Studios stacking the deck to create 5 nominees for Best Animated Feature

By Sarah Sluis

This year will be the ninth year of the Motion Picture Academy's "Best Animated Feature" category. Between computer animation, 3D premiums, and the incredible quality of films produced by studios like Pixar, the field will be as competitive as ever this year. Because of the volume of submissions this year, the Academy will likely boost the number of nominees from three to five. The bump in nominees happened once before, in 2002, and occurs when the number of eligible films is greater than 16. To be eligible, the movie must have a qualifying release and an Academy-produced average score of 7.5 (but on the odd scale of 6-10).

The 20 submitted features, along with my predictions, are below. The locks for nominations are bolded and underlined. Films with strong chances of being nominated are bolded.

• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel: The first one made a surprising amount of money, though it did not secure a nomination. Don't count on the squeakquel receiving one either.



• Astro Boy: Without making a splash at the box office, a critical assent would come as a surprise.



• Battle for Terra: A clunker several years in the making. My guess to be excluded from the running.



• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The crowd-pleaser could surprise with a nomination



• Coraline: A lock for a nomination. Incredible story, visuals, and stop-motion technique. Read the review here.



• Disney's A Christmas Carol: Potential nominee, which would be a first for a film using director Robert Zemeckis' performance-capture technique.



• The Dolphin - Story of a Dreamer: A straight-to-DVD film given a qualifying run to boost the amount of eligible films.



• Fantastic Mr. Fox: Potential nominee. Wes Anderson received an Oscar nomination in 2001 for his screenplay of The Royal Tenenbaums.



• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: The first Ice Age was nominated, but the sequel was not. The third probably won't either, despite its status as the third highest-grossing film in international box-office history..



• Mary and Max: This adult indie film has Philip Seymour Hoffman and the winners of an Oscar-winning short behind it, but it might be too low-profile.



• The Missing Lynx: a small, Spanish film unlikely to receive a nod.



• Monsters vs. Aliens: If Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is nomination-worthy, then so is this film.



• 9: An adult-oriented movie that could receive a nomination



• Planet 51: More likely to be a box-office winner than nominee.



• Ponyo: Disney-released Spirited Away, an anime film, won in 2002, and Howl's Moving Castle was nominated in 2005. Both were directed by Hayao Miyazaki. But some felt Ponyo fell flat.



• The Princess and the Frog: If this movie resonates with viewers and Oscar voters, I predict it will be nominated.



• The Secret of Kells: The trailer animation looks uneven and not up to snuff.



• Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure: Disney's straight-to-DVD release given a qualifying run to boost the chance on the nominees going to five.



• A Town Called Panic: The trailer looks cute, but only Sony Pictures Classics (The Triplets of Belleville and Persepolis) and the aforementioned Miyazaki films have has ever successfully secured a nomination for a foreign animated film.



• Up: a lock for nomination, and in all likelihood the winner. Read the rave review here.

Having an Academy-nominated film can certainly help boost DVD sales and rentals from inquisitive Oscar ceremony viewers (although with the DVD market tanking, maybe not so much). But this year, Up seems like a lock on the Animated Feature category. Press attention could be drawn away from the category as a whole, making nominee status not as valuable. Coraline, to me, is the only likely upset. Plus, with the Academy skewing older, the hero of Up, the old man, is one of their own. What's not to love? Even with five nominees, Pixar shows all signs of continuing their winning streak.