Dawn Treader cut from Best Visual Effects Academy Award Nominations

January 6, 2011 Paul Martin The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Movie News 55

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has further narrowed the list of potential films that are up for a nomination for Best Visual Effects.  The list used to contain about 15 films, and eight have been cut, leaving seven.  The seven potential nominees are Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter, Inception, Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Tron: Legacy.

They will be cutting two more films before the final list of five will be named for academy voters.

Not making the cut are The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Shutter Island, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Unstoppable.

This is unfortunate, as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had some of the best visual effects of the year, period.  Definitely better than Harry Potter’s.  Not sure about Hereafter and Scott Pilgrim, though.

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55 Comments

  1. This is really sad. I have not seen all of those movies, but I can say for sure that the effects in VDT were amazing. If only it made it at least one tier further…

  2. I thought the effects in VDT were mediocre at best. There were places where I cringed at the effects (the shot of Dragon Eustace roaring was rather videogame-esque). The effects in Prince Caspian were one of that film’s strong points, being so realistic, but VDT was not at all as impressive. There were good places (the wave at the world’s end and the ship at sea!!), but they should have all been good, not just some. If the effects for this film were really the best of the year, I have lost faith in CGI.

      • The problem with the Dragon, is that a lot of people thinks that the skin is a normal reptile skin, and if you looks very close, you can find that the skin of the Dragon is Like Metal (I think that the skin is made of Gold). So if You Have a Dragon made of gold, it never have a realistic Skin. For Me the VFX of the Dragon was great!! 🙂

    • From an objective perspective, Arvan is correct. Out of all the potential nominees, I will say that Inception definitely deserves to make it to the finals. That film was amazing.

      • I agree completely with Arvan! Think of LWW and PC, They had better special effects and they were made when Special effects were just developing! Like Arvan said, I loved the wave part but some parts with the ~~~green mist~~~ and the dragon just weren’t real looking enough. I think it deserves 15th not 1st

        • Don’t even get me started about the Green Mist. That sacrifice looked like a cartoon!!!!!!!

          • I know!!! HAHA, someone finally agrees with me! I thought the green mist ruined the movie and if they wouldn’t of rushed through the beggining( the good part ) and drug the end on it would’ve been a million times better!

          • Frankly, I disagree… entirely. The green mist, I thought, looked awesome. Definitely looked better in 3D, but awesome none-the-less. I mean, what do you want SMOKE to look like? That’s just how it looks.

            Personally, I have a feeling that it’s not the look of the green mist, but rather that it is there at all that many have a problem with. I understand not appreciating something that isn’t in the book. However, if you read my review, you know I don’t have a problem with it at all and why.

          • I already understood that you liked ~~~the green mist~~~ But IDK something about the scene where they were in the jail and the green mist consumed the people, the mist looked really fake compared to the realness of the of the background. I REALLY liked a lot of the changes! The swords were kind of cool, I REALLY liked where SPIOLER… Lucy turns to Susan … Spoiler I also liked how they combined some of the islands! I liked the beginning with the soldiers! I don’t have a problem with them straying on minor things! But they made the green mist %50 of the movie! and it wasn’t even in the book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

          • Something that’s not in the book used as a major plot point doesn’t get to me at all. The only shot that I think shouldn’t have been there when they introduced the green mist at that part was the shot of the clouds in time-lapsed motion. The clouds were grey, and definitely didn’t fit. They would only have fit if the skies were darkened.

          • Well it sure gets to me! But I wasn’t complaining about the Green Mist in the plot, which I didn’t like much, but about its visual aspect. The really bad part was during the sacrifice, when the mist looked like a 2D animation from a cartoon. Ugh. Oh, and I did see it in 3D, by the way.

          • Yes thats what i’m talking about, when they introduced it that scene was just horrible! but other than that I guess the animation was pretty good.

          • I liked it, I think the “idea” was to make it look a little ‘cartoonish”, it gave the mist a “unique” look to it. It made it look like it was from another world, ont normal, mysterious. If it had looked real it would have looked too much like a ghost or something related to it.

  3. I don’t understand…the effects in VDT were amazing!!!…the islands..the different creatures in it…the big wave of water…the dragon…the lion and the mouse…and oh yh and the picture with the boat…wats not to like…these were incredible and there was soo many of them and they are new…VDT deserves better than this…at least it got to the top 15…hopefully VDT wins atleast a reward!!!

  5. I thought the visual effect were amazing as well. hopefully it will win something…it deserves it!

  8. Could you tell me which VFX parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Iron Man 2 are really amazing?, i think that VDT doesn´t have the best VFX of the year, but considering this list of last seven, Narnia 3 is in the first five.

    • I couldn’t tell you with Harry Potter, but Iron Man 2 is incredible. They look so realistic that you can’t tell when it is an effect any when the image changes from real to computer animated versions of the characters. The goal is for the effects to be incredible and seamless.

      • Im agree with you about the realistic, but when you use the effects only in 5% of that kind of movie, to me is really disapointing. Iron Man 2 is around of 1 hr and half of a boring story of Tony Stark ( less than 2% of vFX in it ), 25 minutes of Avengers advertising, and only 10 minutes of real action with complex VFX. To me is not sufficient to be considered to compete for an Oscar.

        • Believe me when I tell you, it’s got a lot more than that in the way of special effects: i.e. EVERY time that you see the Iron Man armor and War Machine armor, it is CG. The only times that it is real, is when you see it in a case.. I believe there is a percentage rule, but I’m not sure what that could be. That said, the original TRON was not allowed to compete in the Oscar race in 1982 because it was believed that using computers for special effects was cheating. I wonder if there are any movies that can be found these days that have no computer use at all.

          • I understard and i Agree with you about the academy criteria with the VFX, is the same thing, when in the same year Master and Commander was nominated for visual FX, and they don´t give consideration to Matrix Reloaded or Matrix Revolutions

          • What do you think VOTDT should’ve gotten Paul? And how did they do special affects in old movies without computors

          • Pegaso75 – I completely agree. I remember that like it was yesterday, as I also run MatrixFans.net and found that to be a travesty that year.

            Patrick – Not sure what you mean, however I felt that it should have been nominated. Also, watch the original Star Wars trilogy (Pre-Special Edition) and you’ll see stuff that you believe was done with computers. All of the ships were models.

          • oh I see what you mean now Paul… The other thing I was talking about was that, VOTDT only got 15th in the Best Visual Effects Academy Award Nominations, what would you have given it?

          • Getting to the top 15 doesn’t mean that it ranked 15th. It surely wasn’t at the BOTTOM of that list. Making the top 15 means that, regardless of what we feel, those in the industry felt it to be one of the top 15 films of the year with regard to special effects. They don’t rank them, they’re just narrowing the list for the Academy rules, and the the final five will be voted on for one winner.

            I don’t even know where I would rank it, but it would be in the top 5.

  9. Oh I am so tired of hearing about all the bad results of VDT, it was a great movie!!! Why can’t Narnia just be up there with other movies in everyone else’s opinions too. Most of my top favorite movies are in the cut list(happy for Inception and HP7 though…Narnia is still better though)! So annoyed, but at least they were nominated. I guess everyone has opinions. I just don’t understand why Narnia has become so unpopular. I will admit some parts of the CGI in VDT were a little off, but only if you compare it to LWW and PC, it still deserves to be up in the top list. I’m just really hoping the Narnia films can find a way to knock everyone’s socks off again!!!!!

    • One reason it’s so unpopular is because it isn’t that great. But there are few on this site who would agree with me there. If they start using C.S. Lewis’s stories again instead of their own, maybe they be more popular again.

      • I’ve grown weary of people claiming that they haven’t used Lewis’ story when they have. In my mind, they took Lewis’ story and added to it, but I also think that the movie was the best of the three. I’m not saying that your opinion is invalid, because it’s not. However, it’s not “unpopular.” Any movie that makes $300 million world wide isn’t “unpopular.”

          • Once introduced….the Green Mist is a great addition. And the sea serpent battle, awesome. VOTDT is a great film & Narnia episode. Definitely a version of the book, & could not be mistaken for anything else or being based on anything else.

        • I don’t understand why people say VOTD was the best of the three Narnia films. I found TLWW the best for me – it captured the magical element of Narnia perfectly – and the kids acting – Georgie and Skander – they were fantastic – for such young actors and Georgie being a first timer – the acting let me down a bit in the VODT – I don’t know if it was because there was a new director on board or the characters of Lucy and Edmund weren’t really developed as much – TLWW worked as a complete package – with acting and the special effects – I’ll rather have good character development over special effects any day.

          • I get what you’re saying, however, when I listened to the radio dramatization of VDT, I found that the characters of Edmund and Lucy seemed under-utilized in that version as well. In fact, there isn’t much use in them going, apart from the end of the story with Aslan.

      • “There are few on this site who would agree with me.”
        And my point has been made!

        Sure they added to it: so much so that it was only partly Jack Lewis’s story! Michael Apted even came close to saying that Lewis’s story wasn’t good enough, and that they “needed” to add the mist, which I thought only cheapened the feel of the movie. It felt so generic, and even then, a lame generic, like something from a video game. While VDT is very episodic and therefore difficult to adapt, I feel they could have done something a little less jarring than making their own movie, book-casing it with VDT, and stealing some of its plot points.

        • “There are few on this site who would agree with me.”

          There’s probably a reason for that, Arvan. But you’re not alone.

      • They used Lewis’s story. Just because they changed some things doesn’t mean they changed the story. They can’t do the book word for word. They have to add a few things.

        • They changed some things in Prince Caspian. They did much more than that with VDT. I know they can’t do it word-for-word, that would be a disaster! But they very much did change the story. Go watch the film and then immediately afterward read the book. If you still can’t see my point, then so be it…

    • It’s not unpopular it’s just that the way they were advertising the movie was good because teenagers who haven’t read the book may think it’s for younger kids and younger kids would think it has too much action. I think it would be better for teens and tweens than kids ages 1-8. My personal opinion is Narnia Rules and wins all the awards:)

  10. Wow, that’s really dumb. My guess is that there consider “what” the effects are used for more than the effects themselves.

  11. Oh.So sad..I thought it really had a chance.The visuals were great and the dragon,well what else should a dragon look like and the sea serpent was just incredible.It matches with LWW and PC for me..It was great..Anyway,it came to the last 15 and there’s still some other nominations….so we’ll hope for the best and accept what’s been given instead of brooding over things lost :)..FNAFA

  13. sorry Narnia but you still have a chance at an Oscar. Harry Potter only has one film left and it hasn’t gotten an Oscar yet. 🙁 GO HP!

  14. …it is disgusting Narnia is not up for every Oscar i.e. settings, landscape, story, costume, visuals, special affects, acting (especially lucy).
    …this is a special, wonderful movie without the usual, meaningless junk of ‘special effects’ murder hollywood stories, and corny julia roberts themes.
    …i know the supporters/fans of narnia understand what i am saying and we can ourselves appreciate the gooodness of this movie and bring it to our lives w/o the nemesis ot the meaningless oscars.

  15. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
    Narnia totally deserves all the Oscars!!!!!

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