‘Bright & Shiny’ Author Nick Spake Explores the History of Animation, Awards Race

Nick Spake is the author of the new book Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volume I, which details the history of animation in connection with the Academy Awards, the Emmys, and the Annie Awards. His love for animation and desire for it to be appreciated is apparent as he discusses where he feels animation is currently in our collective media landscape. With his detailed knowledge of the history of animation and awards, he sees some patterns appearing that could mean we’d be getting a lot more interesting animated material acknowledged at awards.

The Contending: Starting generally, what got you interested in animation and award shows?

Nick Spake: I’ve always had a passion for both! I have been watching animation for my entire life, and awards I had an interest in all the way back with the Kids’ Choice Awards in the 90s. But I really started taking notice of the Oscars in 2000 when I watched the ceremony from start to finish for the first time. Then 2001 was the year they coincidentally introduced the Best Animated Feature category, and at the time I had not seen A Beautiful Mind or In the Bedroom or some of the other big movies nominated. But I had seen all the animated films, so I watched that race very closely. I’ve always watched that race very closely ever since, and it inspired me to write this book.

The Contending: Was there anything in particular that caused you to want to take such a deep dive into the history of animation and the awards race? Besides this book, you have two more volumes coming out as well.

Nick Spake: When I first started writing the book it was around the same time that Into the Spider-Verse came out. I thought to myself, this will probably win Best Animated Feature, assuming it gets nominated, which it did. But it didn’t get nominated for Best Picture, and I thought to myself, why does animation repeatedly get the short shift? So I first decided to write a book covering that, and I thought I would just stick to animated features. But then I thought, why stop there? Well before they introduced the animated feature category they had a best animated short category so I thought, why not dive into that too? Then I thought hey, why stop there, there aren’t a ton of books about animation at the Emmys.

Then I thought of the Annie Awards, which aren’t as well known as the Oscars or the Emmys but that was another reason I wanted to do a deep dive into them. If you go to Wikipedia and look up the Annie Awards it is pretty bare bones and not all of it is even accurate. So I decided I wanted to focus on those three shows with maybe a few others interspersed. I figured at the time that, even with all that, animation does get the short end of the stick at these award shows so it wouldn’t be a very long book. But the more research and interviews that I did, more and more started to pile up, and I thought about just condensing it, but then my publisher was interested in publishing it in multiple volumes. So I decided to go for it.

The Contending: Speaking to that research, was there anything in there that you found particularly surprising or interesting that you didn’t expect?

Nick Spake: One of the more interesting things that I learned is that at The Daytime Emmys now The Children’s and Family Emmys don’t list what shows were submitted for consideration for these awards. At The Primetime Emmys when an animated program gets nominated they always list the episode that was submitted. I did find that The Daytime Emmys do have episodes that are submitted but for some reason it is not revealed. One thing I tried to do was contact people who worked on the shows that were nominated and try to figure out what they did submit. Some of them couldn’t remember because it was so long ago but a lot had crystal clear memories of what they submitted. So it was interesting figuring that out and I get into that in more detail in volume two.

The Contending: In the start of the book you brought up how awards shows themselves are in a somewhat nebulous position. That they are not the cultural zeitgeist they once were but they still have their influence, and in some ways they might become more niche. I’m curious if you thought that might be a positive or negative for animation?

Nick Spake: It can be both a positive and a negative. I do not think award shows are going to entirely go away. The Oscars are going to go on and the Golden Globes are recovering. I do not know what’s going to happen with the MTV Movie Awards but that’s not a big loss if it doesn’t come back. (Both of us laughing) With award shows changing we are getting to the point where a film that wouldn’t win Best Picture 10 years ago can win now. I think about a movie like Flow, which not only got into Best Animated Feature but also the International Film race.

I think people discovered that movie late in the game because it got nominated in both of those categories, and I’m curious if people had seen it sooner if it would have joined Emilia Pérez and I’m Still Here as one of the international nominees in Best Picture. It probably wouldn’t, but it was interesting that we had two international features in the best picture lineup. That wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago, so who’s to say we won’t get to a point where animation could be nominated or even get two nominations for Best Picture.

The Contending: Looking at some recent awards, it feels like there’s been some progress for animation in getting more respect. You mentioned Flow, a foreign and independent animated movie that isn’t Miyazaki, finally winning the Animated Oscar. Or with the Emmy races in animated series, for the longest time it was the same shows getting nominated each year. While a lot of them are still there, the winners are shows that are taking a lot more risks like Blue Eye Samurai, Primal, and Arcane. This isn’t a very well-known reward, but the Australian Academy of Cinema gave their best actress and supporting actress awards to voice performances in Memoirs of a Snail. So I’m curious what you think of some of these developments, and where you think they might be leading.

Nick Spake: Yes, they are definitely expanding the field in some cases. I think at the Emmys The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers are going to be check off nominees as long as they exist. But that does leave room for at least three to break through, and they have been going for shows that usually wouldn’t have won several years ago, like you mentioned Blue Eye Samurai. To be fair, almost 20 years ago Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack won in that category and some saw that as a sign that there could be a turning of the tide. It ended up not being so and they quickly went back to the usual winners. But then fast forward a couple of years and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal wins in this category and again some see that as a turning point.

This year’s Emmy race could be particularly interesting because a lot of the shows that have been nominated or won in the last few years are not eligible in this cycle. The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers will be there and Arcane will probably be there too. But there will be two open slots so you could see something like Harley Quinn or Star Trek: Lower Decks getting in for the first time. They are both on their fifth seasons, which is the same time that the Academy finally acknowledged Archer and BoJack Horseman. The Academy can be very slow to catch on in that category.

The Contending: You mention in your book that several people do not respect animation like live action and consider it simply kids stuff or just regarded as kids stuff. I’m wondering if you see anime as a way that could be helpful in that regard changing people’s opinion?

Nick Spake: Yes, definitely, and in volume two I get into anime because the time frame covered there is about when anime started getting to the West. That was around the same time that people realized that animation didn’t have to just be kids’ stuff because, while there is fair deal of anime that can be available to people of all ages, then there is stuff like Ghosts in the Shell, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop that really showed that it could be a more adult medium. People would take inspiration for that in the West like with MTV and Liquid Television. Some of these shows would have anime parts to them but most were more anime influenced like Æon Flux. What I really want to see is anime embraced more at Western organizations like the Emmys. In the past they didn’t even submit popular anime shows for consideration, but last year Netflix submitted Pluto, which showed that theoretically an anime could be nominated. Some would say Blue Eye Samurai is anime but that’s really more anime-influenced. For me an anime is something that is made and conceived in Japan even if it’s released in the West through an American studio.

The Contending: With putting these books out, what are you hoping that people and maybe the industry will learn from this history?

Nick Spake: For starters, I didn’t want to just be covering the awards even though it is the main focus. I share a lot of behind the scenes stories and recollections from some of the people who worked on these films. I really appreciate these films, and you can’t just say, Oh, it should have won an Oscar, or it did win an Oscar, because you can basically go on to Wikipedia for that. I wanted to explain why these movies and shows were so revolutionary and why they were deserving of such accolades. I hope that more people will see that animation doesn’t just make itself; there are a lot of talented artists behind these films and shows that deserve the same recognition as live action.

The Contending: Is there an animated film that you think particularly should have won Best Picture?

Nick Spake: There are several, even last year I would have given The Wild Robot Best Picture. I would have had Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio in Best Picture, and in fact I think almost every year there’s at least one animated film in my top 10. There was basically a string of years where Pixar could have won Best Picture and I would have been satisfied: Wall-E, Up, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3. But only two of them even got in and that was only after they expanded the field, and then after that they just stopped nominating animation at all. Which I think kind of goes to show that for animation to get back in they may need to have a great streak like Pixar had. Pixar had so many great movies in a row, so by the time Up came out they had to nominate it because it was getting embarrassing. I think Disney went through kind of a similar thing when Beauty and the Beast got in. Because Disney was coming off of The Little Mermaid and Who Framed Roger Rabbit so Beauty and the Beast had the momentum. Who knows? But if the Flow team’s next project hits it out of the park, maybe we could see their next film break into the Best Picture race. Maybe even something like Spider-Verse or whatever Guillermo del Toro does next.

The Contending: Any final thoughts?

Nick Spake: The book is out right now on Amazon, BearManor Media, and Barnes & Noble. If you want to learn more about the book you can visit its site. I will also be updating it with some research material that I found while writing the book, like Emmy submission ballots that have disappeared from some of the official websites that I was able to track down. Also stay tuned for more: volume two is on the way and there will be a third volume as well, which hopefully both will be out by the end of the year.