We’re going to take our first look at Best Animated Feature in today’s newest 2015 Oscar predictions category. I’ve so far established 15 contenders for the category knowing full well there are other possibilities out there, which I will mention at the end of this post, but for now I think I’ve got the most likely contenders on this list while there may be more that will simply pad the field by year’s end.
Now, had I opened this category back in June when I first started putting the rankings together you would have seen a different film at the top of the list, but given the disappointing box office returns for How to Train Your Dragon 2, Dreamworks has opened the door for Laika to possibly take home their first Best Animated Feature Oscar as The BoxTrolls takes the #1 opening spot.
Laika has Coraline, ParaNorman and even Tim Burton‘s Corpse Bride to their credit, but they’ve never managed to win the top prize, losing to Pixar’s Up and Brave most recently. Well, that’s one thing about this year’s field… Pixar is nowhere to be found.
In second I have what is easily the first smash hit of the year, Warner’s The LEGO Movie, which I think has a very real chance at winning and would only serve as icing on the cake as Oscars are the least of WB’s concerns as they’ve already scheduled LEGO’s Ninjago for September 2016, The LEGO Movie 2 for May 2016 and then two more Lego movies for May 2018 and May 2019. Awards or not, they are going to get their money’s worth.
Third is where I have Dragon 2, but it could make a comeback if DreamWorks reminds voters how much critics loved the film, but the box office returns seemed to only create an air of negativity around the release, which may be hard to come back from.
In fourth I’m putting some faith in Disney’s Big Hero 6. Disney has done a wonderful job recently with their animated features from Tangled to Frozen and I’m only going to assume they’ve figured things out and will do it once again this year.
Finally, my fifth slot belongs to the Guillermo del Toro-produced The Book of Life, which also has a brand new trailer directly below.
As I said, I have a field of 15 contenders so far, which you can see in its ranked entirety right here. Some films not on that list that very well may end up contending by the year’s end include Boy and the World, Thunder and the House of Magic, Tanta Hilda, Little from the Fish Shop, The 7th Dwarf, Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, Tarzan 3D, Valley of the Lost Ants and Foosball. All or some of these may qualify, who knows?
If I were to guess, I’d expect Tarzan and Thunder and the House of Magic to qualify since Lionsgate is handling the home video release of the former and Shout! is giving both Thunder and Cuckoo-Clock a theatrical release, but at this point I’m not going to worry too much about it.
All that said, click here for the full filed and share your thoughts on Best Animated Movie below.
