Nominees For Best Animated Feature: Will 'Frozen' Take Home The Oscar?

by UInterviewJanuary 23, 2014, 12:00 am >

As the Oscars approach, many are rushing to the theaters to see the films they missed in 2013, and here’s a look at the four films nominated for Best Animated Feature: Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestine, Frozen and The Wind Rises.

The Best Animated Feature category has long been dominated by Pixar, but this year Pixar’s Monsters University didn’t earn the famed animation studio a coveted Oscar nod. Instead, nominations went to two American films and two foreign films.

Despicable Me 2, the sequel to 2010’s hit animated comedy, Despicable Me, was a huge success when it was released over the summer, and the film stars comedy favorites Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig. The family movie will most likely remain a nominee on Oscar night, but it could earn a surprise win for Best Original Song, “Happy” by Pharrell.

Should “Happy” win, it would certainly be considered an upset as fellow Best Animated Picture nominee Frozen is the frontrunner to win Best Song for “Let It Go.”

Ernest & Celestine, a French/Belgium production, is the nominated feature with the smallest production budget, at only 9.6 million euros (in contrast to Despicable Me 2’s $76 million budget). The film follows the mismatched friendship between a mouse, Celestine, and a bear, Ernest, who both feel like misfits in their own worlds. The French film already won France’s version of the Oscar, the Cesar Award, for Best Animated Feature, and won the Cristal Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival for Best Picture.

Ernest & Celestine screened at the Sundance Film Festival with dubbed voices. The English-speaking cast features Forest Whitaker, Paul Giamatti, and William H. Macy.

Frozen is arguably this year’s front-runner. The Disney film grossed over $300 million at the domestic box office and has made $655 million worldwide. It’s so successful, Disney recently announced plans to bring the film to Broadway. Frozen also recently beat out Despicable Me 2 to win Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe Awards.

Finally, The Wind Rises, an animated historical film from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle), could always take the gold statuette. Miyazaki previously won an Oscar for Best Animated Film in 2001 for Spirited Away and was nominated again in 2006 for Howl’s Moving Castle. The Wind Rises, like Ernest & Celestine, has yet to receive a wide release in the U.S., a fact that may hurt their chances. Academy voters who don’t watch the films might be more likely to vote for what they know, and both Frozen and Despicable Me 2 have had an immense amount of media coverage (Despicable Me 2 even had a float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade). Though The Wind Rises will be released Feb. 21, just four days before final Oscar ballots are due. Unfortunatelly, Ernest & Celestine will miss the cut off – it’s looking at a release on March 14.