2017 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Feature-Length Animated Film
February 15, 2018
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try to figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. A lot of people call this Oscar the Pixar Award, and look at that, there’s a Pixar film on this list. Is Coco the overwhelming favorite? Or does another film have what it takes?
Before we get to the nominees, there’s one thing I would like to talk about. This year, the rules for who could vote in this category were changed from just the animation experts within the academy to the general voting members. A lot of people thought this would result in a much weaker, but much more commercial list. That didn’t really happen. Granted, The Boss Baby got a nomination and The Lego Batman Movie didn’t. Sure, Anime titles like A Silent Voice and Mary and the Witch’s Flower were ignored. However, mistakes like this are common. For example, The LEGO Movie was also snubbed a couple of years ago, while Shark Tale earned a nomination back in 2005. Meanwhile Anime titles are almost always ignored. Additionally, the two smaller films that had any awards season buzz, The Breadwinner and Loving Vincent, both pick up nods. Things clearly didn’t get better with the general members voting, but the evidence shows things didn’t get worse. It would be hard to get worse.
Best Feature-Length Animated Film of the Year
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Conclusion: Coco is going to win. That said, I would be happy if The Breadwinner managed the upset.
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Tomatometer Score: 52% Positive
Previous Major Nominations: Golden Globes and PGA
Previous Major Wins: None
Annie Nominations: Six
Annie Wins: None
Notes: Why? Why was this film nominated? The Lego Batman Movie was better, as was Cars 3, Despicable Me 3, Captain Underpants, not to mention any number of Anime titles that should have gotten the nomination instead. If this film wins, it’s proof that the new rule changes were a mistake.
Tomatometer Score: 94% Positive
Previous Major Nominations: Golden Globes and PGA
Previous Major Wins: None
Annie Nominations: Ten
Annie Wins: One
Notes: Practically every year, the Oscars nominate one or two smaller animated films that the general moviegoing public will likely never have heard of. This year, there are two, including The Breadwinner. It is a Canadian co-production, so if it wins, I will be so happy. However, if it wins, I will be so shocked. It is not the longest shot on this list; in fact, it has the second best shot at winning, but that still puts its chances of winning at just a few percent.
Tomatometer Score: 97% Positive
Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globes, and PGA
Previous Major Wins: Golden Globe and PGA (One Pending)
Annie Nominations: Thirteen
Annie Wins: Eleven
Notes: A lot of people sarcastically call the Best Feature-Length Animated Film Oscar the “Pixar Award”, because of all of the times Pixar has won. However, if you look at the times they’ve won, there’s none that really stand out as undeserving. I know a lot of people like to point to Brave as the prime example, but that film earned ten Annie nominations, including two wins. The only other nominee that did better at the Annie Awards was Wreck-It Ralph and they actually had the same number of nominations. If you want to argue that’s proof that Pixar has an unfair advantage in this award, then I’m going to argue Cars should have beaten Happy Feet and Monsters, Inc. should have beaten Shrek. ... Where was I? Oh yeah, Coco has a 95% chance of winning this Oscar.
Tomatometer Score: 71% Positive
Previous Major Nominations: PGA
Previous Major Wins: None
Annie Nominations: Two
Annie Wins: None
Notes: See my rant for The Boss Baby above. There are at least two big name releases this year that deserved the nomination more, not to mention several Anime titles.
Tomatometer Score: 84% Positive
Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globes, and PGA
Previous Major Wins: None (One Pending)
Annie Nominations: Three
Annie Wins: None
Notes: Every single frame of Loving Vincent is hand-painted. It is the first fully hand-painted movie ever made. Unfortunately, the actual movie isn’t quite as good as the amount of effort it took to make. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy it was nominated, but it is not good enough to win this award.
Filed under: Awards Season, Coco, Ferdinand, Despicable Me 3, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, The Boss Baby, Loving Vincent, The Breadwinner, Cars 3, Meari to majo no hana