Monday, February 16, 2015

Oscar Predictions: Best Animated Feature

It's time again for the Oscars. It's been a long as Awards season as always. Guilds, Globes, BAFTAs, and critics have all made their picks  and I'm here to figure out what it all means. Yes, it's time for my multi-part Oscar predictions.
I'm going to go through each category, tell you who has been nominated and won for what, give a context for what that means, and order the nominees from most to least likely to win on Oscar night. That doesn't mean I'll be right, but it does mean I'll be informed. Wish me luck.

Previously:
Best Documentary, Animate, and Live-Action Short
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Film

Glossary:
BAFTA Awards - British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards
Golden Globe Award - Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Annie Awards - Awards for Animation
Eddie - American Cinema Editors Award
PGA Awards - Producers Guild of America Award


You had to know that Animated Feature was next. I need to get all the outlier awards out of the way and this is the last one that doesn't tie much into the Best Picture race. The Lego Movie has been making a slight mess of this since it's been winning more often than not in the precursor awards. On the plus side though, there's a wealth of information. This should be easy.


How to Train Your Dragon 2
Golden Globe - Animated Feature - Winner
Annie - Animated Film - Winner
PGA - Animated Film - Nominee
I'll make this simple. Since the Oscars introduced this category in 2000, no more than two animated features have won between all the precursor awards. The Lego Movie got the Eddie, the BAFTA, and the PGA awards. Dragon has received the Globe and the Annie. That means the smart money in lieu of The Lego Movie snub is on Dragon. This would be the first win for an animated feature without an Eddie or BAFTA nomination. That's a bit alarming.

Big Hero 6
Annie - Animated Film - Nominee
PGA - Animated Film - Nominee
BAFTA - Animated Feature - Nominee
Golden Globe - Animated Feature - Nominee
Eddie - Animated Feature - Nominee
Disney won last year and Big Hero 6 has been nominated in ever possible way. It's always possible that it steals a win at the last second.

The Boxtrolls
Annie - Animated Film - Nominee
PGA - Animated Film - Nominee
BAFTA - Animated Feature - Nominee
Golden Globe - Animated Feature - Nominee
Eddie - Animated Feature - Nominee
The Boxtrolls has been nominated in every possible way as well, which is more than Dragon can say. In the end though, I trust Disney's PR dept. better than whoever is running it for The Boxtrolls.

Song of the Sea
Annie - Animated Film - Nominee
The Oscar winner is always an Annie award nominee (although normally the winner). That's the longest running trend in this category.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Annie - Animated Film - Nominee
I don't have a good reason for picking Song of the Sea over this other than that's the title of a song I like. Regardless, neither stands much of a chance.

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