying they’re old but the first movie they voted for best picture was called “Mammoth” and they screened it on the cave wall.

What you should have issue with is the Animated Feature Oscar.  They can toss you guys at Pixar an Oscar every year and call it square all the while not having to admit that the best picture that year might have been a movie their kids liked.  It was clear after Beauty and the Beast came so close in 1991 that they couldn’t let that happen again.  So they built you guys a separate but equal Oscar.  They even let it on the same broadcast but I hear backstage the statue has to drink from a different water fountain.

You’ll get yours down the road though.  It’s all about the payback Oscar these days.  Training Day is a minstrel show compared to Malcolm X but guess what it says on Denzel Washington’s Best Actor Oscar?  And no one that’s seen both movies could put The Departed over Raging Bull.  They’ll get you back one day but get in line because they’ll probably pay you out after they get to Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino (well maybe not Tarantino).  I would save some space on your mantle for the shower of awards you’ll surely rake in for Cars 2.  Then you can join the list of cinematic masterpieces like Crash, Dances With Wolves, and The English Patient.  On second thought are you sure this is an award you want?