The Academy Awards is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards show, with the 90th annual ceremony taking place March 4. It is during this yearly tradition that actors, producers, writers and the many others who have a passion for creating great film get a chance to have their dreams come true and win an Oscar, the highest honor there is in the industry. Many great films have been nominated in the past: “Spotlight,” “No Country for Old Men” and “Boss Baby,” just to name a few. One of those films might seem out of place, and there is a good reason for that.
The category for Best Animated Feature was officially introduced in 2001, with the first recipient of the award going to the Dreamworks animated classic, “Shrek.” Since then, the entertainment powerhouse Disney has all but run the table, with 11 of the next 16 awards going to films created by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The few notable exceptions in the list are 2002’s “Spirited Away” (directed by animation legend Hayao Miyazaki), 2005’s “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” and 2011’s “Rango.” With that in mind, it is easy to see Disney taking home the gold again this year with “Coco,” a Pixar-made feature film that deals with the serious issues of life and death through the colorful lens of a 12-year-old boy living in Santa Cecilia, Mexico. The movie has been very well received, striking a chord with many Mexican-Americans who have felt underrepresented as of late, so there is no real reason for it not to win.
The films running up against “Coco” are BFI London Film Festival winner “The Breadwinner,” the fully-painted biographical film “Loving Vincent,” Blue Sky Studios’ lovable box-office flop “Ferdinand,” and for whatever reason, “Boss Baby.” Two of those films stand out – “Loving Vincent” and “The Breadwinner” – as having the highest chance of pulling an upset, potentially stealing the award from the cold and unforgiving hands of Mickey Mouse.
“The Breadwinner” is a low-budget film created by the Irish animation studio Cartoon Studio, which has created two other Oscar-nominated films, “The Secret of Kells” and “Song of the Sea.” Neither of those took home the prize, but they always stood out strong with their slow, deliberate pacing and attention to detail that make each scene look like a page from a children’s book come to life.
There is a lot to admire about “Loving Vincent,” a Polish production written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.
It is the first-fully- painted animated feature film, with each of the film’s 65,000 frames telling its story using oil paint and Van Gogh’s iconic, swirling style. Although it was a critical success overseas, it unfortunately might not have had enough of an impact in the United States for the Academy to take it into consideration.
“Ferdinand” and “Boss Baby” should not even be on this list. Both films reek of a cash-in from both studios, with “Ferdinand” being the stronger of the two simply because it was able to tell an engaging story from start to finish. “Boss Baby” belongs in a bargain bin at a run-down K-Mart, not in a list of the best cinema has to offer. “Captain Underpants” was a great movie from 2017 that would have been a much stronger contender, but even that would have seemed horribly out of place.
If “Coco” somehow does not win this year, expect “The Incredibles 2” to win next year. It might seem unfair, but for the time being, Disney does it best.
Image from 20th Century Fox via YouTube.com
