AP News, March 14th, 2007
George Miller thought an adorable talking pig might be his ticket to an Academy Award a decade ago. He had to wait for some adorable singing and dancing penguins to bring his Oscar home.
Miller, creator of the barnyard charmer "Babe" that was a surprise best-picture nominee for 1995, won the Oscar for best animated feature last month for his penguin romp "Happy Feet."
"With `Babe,' I had a lot of people coming up to me saying, `We voted for you. We think you're going to win,'" said the Australian filmmaker, whose talking-pig flick also brought him a screenwriting nomination. "I went in to that with this higher expectation. I remember feeling disappointed, even though my friend Mel Gibson won for `Braveheart.'"
Miller directed Gibson in his three "Mad Max" action films.
This past awards season, Miller had felt like a runner-up as Oscar night approached, since oddsmakers generally expected the prize to go to "Cars," directed by computer-animation pioneer John Lasseter.
"I was very aware of where the bookmakers had us, with `Cars' as the favorite," Miller told The Associated Press on Monday in a telephone interview from Australia to promote the March 27 DVD release of "Happy Feet."
"I obviously was really surprised when we won, because even friends of mine had said they put money on `Cars.' They thought that if we won, they wouldn't mind losing the money, and if `Cars' won, at least they'd get some money."
"It's the nicest way to do it. To go in with very low expectations," Miller said. "It's only up from there."
