Best animated feature Oscar race may increase number of nominees

Notes on a Season by Pete Hammond

It may not be just best picture increasing the number of its nominees this year. There's a good chance the best animated feature category could jump from three to five nominees for the first time since 2002, the only year to feature more than three contenders since it was created in 2001.

Academy rules state if there are 8 to 15 qualified animated features it triggers the category in any given year, and if there are 16 or more the nominee count can climb from three to five.

Oscar consultants for Disney, Focus, Sony, Fox and nearly every other distributor with a dog in this hunt are looking closely at the developing numbers and seem to be in general agreement that there are (barely)  enough potential films there -- at least on paper. With "Up," "Ponyo," "Coraline," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" it has been a banner year for the genre, both critically and especially at the box office.  Now with Wes Anderson's eagerly awaited "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" about to debut followed by another trio of films from Disney, it would seem an expanded field is a distinct possibility. It's only appropriate considering voters are going to have to get very creative in coming up with 10 genuine best picture nominees but coming up with a list of five deserving 'toons this year is a piece of cake.

"There's a lot of great movies that have come out this year and still more to come. It's a great year for animation," says Chris Miller, co-writer and director of Sony Animation's smash hit, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs".

Miller and his partner Phil Lord are riding high on their first animated feature credit. The film is not only doing well at the box office, where it is showing more staying power week to week than nearly any other wide release film this year, but also critically, garnering an 85% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Naturally, they are now dreaming Oscar but are realistic enough to know that if the competition is only three slots, their chances are severely diminished. They are newcomers, after all, going up against the generally agreed-upon front-runners so far: Disney/Pixar's "Up", Focus' Henry Selick masterpiece, "Coraline" and Japanese animation god and Oscar winner Hiyao Miyazaki's "Ponyo." At this point those three would appear to be tough to beat, but if the category expands it opens up a whole new ballgame. To do that you need at least 16 entries submitted by their distributors and then vetted by the Academy animation committee as worthy of the competition.

"It is to the benefit of everyone, if everybody submits,"  says Lord. "I'm like (DreamWorks animation head)  Jeffrey Katzenberg. I will pay whatever needs to be paid. I will do the submitting for other studios!"

Other possible qualifying movies include: "9," "Battle for Terra" and the upcoming releases  "Planet 51," "Astro Boy," "The Princess and the Frog," "A Christmas Carol" and another Disney flick, "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure," which will play a week at the El Capitan Theatre from Oct. 16-22 before being released on DVD. Although this is not a serious contender for the studio its Oscar qualifying engagement could make it the one 'toon that provides the magic number 16, which will help Disney's multitude of more likely contenders: "Up," "Ponyo," "The Princess and the Frog" and Robert Zemeckis' 3-D performance capture Jim Carrey film, "A Christmas Carol." The latter still remains a question mark as the director and studio haven't yet determined whether this animation hybrid will be entered. Others using the motion capture process have qualified in the past including Zemeckis' own "Beowulf," "Monster House" and "Happy Feet" which actually won in 2006.

Two other films, the Australian "Mary and Max" and the Japanese "Evangerion" quietly sneaked into an Encino multiplex for barely noticed one-show-daily qualifying runs two weeks ago. A French 'toon, "A Town Called Panic" reportedly did the same thing at some point this year but consultants aren't clear on whether it qualified or not.

And That's Not All, Folks!

It's also a bit ironic that the paucity of major contenders for the 10 Best Picture slots may mean a couple of these animated contenders ("Up"? "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"?) could even make the leap into the big boys category.

In this year's Oscar race it just may pay to be a 'toon.