2014 Golden Globe Nominations: 'Frozen', 'Croods', 'Despicable Me 2' Get Noms; 'MU' Gets Snubbed

This morning the nominees for the 2014 Golden Globes were announced today, leaving Pixar fans scratching their heads and Disney fans jumping for joy.

Best Animated Feature Film

For the Best Animated Feature Film category, there were surprisingly only three nominees: Frozen, Despicable Me 2, and The Croods. Last year there were four nominees. There’s no rationale given as to why only three were selected this year, especially since there were just as many animated films released in 2013 as there were in 2012.

Frozen’s inclusion is a no-brainer. I’m also excited to see The Croods make the final cut because it was one of my favorite animated films of the year. And of course, I thought Despicable Me 2 was absolutely hilarious and a pretty fantastic sequel that rivaled the first Despicable Me film.

The biggest shocker came in what wasn’t nominated, particularly Pixar’s Monsters University, which was considered a shoo-in by many in the animation community. Its omission and the lack of nominations for The Blue Umbrella have left many Pixar fans confused as to why Pixar has been snubbed so much this year in the awards circuit. Pixar actually has received a nomination in this category every year since the category’s inception in 2006. It may just be an off year for Pixar; the studio has been the animation awards king for much of the last decade.

Personally, three nominees seems a bit too small for this category. When there are more nominees, such as four or five, most of us know that a few of them don’t stand a chance. But at least they got a little bit of recognition. Maybe this is the Golden Globes attempt to make sure that only the best of the best are nominated, while letting us know that all other “filler” nominees aren’t even worth nominating. Either way, it’s a pretty harsh snub.

Best Original Song

The other animation nomination went to Frozen’s “Let It Go” for for the Best Original Song category. This nomination is hardly a surprise, since powerhouse Broadway star Idina Menzel absolutely kills it and many already consider the song to be one of the best Disney song’s of all time.

Best Foreign Film

Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises, while not nominated for best animated feature film, did however get the nomination for Best Foreign Film. Interesting that it didn’t back it in both categories, but either way, I’m still excited for the film. It will be the only animated film in the running, so hopefully it can come out on top.