1990 Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Ron Clements and John Musker for The Little Mermaid

The year’s list of nominees reads impressively at first: Alfred Uhry for adapting his own stage play, Driving Miss Daisy, Oliver Stone no doubt lauding over poor Ron Kovic for their adaptation of Kovic’s painful past in Born on the Fourth of July, Roger Simon and Paul Mazursky for Enemies: A Love Story; Phil Alden Robinson’s often poetic Field of Dreams; and Jim Sheridan and Shane Connaughton’s serious and well crafted My Left Foot. But in the end, how, how, how, I ask, HOW did anyone trump The Little Mermaid? Arguably the most perfect animated screenplay since 101 Dalmatians, and a far better piece of stagecraft than the unsubtle and tortured preachings of Born on the Fourth of July or the polemic ramblings of Enemies, at the very least. In fact, Mermaid not only should have been nominated, but it should have walked away with the gold this year, as even Uhry’s authentically sentimental Driving Miss Daisy teetered too close to the edge at moments, as did Sheridan and Connaughton’s My Left Foot, and the ultimately silly Filed of Dreams. Mermaid was not only the film that turned the tide at Disney, but it was proof that animators are the best people to write animation, not live action screenwriters. And sometimes, certainly in this instance, they know their craft better than their peers. Yes it was a musical aimed largely at family audiences, but act for act, scene for scene it’s the closest thing to perfect story telling that American film has seen in decades. Recount!!!

1993 Best Actor in a Supporting Role
JONATHAN FREEMAN and ANDREAS DEJA – as Jafar in ALADDIN

Even now Oscar® devotees can’t handle the truth about Gene Hackman in Unforgiven having won this year. It was a great performance, but largely considered a sympathetic win to make up for other slights the actor suffered at the hands of the Academy over the years. It’s a fine job, to be sure, but the odds-on-favorite was Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. Add nominee Al Pacino to the mix for his work in Glengarry Glen Ross and you have exactly the sort of lineup that should have included the wickedly funny and arch slitherings of animator Andreas Deja and voice actor Jonathan Freeman in their work as Jafar. Too tight a race, you say? Really? Okay, then consider this: Jaye Davidson’s transformation in the The Crying Game has become boulevard fare in film these days, and David Paymer’s work in Mr. Saturday Night…well, describe the film and the role. Can’t? Exactly my point. But mention Jafar and you get instant recognition from the vast majority of filmgoers. Friedman and Deja’s work on the vile Vazeer is entirely in line with some of Hackman’s, Nicholson’s and Pacino’s wicked turns. And if it hadn’t been for that line of Jack’s, I think, truth be told, that Jafar should have been the one “handling�? the little gold guy.

Take a look at 1995’s Best Picture nominees. There’s controversial winner Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, sentimental favorite The Shawshank Redemption, and Quiz Show. Quiz Show? Okay, so the $50,000 question from us is ‘huh?!’ Where’s The Lion King? There’s just no excuse. Quiz Show is a fascinating film, but better than The Lion King and more memorable? Hardly. I’m not even the biggest fan of little Simba and that progressive animated same-sex couple of the savannah, Pumba and Timon, but the film was easily among the very best of 1993 and many critics think it stands head and shoulders above the one animated feature Oscar® did give the nod to just four years earlier (more on that later). To leave it off the Best Picture list of nominees is a terrible slight that would even have little Forrest shaking a finger at the Board of Governors.

1998 Best Actress in a Leading Role
Ken Duncan and Susan Egan – as Meg in Hercules

Here’s a performance, and actually an entire film, that was about fifty years too late to be appreciated by audiences to the degree is deserved. Hercules is a screwball comedy of the forties, and Meg is the kind of role actors like Rosalind Russell and Barbara Stanwyck would have fought over (okay…let’s pause and picture that for just a moment, shall we?) The front-row femmes who had their fingers crossed in ’98 were winner Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets, an under-appreciated Julie Christie for Afterglow, Judi Dench for Mrs. Brown, Helena Bonham Carter for The Wings of the Dove, and the nominee I think was the least deserving - Kate Winslet in the Titanic. Drop the dewy-eyed Ms. Winslet and make room for Ken Duncan and Susan Egan. There is ten times more subtlety and nuance in Duncan’s animation of Meg as Winslet displayed in the …what was it, seven hours that made up the Titanic? I don’t remember, I fell asleep and work up when she was old and played by Gloria Stuart. Give me the girl with weak ankles and a sketchy past over the dame at sea anytime. Alas, the ladies seldom win for their comedic turns, and the next forgotten contender is even better example…