This morning the Academy Awards revealed the final set of nominees for the 86th Annual Academy Awards. Regarding animation nominees there were quite a few expected nominees as well as a few surprises.
Best Animated Feature
While the consideration list was packed with 19 contender for Best Animated Feature, only five made the final cut. And the list of finalists isn’t that surprising or unexpected.
- The Croods (DreamWorks)
- Despicable Me 2 (Illumination Entertainment)
- Ernest & Celestine (La Parti Productions/Les Armateurs)
- Frozen (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
- The Wind Rises (Studio Ghibli)
Notably absent is Pixar’s Monsters University…yet again. The film was also snubbed from the Golden Globe nominations so people thought maybe the Oscar nominations would be different. Well, apparently that wasn’t the case. And, not surprisingly, Pixar and animation fans are in uproar about it. However, it is worth noting that MU is currently nominated in the Best Animated Feature category for the Annie Awards. So at least the animation industry is recognizing the merits of that film.
Frozen won this category for the Golden Globes earlier this week. Will it win it for the Oscars as well? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Best Short Film – Animated
This is always an interesting category because it is filled with many lesser known animated shorts.
- Feral
- Get a Horse!
- Mr. Hublet
- Possessions
- Room on the Broom
Again, Pixar’s The Blue Umbrella didn’t make the list. While the film was technically brilliant, the story wasn’t very original (very similar to Disney’s Paperman and Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet).
Disney’s Get a Horse!, which played in front of Frozen was nominated and seems to be the only short that was attached to a 2013 theatrical film. This category is always such a wild card because you never know who is going to win. Sometimes you think the big studio has it, but then a little independent studio ends up winning.
One of my favorite things that has happened in recent years is the ability to watch all the Oscar nominated shorts in theatres. Usually you can only see these at select theatres, but I just noticed that my local theatre chain is offering showings of the 2014 Oscar-nominated short films, both animated and live action. So definitely check your local theatre listings to see if you can watch the shorts in your home town.
Best Original Song
This category usually is a grab bag of all films from a variety of genres and mediums. Animated films frequently make the list, especially if a Disney animated musical was released that year. Here are the songs from animated films that were nominated:
- “Happy” from Despicable Me 2
- “Let It Go” from Frozen
No surprise that Frozen’s “Let It Go” was nominated because it seems that song has captivated the world. “Happy” from Despicable Me 2 was a surprise, especially since it wasn’t nominated for the Golden Globes. Frozen didn’t win best song for the Golden Globes, but it would be nice to see it grab the trophy for the Oscars. If anything, hopefully we can get an Idina Menzel live performance of “Let It Go” during the awards ceremony.
Disney fans were hoping that Frozen would get a Best Picture nomination, but that didn’t happen. While it’s not unheard of for animated films to get nominated, it still is pretty rare. Some may argue that the Academy is biased to animated films when it comes to Best Picture. To do, no animated film has ever won the category.
The 86th annual Academy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 7 EST/4 PST.
