20 Toons Competing for 2009 Animation Oscar

AMPAS Nominates Up, Princess and the Frog, 9, Coraline, Astro Boy

Nov 12, 2009 Dominic von Riedemann

Which 20 animated films are up for this year's Oscar race? And which one of these will win? Animation Boy™ handicaps the best feature-length cartoons of 2009.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the short list of nominees for this year's Animated Feature Film category. Animation fans are no doubt rejoicing at the fact that, because there are more than 15 short-listed films this year, that means a full slate of 5 nominated films on Oscar night.

Twenty Cartoons Up For Best Animated Feature Film Oscar

Here's the list, according to Oscar.org:

1. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (20th Century Fox, dir: Betty Thomas)
2. Astro Boy (Imagi/Summit, dir: David Bowers)
3. Battle for Terra (Snoot/Lionsgate, dir: Aristomenis Tsirbas)
4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony Pictures Animation, dir: Phil Lord, Chris Miller)
5. Coraline (Focus Features, dir: Henry Selick)
6. Disney's A Christmas Carol (ImageWorks Digital/Disney, dir: Robert Zemeckis)
7. The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer (DDG/20th Century Fox, dir: Eduardo Schuldt)
8. Fantastic Mr. Fox (20th Century Fox, dir: Wes Anderson)
9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Blue Sky/20th Century Fox, dir: Carlos Saldanha)
10. Mary and Max (Melodrama, dir: Adam Elliot)
11. The Missing Lynx (Aurum Producciones, dir: Raul Garcia, Manuel Sicilia)
12. Monsters vs. Aliens (DreamWorks Animation, dir: Conrad Vernon, Rob Letterman)
13. 9 (Focus Features, dir: Shane Acker)
14. Planet 51 (Ilion/Sony, dir: Jorge Blanco)
15. Ponyo (Studio Ghibli/Disney, dir: Hayao Miyazaki)
16. The Princess and the Frog (Disney, dir: Ron Clements and John Musker)
17. The Secret of Kells (Vivi/Disney, dir: Tomm Moore)
18. Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (Disney Toon, dir: Klay Hall)
19. A Town Called Panic (Canal+/Zeitgeist, dir: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar)
20. Up (Disney/Pixar, dir: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson)

Who Will Be the 5 Nominees?

From this list, AMPAS' committees will lop and chop until only 5 films are nominated on Oscar night. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel will be swiftly eliminated since it doesn't pass Oscar's litmus test for an animated film: at least 75% of the movie must be animated using a frame-by-frame technique.

Even though there are a lot more competitors this year, only a few really stand out. Disney's The Princess and the Frog and Disney/Pixar's Up are pretty much shoo-ins for a nomination; Princess might tank with critics and audiences but, given the talent involved, that's highly unlikely.

That leaves 3 other nominees. Coraline deserves a nomination as possibly the bravest animated film released this year, and Ponyo may get in simply because of Hayao Miyazaki's previous win for Spirited Away. Fantastic Mr. Fox may take the last slot, also because of director Wes Anderson's previous work, which includes Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Astro Boy really didn't hit as hard this side of the Pacific as Imagi was hoping for, and Battle for Terra's sole claim to fame is how many people didn't see the flick. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Monsters vs. Aliens came from reputable studios – Fox and DWA respectively – but they didn't stand out from anything else that studio has produced in previous years.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was wonderful, but will likely get squeezed out by more prestigious entries. Anything else simply didn't make enough of a splash this year. AMPAS will likely decide that Disney's getting enough nominations, which means Tinker Bell and A Christmas Carol are out of luck (besides, mo-cap isn't really animation . . . right, Robert Zemeckis?).

What Animated Film Will Win on Oscar Night?

As much as it would be wonderful to see Coraline take the statuette on Oscar night, it's likely that this will be a Disney vs. Pixar race. Up wowed both audiences and critics, but that's been standard fare for Pixar for the past 3 years. AMPAS may decide that Pixar's got enough Oscars in their trophy case.

The big news this year is the return of Disney to cel animation, and that also favours The Princess and the Frog. The movie has an impeccable pedigree with directors Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and composer Randy Newman (Toy Story). The majority of the voting members (most of whom are retirement age) fondly remember those classic Disney animated films, and will want to cheer the Mouse House's hopefully triumphant return to what put the studio on the map in the first place.

Given all that, it's likely that The Princess and the Frog will win the Best Animated Feature Film on Oscar night.

The copyright of the article 20 Toons Competing for 2009 Animation Oscar in Animated Films is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish 20 Toons Competing for 2009 Animation Oscar in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Oscar statuette

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Nov 27, 2009 3:19 PM

Guest :

The Academy likes Robert Zemeckis so much that if the animated oscar was invented in 1988 Roger Rabbit would have won it. Although not animated, Forrest Gump nearly swept one time.

Beowulf and Polar Express weren't nominated because Robert Zemeckis didn't want them to be shortlisted, now that Robert Zemeckis allowed Christmas Carol to be short listed, If Pixar's Up doesn't win, the smart money is on Robert Zemeckis' Christmas Carol.

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