Hello and welcome back. Some of you might be thinking that I might have fallen off the face of the Earth or died. In fact I heard a rumor that the academy was going to add me into the “in memoriam”. But I am back to talk about my favorite night of the year; the Oscars. Which just so happens to be this Sunday. Now due to my busy schedule, and the earlier date of the ceremony, if you can’t tell by the title, I will only be talking about one category in this blog. If you want to hear my thoughts on the other categories you can listen to them in a, soon to be posted, special video on my “youtube” channel with my partner in crime “Lenny.” Be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel so you can be one of the first to see it, when it comes out.
Now for the category at hand, Best Animated Feature. Despite my criticism of the academy handling of it, it remains one of my favorite categories. This year it happens to be unusually competitive. I haven’t seen a year this close since my first year covering the Oscars, but other than that there are very few similarities between these two years. I will talk about the movies from least likely to win to most probable front runner, but bare in mind that all of the nominees have a chance of taking the “little naked man.”
Let’s begin:
How To Train Your Dragon The Hidden World
Now on the surface this movie does have several things going for it in this category. It is the finale of a well loved franchise, and the movie itself was very well liked by critics and audiences. But when you dig a little deeper it makes a win here seem unlikely. For one, while the movie was received positively it is the common opinion that it was the weakest in the series. At the ‘Annies’ the movie got several nominations, including Best Animated Feature, but it was totally shut out as far as wins go. Which is a problem for its Oscar hopes. The first two installments swept the ‘Annies’over movies like Toy Story III and Big Hero 6. As far as the Oscars are concerned the academy does not seem to be big fans of the series. The first two were nominated for the Oscars but they lost to the very movies they swept away in the ‘Annies’.
Missing Link:
This film kind of came out of nowhere this award season by winning the ‘Golden Globe’ (keep in mind the ‘Golden Globes and the ‘Oscars’ share zero voters). The ‘Golden Globe’ has often times predicted the ‘Oscar’ outcome, so it does place “Missing Link” towards the front of the pack. But, since the ‘Golden Globe’ is the only major award that I know of that it has won, its ‘Oscar’ chances are starting to look a little bleak. At the ‘Annies’ though it did receive a ton of nominations, like the coveted Best Animated Feature, it did not win any of them, and it wasn’t even nominated at ‘BAFTA’ (neither was How to Train Your Dragon). On a side note I have seen the movie and found it, in my opinion, to be “just okay”.
I Lost My Body:
This movie may be one of the most unique movies that I have ever seen. (I am not even going to attempt to tell you the premise, because that would turn you off, it needs to be seen to be believed!) This movie has won several ‘critic awards’, (but critics do not vote for the ‘Oscars’). It has been nominated for almost every major award except for the ‘Golden Globe’. It won three ‘Annies’ including Best Animated Feature- Independent. This category has only been around for about six years and has yet to be a predictor for the ‘Oscar’, but there is a first time for everything.
Toy Story 4:
Now the academy seems to enjoy the Toy Story series. They gave the first Toy Story an honorary award, as the category Best Animated Feature was not yet created. It was also nominated for Best Screenplay. Toy Story 3 was nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Animated Feature, which it won. The academy really likes Disney and Pixar. More than half of the Best Animated Feature winners have gone to either Disney or Pixar. Now Toy Story 4 has won the Critics Choice Awards (again, critics do not vote for the Oscars). The movie seems to be nominated everywhere, but without a lot of wins. At the Annies it received 6 nominations, however it won nothing. Despite this, Toy Story 4 has a very good chance at taking the “little gold man”.
Klaus
This movie is directed by a former Disney animator (Disney really needs to keep their animators with them, as when they leave they make something even better!). Klaus completely stole the Annies, by winning seven out of seven awards, including Best Animated Feature! Now in the seventeen years that the academy has had a Best Animated Feature category, the Oscars and the Annies have only split four times. Klaus has also won the BAFTAs. As of right now, Klaus seems to be the front runner.
Now, I have seen all the nominated movies and if I was voting, I would personally give it to Klaus, it pushes the art of hand drawn animation forward. Unfortunately, however, the academy has not yet invited me to become a member (how rude of them)! It bears repeating that I won't be surprised if any one of these movies won. Enjoy the Oscars tomorrow! Goodnight and Bee Happy!™
Mr. Bee
copyright 2020 Bradley Entertainment All rights belong to Mr. Bee and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding.
image courtesy of GoldDerby
