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derekfoxwit · 1 year

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With the (as if this writing) upcoming 95th Academy Awards, and because I want to do this just for fun, I feel like going over the Best Animated Feature category and share what alternatives for nominations and wins I feel would’ve been more appropriate, especially in the long run. I primarily wanted to do something like this due to some of my own annoyances with how that category tended to be handled, along with the ceremony’s general treatment of animation beyond said category. Most nomination alternatives I suggest will be based on this list of submissions.

2001

In terms of nominations, the most I can think to do is switch Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius for something else. If I just went with basically any eligible movie, submitted or otherwise, Atlantis: The Lost Empire would’ve been an alright replacement, mainly to retroactively throw directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale a bone for (1) having Beauty and the Beast be the only animated film nominated for Best Picture by this point, and (2) making up for how, as of now, they haven’t been the co-directors of a major animated film since. Sticking solely to submitted films, Richard Linklater’s Waking Life is probably to strongest replacement here, speaking as someone who’s seen it once before. Even then, Shrek’s gonna stay the winner since, let’s face it, given the huge impression it made, there’s no way Waking Life would’ve grabbed that win instead.

2002

Looking at the different submissions and relevant films, I might just keep the nominations and the win the same. I don’t think any of the other submissions look any better to replace Ice Age or Spirit with, and the remaining releases of that year that aren’t later submissions don’t seem that way either (except maybe The Cat Returns). Plus, they would’ve been against Spirited Away, so.........

2003

Once again, the winner is going to stay as Finding Nemo with 85% of other alternatives. There still aren’t many meaningful alternatives IMO, but there are a couple of interesting ones. Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress is likely the best one to have replace Brother Bear (easily the less acclaimed of the three contenders we got, plus Triplets of Belleville is genuinely great). Tokyo Godfathers was also submitted for that same ceremony. Beyond submissions, there’s also Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, the anime film that serves as a visual companion to Daft Punk’s Discovery. Those three would be good replacements for Brother Bear, but I guess if you wanted to go crazy, there’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Imagine if either Triplets of Belleville or Millennium Actress walked out with a win instead, though.

2004

Let’s be upfront here. SHARK TALE shouldn’t be have been nominated! Seriously, within submissions alone, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence; The first SpongeBob film; and Polar Express were right here! The latter most would’ve also been less bad than one would think given that this was before the Zemeckis Mo-Cap trend got out of hand, and you could’ve at least excused PE’s use compared to later on. Outside of submissions, however, the only other one I could think of was for Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game, and even then that could’ve been more eligible for next year. The winner will stay the same (The Incredibles).

2005

......well......looking back is making me realize how especially underwhelming computer animation had it this year. Robots; Madagascar; Chicken Little; Hoodwinked; VALIENT! Those were the submissions, and that’s more or less all they’ve had for choices that even resemble meaningful ones. This results in the only time in the category where none of the nominations are computer animated (Howl’s Moving Castle; Corpse Bride; Curse of the Were-Rabbit). Since the most I could think of for alternatives is MAYBE Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, let’s just stuck to the same contenders. Whether Wallace & Gromit keeps the win or Howl gets it instead (maybe even Corpse Bride) can be up to you.

2006

Guess who? If it weren’t for Arthur and the Invisibles disqualifying due to not having enough animation to meet that 75% requirement, we could’ve had 5 nominations instead of three, since that film’s inclusion would’ve equaled 16 submissions. Anyway, this is where I really start making substantial alternatives. First, the nominations this year were Cars, Monster House and Happy Feet, with the last one being the winner. Submitted alternatives to replace one of them include Aardman’s Flushed Away; Satoshi Kon’s Paprika; Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly; and MAYBE Curious George just for SOME kind of 2D animated rep. that the Oscars wouldn’t be allergic to. Outside of submissions, there was also Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. There was also apparently a 2006 Russian animated adaptation of the story of Vladimir the Great if you really wanna push for other options. For the contenders proper, I would honestly prefer replacing one of them with Paprika and have that be the winner, just so there’s more variety in both studios AND animation styles that win. If I just kept it to the nominees we got, then you could probably argue that Cars deserved it a tiny bit more than Happy Feet. However, given that we can meme that the one Oscar win for George Miller of Mad Max famer is for Happy Feet, I’m willing to let that slide.

2007

The nominations proper aren’t too bad (Ratatouille; Persepolis; Surf’s Up), even if for the last one, it’s more for its experimental ambition. It is kind of surprising that the Oscars didn’t consider Simpsons Movie for a nomination. Another submitted contender would include Tekkonkinkreet, which I found very good from the one time I watched it. Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeter per Second came out this year, so there was that potential option. If that was in competition instead of Surf’s Up, that could’ve made for an interesting win, given that this was before Your Name. Perhaps just swap that and Surf’s Up, and you could either keep Ratatouille’s win or have Persepolis win instead.

2008

Being upfront, Wall-E is staying the winner here. Also right off the bat, Bolt will be replaced with something else, perhaps Waltz with Bashir, which got the Best Foreign Film nomination that year. Especially since there were pretty much no other submissions that make sense for me to include. Sita Sings the Blues came out the high praise, but considering its more indie method of release (more or less into Public Domain via the internet), I doubt that would’ve truly qualified due to never being in a Los Angeles theater at any point. So all that I’d change is switching Waltz with Bashir with Bolt.

2009

Man, 2009 was such a standout year for animated films, with literally EVERY nomination being an example of why. Coraline kicking off Laika and still arguably being their peak; Princess and the Frog giving us at least one more chance to see a 2D animated princess film after a major slump Disney went through; Cartoon Saloon more or less kickstarts with Secret of Kells; Wes Anderson gives us Fantastic Mr. Fox; and Pixar’s Up not only being yet another homerun for them, but becoming the second animated film to get the Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Ponyo came out last year, but couldn’t qualify until this year. There’s also A Town Called Panic (submitted; pretty good wacky stop-motion comedy based on a Belgian cartoon); Mary & Max (though IFC Films’ distribution made it essentially qualify more as direct-to-video in the US, whoops); Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars (got submitted next year); and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (submitted; basically kickstarted a direction for Sony Animation to have a more cartoony feel in its CGI). The contenders will still be the same, but I actually think Fantastic Mr. Fox would’ve deserved the win a bit more (and perhaps should’ve joined Up in that aforementioned Best Picture nomination, wink wink).

2010

The nominations and win we got here work fine. For submissions, there were Megamind; Tangled and the aforementioned Summer Wars. This is where Illumination debuted with Despicable Me, but even at that point, I don’t really care for them to be nominated at all. Otherwise, there are Secret World of Arrietty and, I guess, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Anything else I can think of gets their chance next year, so let’s just keep this year the same.

2011

Nominations here are A Cat in Paris; Chico & Rita (both from last year but now eligible); Kung Fu Panda 2; Puss in Boots 2011; and the winner Rango. By the way, in 2010, the Academy enacted a rule that basically said “no mocap cartoons,” so The Adventures of Tintin may as well not be submitted. Among the most promising submitted alternatives are Winnie the Pooh 2011; Arthur Christmas; and some animated film from Spain about elderly folk called “Wrinkles” (might be worth a watch). Also seriously, FUCKING Mars Needs Moms is a submission, what the hell? It would’ve been neat if Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics got submitted for The Tragedy of Man, his last film. I’d swap out Puss in Boots 2011 for one of those other features (I’ll show which one later), but Rango keeps it Oscar.

2012

Okay, lemme cut the bullshit. Brave’s win is gonna be handed to someone else. The other nominations were Frankenweenie; ParaNorman; Wreck-It Ralph; and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! In addition to better known submissions like Rise of the Guardians and Hotel Transylvania, there are also a few interesting sounding indie projects such as The Painting (Le Tableau) and The Rabbi’s Cat. Despite not being a submission, I may just add in Wolf Children just to get back at the Oscars for being allergic to non-Ghibli anime films. In fact, fuck it, replace Brave with Wolf Children. From there, the award is going to either it, ParaNorman or Wreck-It Ralph.

2013

Frozen should just let IT (the award) go and give it to some other flick. Both The Croods and especially Despicable Me 2 will be swapped out for something else (Hell, I’d rather Monsters University was there instead, winning or otherwise). The other two contenders (Ernest & Celestine; The Wind Rises) are still great ones to have. One of the foreign submissions is some Brazilian film called “Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury.” From South Korea, there’s Yeon Sang-ho’s The Fake (reception seems more mixed to positive, but by default, more interesting compared to what DM2 was doing). In Japan, there’s A Letter to Momo; Shinkai’s The Garden of Words; and The Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie Rebellion (the last in a trilogy, but ultimately based on an acclaimed anime). I think for my new nominations, I’ll just go with Rio 2096 and The PMMM Movie Rebellion. The new winner is now The Wind Rises.

2014

First off, let’s remedy that bullshit of with LEGO Movie never getting that nomination. It’ll be swapped with The Box Trolls, since I hear that’s Laika’s most underwhelming movie. Aside from maybe Bill Plympton’s Cheatin’ and the French-Belgian project Minusclue: Valley of the Lost Ants, I’m not sure if any of the other submissions called for a nomination. Outside of the submissions, the only alternative I would’ve considered is The Book of Life. As a result, all the other contenders (How to Train Your Dragon 2; Song of the Sea; Tale of the Princess Kaguya; Big Hero 6) will be kept the same. BH6, however, will now be a loser while either Kaguya or LEGO Movie will be the winner (personally going with Kaguya, but you can go with LEGO Movie instead if you want).

2015

At this point, I wouldn’t care if Inside Out stays the winner, but there are a surprising amount of alternatives I would consider. To start, the other contenders were Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa; the Brazilian animated feature Boy and the World (by Ale Abreu); Shaun the Sheep Movie from Aardman Animations; and Ghibli’s When Marnie was There. I wouldn’t mind swapping a couple of (otherwise still worthy) contenders for a couple of other great picks, such as The Peanuts Movie; Birdboy: The Forgotten Children; and The Little Prince (got submitted next year tho). I think I’d swap Marnie with Peanuts Movie (already plenty of Ghibli love by this point, and I already said their last two films, especially Kaguya, deserved it more than Disney that year). Little Prince; Birdboy; and Boy in the World can interchange in my mind, so I’ll probably keep the rest of the nominations the same. As for a winner, I don’t care if Inside Out kept the win, if Anomalisa got it instead, for even some surprise win from Shaun or Boy. Though for variety sake, I’ll stick to Anomalisa.

2016

Okay, just because the Oscars were allergic to non-Ghibli anime films and needlessly ignored such an acclaimed animated film, Shinkai’s Your Name’s is going to replace one of the nominations. This year actually SAW The Little Prince as a submission as well, along with Long Way North and April and the Extraordinary World. However, I feel this otherwise picked too many meaningful nominations (Zootopia; Moana; Kubo and the Two Strings; My Life as a Zucchini; The Red Turtle) to easily remove them. I’ll probably just switch Your Name with one of the two Disney nomination, and surprisingly, it may just be Zootopia. As well-liked as that one is, it does feel like it became a bit more sidelined compared to Moana overtime. In fact, let’s say that the award win will go to Your Name just to compensate for how dumb the Academy Awards can be with anime.

2017

Starting off, I will still change two for the nominations we got (stares judgingly at Boss Baby). The Breadwinner and Loving Vincent will stay, so that leaves Blue Sky’s Ferdinand as another movie getting replaced. One of the new contenders is EASILY A Silent Voice for basically the same reasons why as Your Name. I may even have either that movie win or keep Coco’s win. Also, I keep forgetting that some foreign films were eligible for submission since this year NOW saw the submissions of Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, as well as Ethel & Ernest and The Girl Without Hands from the previous year. Other submissions include The Captain Underpants movie; Mary and the Witch’s Flower; and The LEGO Batman Movie. However, I think I may just make Birdboy the other new nomination instead for even stronger variety.

2018

You’re kidding, right? Of course Into The Spider-Verse is staying the winner. I’ll also take Ralph Breaks The Internet out of here and give its place to another film. It’ll instead go to Masaaki Yuasa’s Night is Short, Walk on Girl. The other nominations are also fine to have (Isle of Dogs; Incredibles 2; Mirai).

2019

No, Toy Story 4 is not keeping that award win. In fact, I’ll actually be replacing that movie with another possible contender. I’m tempted to default to Lupin III: The First instead of Weathering With You since with my previous changes, I already gave Shinkai the win. However, that’s not eligible until next year, so Weathering gets in. Either way, Klaus wins instead here. I could either keep Missing Link or replace it with Ne-Zha. The other nominations (HTTYD 3; I Lost My Body) stay.

2020

I would honestly prefer it if Wolkwalkers was the winner instead of Soul. I might also replace Onward with some other movie. HERE is where Lupin III: The First will get a nomination instead. The rest (Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon and Over The Moon) stay, mainly due to having less great alternatives than the last few times. That makes sense, though, considering......

2021

We don’t talk about Encanto winning this time. Now, the animated documentary Flee is getting the honor. Raya is also getting replaced with an arguably more worthy contender. Good alternative picks include The Summit of the Gods and Hosoda’s Belle. Heck, I’d probably be more willing to give Arlo the Alligator the nomination compared to just having Disney hog three of five entries (though sometimes, that’s tricky anyway). I’ll just have that new fifth nomination be a toss-up between Summit and Belle.

2022

This time, let’s just list the nominations normally:

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Directed by Dean Fleisher Camp)

Turning Red (Directed by Domee Shi)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Directed by Joel Crawford)

The Sea Beast (Directed by Chris Williams)

This may just be one of the best and most varied listings of five nominations this category has seen, as this Tweet puts it best. As of this post, the ceremony hasn’t happened yet (didn’t mind doing this early though). Even then, I could realistically see one film (The Sea Beast) get replaced with something else. Either Phil Tippett’s Mad God; Masaaki Yuada’s Inu-Oh; or even DreamWorks’ own The Bad Guys (if only to give them multi-nomination rep. that actually makes sense). Sorry, Strange World and Wendell & Wild. However, that won’t be a set replacement. Honestly, for once, I can see a realistic arms race between more than two animated films. In fact, I think there’s one for all of the contenders EXCEPT for Sea Beast. Then again, kind of sucks that Turning Red is pretty much guaranteed to be in hot water if it does win. I’m holding out for Guillermo Del Toro to win the most, so that’ll be what I’m picking as my “alternate” choice (still would be one if it doesn’t win, but given its Golden Globe win, it’s still likely).

Now that I’m done, I’ll end this off with a listed version of the changes I’d make (parenthesis for replacements; bold for wins; crossed-out for replaced films):

2001 - Shrek; Monsters, Inc.; (Waking Life) Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius 2002 - no change 2003 - Finding Nemo; Triplets of Belleville; (Millennium Actress) Brother Bear 2004 - The Incredibles; Shrek 2; (Mind Game or Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, depending if the former could qualify) Shark Tale 2005 - no change 2006 - (Paprika); Cars; Happy Feet Monster House 2007 - Ratatouille or Persepolis; (5 Centimeters per Second) Surf’s Up 2008 - Wall-E; Kung Fu Panda; (Waltz with Bashir) Bolt 2009 - Fantastic Mr. Fox; Up; Coraline; Princess and the Frog; The Secret of Kells 2010 - no change 2011 - Rango; Kung Fu Panda 2; (The Tragedy of Man); A Cat in Paris; Chico & Rita Puss in Boots 2011 2012 - Wreck-It Ralph; ParaNorman or (Wolf Children); The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!; Frankenweenie Brave 2013 - (The Wind Rises); (Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury); (Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion); Ernest & Celestine; Frozen The Croods; Despicable Me 2 2014 - (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya); The LEGO Movie; How To Train Your Dragon 2; Song of the Sea (Big Hero 6) The Box Trolls 2015 - Inside Out or (Anomalisa); Boy and the World; Shaun The Sheep Movie; (The Peanuts Movies) When Marnie Was There 2016 - (Your Name); Moana; Kubo and the Two Strings; My Life as a Zucchini; The Red Turtle Zootopia 2017 - Coco or (A Silent Voice); The Breadwinner; Loving Vincent; (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) The Boss Baby; Ferdinand 2018 - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse; Isle of Dogs; Mirai; (Night is Short, Walk on Girl); The Incredibles 2 Ralph Breaks the Internet 2019 - Klaus; How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World; (Weathering With You); I Lost My Body; (Ne-Zha) or Missing Link Toy Story 4 2020 - Wolfwalkers; Soul; Over The Moon; (Lupin III: The First); A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Fargageddon Onward 2021 - Flee; Encanto; The Mitchells vs. The Machines; (Belle or Summit of the Gods); Luca Raya and the Last Dragon 2022 - Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Turning Red; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; Marcel the Shell with Shoes On; (Mad God or Inu-Oh) The Sea Beast

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