If you didn’t know who Seth MacFarlane was before this Oscar telecast, you’ll surely never forget him. No matter what you thought about his hosting quality, his jokes and gags left an imprint on the show as a whole and definitely gave the whole ceremony a boost of desperately needed energy.
I’m not the biggest fan of the Oscars, with its distaste for action films, animation, and comedies neglecting a large part of cinema. Yet the ceremony still has a sense of prestige that’s hard to find an equal to, and, if nothing else, it is nice to see a few lucky underdogs take home awards.
The past few years have also brought a wide range of hosts, some decent (Billy Crystal) to the atrocious (I’m still getting shivers thinking of the mismatched duo of James Franco and Anne Hathaway). Seth MacFarlane, though, was a breath of fresh air, lending a new kind of humor to the whole program.
Gone were Billy Crystal’s mild wisecracks, replaced were songs entitled “Here’s To The Losers!” and gags about how, thanks to its rampant use of violence against women, “Django Unchained” must have been the perfect date movie for Chris Brown and Rihanna. The show was certainly not for the faint of heart, and I could see older audiences (read: 65 years old and up) finding him to be not much more than a bully in a tuxedo.
Yet, the best part was that MacFarlane kept two things in the whole show: class and staying true to himself. You know that ballad I mentioned called “Here’s To The Losers”? Well, when it was sung, not only did he sing it with the fantastic Kristin Chenoweth, but like all his songs during the Oscars he sung it in a crooning style reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. As a massive fan of both singers, this was a wonderful tour de force, as he belted each song with energy and pizzazz.
The best part about his hosting was how he helped the Academy Awards appeal to the younger audience in creative ways. They’ve tried that in the past to dismal results (auto-tuning scenes from 2010’s biggest movies was just bad) but here the man behind “Family Guy” and “Ted” brought in some different kind of humor to the awards show, with all the great showstopper tunes and humorous moments the program is known for.
One last observation; Seth never brought out the voices of his iconic characters like Peter Griffin or Roger The Alien. I don’t think this was because of him being on a rival network (he performed all of his voices on “SNL” on NBC last fall) but rather him trying to keep himself fresh and showing new sides to himself.
As for the rest of the show, it was surprisingly predictable. The only two categories with any suspense were Best Supporting Actor, which eventually went to Christoph Waltz for “Django Unchained”, and Best Animated Feature, which, in the biggest upset of the night, went to “Brave” instead of “Wreck-It Ralph”. Sure “Brave” was pretty good and all, but “Wreck-It Ralph” deserved to win, thanks to it having a better organized story, much more well displayed emotion and a script that was amazingly smart and well written. Definitely the snub of the night.
The best victory went to director Ben Affleck as “Argo” won Best Picture, a well deserved win and likely the first time one of the actual best movies of the year won the award in ages. The movie has had quite a cinematic journey and I’m certain it will continue to have a fantastic journey as more and more people discover this fantastic film. I suppose that is the Oscars purpose, to spread the joys of quality cinema and to celebrate its impact on the world.
With some pretty good presenters, a fantastic host and a tremendous Best Picture winner, this is the rare Oscar ceremony that may have finally done justice to the films it was celebrating.
