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| Zootopia is nominated for Best Animated Feature. |
Welcome to Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the
Oscars, our daily look at this year’s Academy Awards race. Be sure to check
back every day leading up to the ceremony for analysis of each of the Academy’s
24 categories and more.
Best Animated Feature
The nominees are:
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia
Best Animated Feature is a studio game, plain and simple.
This is the 16th year since the category became official at the Oscars, and in
that time, there have been 64 nominated features. Of those 64, 31 have come
from just three studios – Pixar (Disney Pixar), Disney, and Dreamworks. Of the
15 winners, not counting this year of course, those three studios have accounted
for 12. The boom in independent animation has been wonderful for the industry,
but if you want to win an Oscar, come with big boys or don’t come at all.
This year represents one of the few times Pixar had an
eligible feature (Finding Dory) that
failed to get a nomination, but Disney made up for it with a double nomination
(Zootopia and Moana). Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli earned its sixth
nomination with its first non-Japanese production (The Red Turtle), and Laika picked up its fourth nomination (Kubo and the Two Strings) for its fourth
film, a perfect record that so far has produced zero wins. French-Swiss
co-production My Life as a Zucchini
is the only independently produced nominee, and not coincidentally, it is the
least likely winner.
*Note: Full
disclosure, I have not yet seen My Life as a Zucchini, which will not be released here until Feb. 24, two days before the
ceremony. I will write about it in this space once I have had the opportunity
to see it.
The film not only forces us to question our preconceived
notions and biases, but it also wants us to question who benefits from those
biases and how those people build systems that reinforce and worsen prejudice.
Of course, this is all done in the style of a computer-animated talking-animal
movie in which an adorable bunny (a bunny is allowed to call another bunny “cute,”
but another animal …) realizes her dream of becoming a police officer.
The writing is smart, the animation is inspired, and the
message is moving and necessary. Given all that – and the fact it has been a
dominant and beloved force all season – you are probably looking at your
winner. It would be the third non-Pixar Disney winner in the last four years,
joining Frozen and Big Hero 6, and fifth straight from
either Pixar or the parent company. Howard is a previous nominee for Bolt and Moore for Wreck-It Ralph, while nominated producer Clark Spencer will be
making his first trip to the Oscars.
Moana is the story
of a young Polynesian girl, Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho), torn between
duty to her people and an insatiable desire to explore the world beyond her
island. When the island is threatened by a curse that will wipe out all life,
she sets out to find the demigod Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) and, with his
help, end the curse. As a tale of a young girl’s strength, wisdom, and
independence, it is revolutionary in the Disney canon, encouraging traits in a
young girl rarely encouraged by the movies or, sadly, by the world at large.
Beyond that, it is a terrific entertainment with the most
gorgeous animation of the year – particularly the water effects, which are
remarkable – and one of the best, most listenable Disney soundtracks in a long
time. The songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina are
endlessly hummable, instantly memorable, and in the case of the showstopper
“How Far I’ll Go,” out-and-out brilliant. The voice acting is on point, and the
world of the story is absolutely engrossing. As I have said before, this is not
only the best animated film of the year but one of the best films of the year,
period.
Kubo and the Two
Strings is a story of magic, tradition, and family, but the film’s default
setting for communicating each of these ideas is action – action, action, and
more action. Again, I would never deny Knight, who is also president and CEO of
Laika, and his team bring their vision to life in a stunning fashion. Every
sequence is magnificently realized and lovingly detailed. In between action
sequences, though, the story bogs down, seemingly unsure what to do with itself
when not engaged in a battle of some sort. As such, whatever message the film
is trying to communicate is lost in the morass of combat.
A marvel of hand-drawn animation, Dudok de Wit’s style is
recognizably his own, while still maintaining that certain Studio Ghibli charm,
no doubt aided by the presence of nominated producer Toshio Suzuki. The plot,
such as it is, follows the life of a man who gets shipwrecked on a deserted
island and makes a life for himself there. To reveal anything further would be
to dispel some of the film’s magic, though the trailer does a pretty good job
of that anyway. The Red Turtle is
intentionally slow and contemplative, but even at 80 minutes, it feels long,
like a magnificent short idea stretched out to feature length.
My Life as a Zucchini – *See
note above
The final analysis
Zootopia is the
juggernaut here, the billion-dollar grosser from one of the biggest studios in
the world. It won the Golden Globe and the Producers Guild award for animated
feature, and it has picked up numerous critical accolades. Kubo and the Two Strings is the underdog from the little
stop-motion studio that could. Its triumph at the BAFTA Awards over Zootopia and Moana certainly raises questions for the Academy. Could this be the
year Laika finally breaks through? I wouldn’t bet on it. Expect Disney’s recent
run of dominance to continue, though not necessarily for its best new film.
Will win:
Zootopia
Should win: Moana
Should have been
here: Finding Dory
Tomorrow: Best
Animated Short
