2011 Oscar Animated Features Symposium

Thurs 2/24/11

The 83rd Academy Awards Oscar Nominated Animated Features Symposium was tonight and I had a great time seeing the nominated clips and hearing from the films' directors. I saw both Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon in the theaters last year but I had not even heard about the delightful, The Illusionist. Illusionist is a traditional 2 D hand drawn film about a stage magician in Europe during the 1960's. The film, which was written for adult audiences, looks absolutely beautiful to the eye and is very funny as well.

I think Toy Story 3 will win this category but this is the closest animation features race ever because HTTYD is phenom, too. Still TS3 writing was better with more 3 dimensional characters (no pun intended) with full back stories (i.e. Lotso and Big Baby). TS3 is up for best Picture, too but I doubt the academy is brave enough to pick it for a win over such a classic British film like King's Speech.

It was a nice outing but there were a few downers for the night. First, Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist's director was unable to make it from France because he was getting an award there. Then, I was unable to meet any of the other directors after the panel. I had already met Chris Sanders and Dean Deblois from HTTYD at the 3D film Fest last year but I was really trying to speak with TS3's, Lee Unkrich, but to no avail.

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes:
I was able to meet up and coming film critic, radio talk show host, artist and self-promotional whiz kid, Perry S. Chen. Perry is just 10 but he handled himself like a pro as he asked the panel questions and promoted his various websites and projects. Later, I got the opportunity to shake Perry's hand and he handed me his business card like a tried and true industry professional. We spoke about the business a bit then I spoke with Perry's mom, film producer Dr. Zhu Shen, about what's on the horizon for him.

I was able to view Perry's art work and movie reviews on-line and I concur with the Oscar panel's response that Perry's future is bright, indeed. Here's a list of awards that the 10 year old has already racked up:

Young Journalist awards:
- “Excellence in Journalism Award” at the San Diego Press Club, Oct 2010
- Honoree of the Cox Communications Asian Heritage Month, May 2010
- Vic Kops Children’s Challenge Award:
- “Excellent Writer for We Chinese” for movie review column, January 2010:

Art awards:
-San Diego County Fair, First Place, 2010 and 2009
-San Diego City Hall Children’s Art Show, October 2009
-San Diego International Art & Music Festival, January 2010

Check young Perry out at:

www.wsRadiocom/Perry
www.youtube.com/perryspreviews
www.facebook.com/perryspreviews
http://twitter.com/perryspreviews
www.linkedin.com/in/perryspreviews