Painting The Picture Of The Best Animated Feature Category At The Oscars - Awards Outlook
Awards analysis is provided by Sean from @MathTeacherMovies.
The Best Animated Feature Oscar race has always been one of great interest as there were many years where Disney and Pixar would easily dominate, but lately films from other studios catch the win (especially with Disney focusing more on sequels). This brings us to this year and the return of the classic narrative: Pixar vs. Dreamworks.
It seems that the two front runners this year in the animation category are Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot, based on the best-selling book of the same name, and Disney Pixar’s beloved sequel Inside Out 2. On one hand, Inside Out 2 has been a tremendous hit with both the critics and at the Box Office, with some predicting it as a potential Best Picture nomination. If Inside Out 2 gets nominated for Best Picture that will be the end of the Best Animated Feature race as that is far too much momentum to ignore.
However, The Wild Robot is getting a great deal of praise and the reactions are genuinely tremendous from both critics and audiences alike. More importantly, this film is an original film even though it’s based on a book and if there is one thing that the Best Animated category hates, it is sequels. Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 are the only sequels to win with others just getting nominated and most getting snubbed. The Wild Robot also had a deep focus on its animation and this category tends to reward that type of artful endeavor. If there was a film to break precedent, it would probably be Inside Out 2, but The Wild Robot could definitely take the opportunity.
There are also many nominations that go to more artistic films that are lesser known with three this year that fit that mold; they are likely to be nominated based on either past performances in this category or festival reactions. The film Flow is Latvia’s entry to the Best International film category, a film with little to no dialogue about a cat surviving a flood. While it’s not as well known, it feels like it belongs in a category like this, especially with last year’s Robot Dreams being a similar style of film to this.
Another artistic film that rocked the festivals is Memoir of a Snail, which is a stop motion animated film that has drawn a great deal of emotional response from audiences and critics alike. This is from director Adam Elliot who directed the stunning Mary and Max, which was inexplicably snubbed for a nomination, but Elliot has won a Best Animated Short Oscar before. Therefore he is on their radar, plus stop motion animation is always loved by this category.
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit won against the stop motion animated Corpse Bride and the Hayao Miyazaki film Howl’s Moving Castle, both of which were Oscar heavy-hitters, but also did not go against a Pixar film. However, with a past win and the Academy’s love for the films, there is no doubt that the new Wallace and Gromit entry Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul will also easily get a nomination.
The five films mentioned above are the likeliest to be nominated, but there are a number of others that have potential. The first Moana film was nominated back in 2016, but Disney Animation has been having a tough time since the Encanto win a few years back. The sequel was recently going to be developed as a Disney+ series, which is concerning, and there is also the sequel problem with this category.
Piece by Piece is a Lego animated movie that is a documentary about the life of Pharrell Williams. The Lego animated movies have famously had a tough time at the Oscars. However, an animated documentary, while unconventional, has been nominated before with Flee. This does not seem like a likely nomination, but it has potential.
The Lord of the Rings: The War for Rohim is a Lord of the Rings story that is done through the medium of anime, which is not a popular genre of animation in this category, but could potentially be recognized. The film is getting a theatrical release and The Lord of the Rings franchise was a popular Academy choice more than twenty years ago.
Transformers One recently released to a great deal of acclaim, but like last year's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, quality does not help being recognized from a film being based on Intellectual Property and therefore will probably miss a nomination.
Unlike other categories explored this year, the films mentioned above are the likely nominations, but many films waiting in the wings could jockey into the lead or at least a nomination.