Announcing the winners of the first ever Plugged In Movie Awards!
BEST MOVIE FOR KIDS
Nominees: Brave, Chimpanzee, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
Plugged In’s Pick: Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
We do love our Pixar movies. WALL-E. Up. Toy Story 3. They’re all instant classics that embody so many of the things we like to embrace here at Plugged In. And they prove again and again that you don’t have to pile on problematic content to tell a world-class story. But while Brave still gave us a strong, heartwarming tale, it came with a bit more questionable content (much of it spiritual in nature) than Pixar films past. Madagascar 3, meanwhile, proved to be a delightful surprise—the best in the franchise so far—offering us an inspiring story and steering clear(er) of some of the bathroom humor we’ve seen in the earlier movies featuring those now-famous zoo animals on safari.
Readers’ Pick: Brave
We may have spurned Pixar’s latest movie, but you sure didn’t. Brave won far more reader votes than Madagascar 3. Interestingly, it might have had more of a fight on its hands if we had included Wreck-It-Ralph in our nominees list. Lots of you asked why we skipped it. Our answer? Hey, it’s a movie about a video game. What’s there to like about that!? No, no, actually it was the bathroom humor that turned into a bit of a fender bender for us.
BEST MOVIE FOR TEENS
Nominees: The Avengers, Chasing Mavericks, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Mirror Mirror, The Odd Life of Timothy Green
Plugged In’s Pick: Chasing Mavericks
Based on the true story of surfer Jay Moriarity, Chasing Mavericks wasn’t seen by many people. It made just $6 million Stateside in 2012—about $216 million less than the first Hobbit flick and an whopping $617 million less than Marvel’s The Avengers. But despite its disappointing ticket sales, this little movie that could road a pretty big wave in our view. It has a teen protagonist we can all root for, and a heartwarming story that hits its high notes in the area of mentoring.
Readers’ Pick: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Votes came in for The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games even though neither made our nominees’ list. But neither movie came close to joining the titanic showdown between The Avengers and The Hobbit. In the end, the golden ring was tossed to Tolkien-lovers.
BEST CHRISTIAN MOVIE
Nominees: Blue Like Jazz, Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure, October Baby, Rogue Saints, Unconditional
Plugged In’s Pick: October Baby
This category came down to the wire for us, with October Baby and Unconditional vying for the final nod. We love Unconditional for presenting a strong, well-told story with acres of heart—and in a way that may raise the bar for Christian filmmaking. But October Baby‘s vital pro-life message propelled it over the finish line first.
Readers’ Pick: Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure
Fans of Christian movies swarmed our Facebook page, driving up vote tallies for almost every movie under consideration. But much of the time it seemed almost like a rowdy vocal battle from two sides of a sports arena: One side would shout “Rogue Saints!” The other would holler “Monumental!” At the buzzer, Kirk Cameron’s politically tinged but spiritually driven documentary edged out the direct-to-DVD Rogue Saints. More important than who won this friendly fight, though, is the reality that Christian filmmaking continues to get better and more diverse all the time. The category’s collection of eclectic nominees simply couldn’t be ignored.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Nominees: The Impossible, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Trouble With the Curve
Plugged In’s Pick: Les Misérables
Studies show that America is growing more secular all the time, but you wouldn’t know it from 2012’s crop of nominees in this category, three of which are also Academy Awards Best Picture contenders: Lincoln, Life of Pi and Les Misérables spend significant screen time talking about God, spirituality and divine purpose. But no mainstream movie was as overtly Christian—nor, perhaps, as emotionally (and musically) moving—as Les Mis.
Readers’ Pick: Les Misérables
In exactly the same way Les Mis sang to our souls here at Plugged In, so it sings to you. Indeed, when we tallied votes for the other four nominees together, this movie musical still wins.
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