A Best Animated Feature Oscar category without a Pixar film? Blasphemy, you say? Well, tell that to the animators of My Life as a Zucchini.

Best Animated Film:

• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Moana
• My Life as a Zucchini
• The Red Turtle
• Zootopia

Will Win: Zootopia

Could Win: Kubo and the Two Strings

Dark Horse: Moana

 

I love the race that is being shaped in this category. I still haven’t seen My Life as a Zucchini, but still. Let’s just forget about that one for now.

This race is a battle between smart children’s film storytelling, smart character representations in chlidren’s film, and astounding stop motion animation.

Zootopia was a massive hit in 2016, but it also was released very early. Kubo and the Two Strings features masterful animation, but it did not get widely seen when it was released in August. Moana was released in November, at the onset of awards season.

With this information alone, it sounds like Moana should win this award, and it could. But Zootopia will likely hang in there. If not, Kubo deserves the award just as much (if not more). Giving Kubo and the Two Strings a Visual Effects nod means one of two things: either the film has support from multiple Academy branches that could give it an edge in this category, or voters will see the added nomination as enough reward and go with a different film.

 

As always, thanks for reading!

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—Alex Brannan (@TheAlexBrannan)