Courtesy Fox
This year, a record-breaking 20 animated films have been officially submitted to the Academy of Motion Pictures for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category. They compete for a maximum of five slots. if history is any indication, it’s anybody’s game. Well, after you count in the well-reviewed blockbusters -- Then, it’s anybody’s game.
Previous Academy Award winners have ranged from excellent (Finding Nemo) to execrable (Happy Feet). This year’s list of contenders, represent a similar range of quality. They are:
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
• Battle for Terra
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Disney’s A Christmas Carol
• The Dolphin Story of a Dreamer
• Mary and Max
• The Missing Lynx
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• Monsters vs. Aliens
• 9
• Ponyo
• The Secret of Kells
• A Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
• A Town Called Panic
• Up
I’m surprised to note I’ve seen only two of these films: Up and Monsters vs. Aliens. Given how often my kids and I work out the DVR, it feels like we knock off at least one major animated flick a week.
Of those two movies, one is certainly among the best animated films I’ve ever seen; the other among the most disappointing and pathetic. I won’t name names, but while I’m watching the Oscars on February 2, let’s just say I hope things look up for this specific film.
