2009 Best Original Song - Where the Wild Things Weren't

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WON AND SHOULD'VE WON: "The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart

For me, one of the more aggravating Oscar snubs of the past decade came in 2009, when the Academy ignored Spike Jonze's entrancing film adaptation of the classic Maurice Sendak children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It's a picture I saw three times over its first two weeks in theaters, a film chock-full of the same sort of legit movie magic that wins me over in the likes of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - an awe-inspiring heart-tugger that never feels the least bit forced. (I admittedly felt the same way about this year's The BFG, though I suspect not many would concur.)

So, no surprise, I was quite chagrined over the Academy's awarding of zero Oscar nominations for the film, which, to be fair, was not exactly a box office smash. I would have recognized it in Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Cinematography and so on. I also, no doubt, would have awarded the film's music, composed by the delightful Karen O and Carter Burwell.

"All Is Love" was likely the film's only prayer in Best Original Song - it may have been its only hope for any Oscar nom - and would have been a richly deserving nominee, particularly given the ho-humness of the category's actual nominees this year.

I do think the Academy got the win right here - Crazy Heart's "The Weary Kind," composed by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett, is a nice, moody piece and certainly one of its film's more memorable parts (to be fair, not saying much). But is it even close to among the finest winners in the category? Not in the slightest - it's simply the least bland of an underwhelming bunch.

I mildly dig The Princess and the Frog, mostly on the basis of some of the vocal work (Keith David can do no wrong), but while Anika Noni Rose couldn't be more charming on nominees "Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans," these Randy Newman-composed tracks simply aren't all that interesting or exciting. Paris 36's "Loin de Paname" is also pretty unremarkable stuff.

At least those three a tad more agreeable than "Take It All," one of the original tunes composed for Rob Marshall's embarrassing film adaptation of the Broadway musical Nine. While performer Marion Cotillard is actually one of the picture's more tolerable players, she's so poorly directed in this scene and the tune is a complete dud. At least the even-shittier Kate Hudson original song wasn't nominated instead.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head (1959)
  4. "Streets of Philadelphia," Philadelphia (1993)
  5. "Lose Yourself," 8 Mile (2002)
  6. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  7. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  8. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  9. "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," Dirty Dancing (1987)
  10. "The Windmills of Your Mind," The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
  11. "The Way We Were," The Way We Were (1973)
  12. "Let the River Run," Working Girl (1988)
  13. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  14. "Under the Sea," The Little Mermaid (1989)
  15. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  16. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," The Lion King (1994)
  17. "Beauty and the Beast," Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  18. "I'm Easy," Nashville (1975)
  19. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  20. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  21. "Fame," Fame (1980)
  22. "Theme from Shaft," Shaft (1971)
  23. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  24. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  25. "Moon River," Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
  26. "Take My Breath Away," Top Gun (1986)
  27. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  28. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  29. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  30. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  31. "A Whole New World," Aladdin (1992)
  32. "My Heart Will Go On," Titanic (1997)
  33. "Flashdance...What a Feeling," Flashdance (1983)
  34. "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," Arthur (1981)
  35. "I Need to Wake Up," An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
  36. "Last Dance," Thank God It's Friday (1978)
  37. "Colors of the Wind," Pocahontas (1995)
  38. "Falling Slowly," Once (2007)
  39. "You Must Love Me," Evita (1996)
  40. "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)," Dick Tracy (1990)
  41. "Days of Wine and Roses," Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
  42. "For All We Know," Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
  43. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  44. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  45. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  46. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  47. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  48. "The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart (2009)
  49. "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," Hustle & Flow (2005)
  50. "It Goes Like It Goes," Norma Rae (1979)
  51. "Born Free," Born Free (1966)
  52. "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday (1960)
  53. "I Just Called to Say I Love You," The Woman in Red (1984)
  54. "Up Where We Belong," An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
  55. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  56. "Chim Chim Cher-ee," Mary Poppins (1964)
  57. "Call Me Irresponsible," Papa's Delicate Condition (1963)
  58. "Evergreen (Theme from A Star Is Born)," A Star Is Born (1976)
  59. "Al otro lado del río," The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
  60. "Things Have Changed," Wonder Boys (2000)
  61. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  62. "Into the West," The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
  63. "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
  64. "If I Didn't Have You," Monsters, Inc. (2001)
  65. "You'll Be in My Heart," Tarzan (1999)
  66. "You Light Up My Life," You Light Up My Life (1977)
  67. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  68. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  69. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  70. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)
  71. "Talk to the Animals," Doctor Dolittle (1967)
  72. "The Shadow of Your Smile," The Sandpiper (1965)
  73. "When You Believe," The Prince of Egypt (1998)
  74. "Say You, Say Me," White Nights (1985)
  75. "The Morning After," The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
  76. "We May Never Love Like This Again," The Towering Inferno (1974)