Entertainment | Avatar (film) Animated Actors: Oscar Worthy? Some argue 'Avatar' stars deserve nominations, too By Evann Gastaldo Posted Feb 18, 2010 12:17 PM CST Copied The characters Mr. Fox, voiced by George Clooney, left, and Mrs. Fox, voiced by Meryl Streep are shown in a scene from, "Fantastic Mr. Fox." (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight) Despite nine Oscar nominations, Avatar actors got snubbed—and some speculate it’s due to their “animated” looks on-screen. Performance capture is much more than animation, argue some, who say actors like Zoe Saldana should be recognized for their performances. “I like to think of it as digital makeup, not augmented animation,” Steven Spielberg tells the Los Angeles Times. The problem is Avatar, not animation, says best actor nominee Jeremy Renner: "It's not really an actors' kind of movie. It doesn't really allow for an actor to truly tell a story. The director's telling the story in that one." The Fantastic Mr. Fox, on the other hand, definitely qualifies as animation. Nonetheless, Stephanie Zacharek believes that is the performance George Clooney should have been nominated for, not Up in the Air. To discount a role simply because it’s animated “demands that we grade a performance according to how much toil and suffering went into it,” she writes on Salon, “instead of assessing how deeply the performance affected us.” Read These Next Something James Carville said made Melania Trump's lawyer unhappy. Vance's office says it wasn't involved in the river-raising. Ivanka and Jared are making headlines again. Justice Department goes after a prominent Trump foe. Report an error