Tinker Bell Submitted for Oscar

The announcement of the 20 films submitted to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Animated Feature included a title I did not expect.  Turns out, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure had a brief, but qualifying run at the El Capitan in Los Angeles.  For one week, before it was on DVD, Tinker Bell was in a theater.

Does this fact disqualify it from this blog?

Video Business still considers it a straight-to-DVD title, including it in their straight-to-DVD rental charts, and I’m inclined to agree.  When determining the qualification of a film I try to consider the intent of distribution.  If Tinker Bell’s run was intended to be the beginning of a platform release but couldn’t generate enough interest, that’s one thing.  The intent would have been to reach an audience theatrically before releasing to DVD.  That was not the case here.  The intent was to meet the requirements of the Academy for Oscar consideration.

(Now, why they bothered is a matter of conjecture.  The Los Angeles Times suggests that Disney’s intent was to beef up the number of submissions to increase the chances that five, not three films would get nominations, thus increasing Disney’s chances of a win since they have so much animated product this year.)

In any case, we will continue to report on Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, with the full acknowledgement that a straight-to-DVD title even getting nominated for Best Animated Feature would be really, really weird.