Deadline is reporting that 18 animated feature films have been submitted to the Academy in order to be considered for the 84th Academy Awards. There are several that have a stronger chance than others at getting the nom, but here’s the list:
“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Alois Nebel”
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”
“Arthur Christmas”
“Cars 2”
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Gnomeo & Juliet”
“Happy Feet Two”
“Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Mars Needs Moms”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
“Rio”
“The Smurfs”
“Winnie the Pooh”
“Wrinkles”
According to the article, quite a few of the films submitted haven’t yet had their qualifying Los Angeles runs. Without talking about qualifying rules, however, let’s look at the list of films closer.
“Alois Nebel,” a Czech/Slovakian/German film, is probably going to be chosen for a nom or at least heavily considered because not only is it uniquely animated, it’s also a uniquely-animated film that showed at TIFF this year. “Chico & Rita,” a film from both Spain and the United Kingdom, might also be a good contender, as well as French/Belgian film “A Cat in Paris.” “Wrinkles,” an animated film from Spain based on Paco Roca’s comic book of the same name, might be good for a nomination as well, since it’s about two men in an retirement home, one of them battling the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Cars 2” might get a nomination just because of Pixar’s seniority in the Oscar awards system–they’ve been given so many awards that they’ve now become favorites. They’re favorites for good reason, but they’re still favorites, and favorites are treated a bit differently. If they get the nomination for a film like “Cars 2”–the weakest Pixar film ever–then you can bank the nom on the fact that they’ve built up such a good reputation for their past films. Actually, I think a lot of the American entries are rather weak. The strongest American entries are “Tintin,” “Puss in Boots,” “Rango,” and possibly “Winnie the Pooh,” simply because it’s Disney doing 2D and the Academy might feel that needs to be rewarded.
A lot of the others are probably good films, but I don’t know if the stories are strong enough for an Oscar nomination. Maybe “Arthur Christmas,” but I don’t know.
Overall, I think the foreign films are much stronger this year. What do you think? Give your opinions in the comments section below.
