The Oscars and Animated Disney Movies

Can you believe that films like The Lion King and Cinderella didn’t win the Oscar for best animated film?  Well, that’s because for a very long time that category didn’t even exist.  Throughout the history of the Oscars, animated features have been largely ignored.  Sure, Walt Disney was honored for his work on Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast actually got a nomination for best film, but for the most part animated movies just weren’t given the same thought as other movies.  It wasn’t until 2001 that they introduced the category of best animated feature.

There are 18 Disney movies that have been nominated for this award, and 9 of them won.  They are as follows:

Monsters, Inc. (2001), Lilo and Stitch (2002), Treasure Planet (2002), Finding Nemo (2003 – won), Brother Bear (2003), The Incredibles (2004 – won), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007 – won), Wall-e (2008 – won), Bolt (2008), Up (2009 – won), The Princess and the Frog (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010 – won), Brave (2012 – won), Frankenweenie (2012), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013 – won), Big Hero 6 (2014 – won)

Rachel from the blog 54 Disney Reviews recently did a post on the movies that were nominated for the Oscar, and tagged me in a challenge to answer the same questions.  Because this is a Disney blog, and frankly I haven’t seen many of the non-Disney animated movies, I limited my responses to the Disney films listed above.  I also didn’t answer some of the questions because they didn’t really apply to just the Disney movies.

1. A film that should have been nominated but wasn’t:  Tangled.  One of my top 5 Disney movies, for sure.

2. A terrible film that was nominated for Oscar:  All of the animated movies I’ve seen that were nominated weren’t terrible, and the ones that might be terrible I haven’t seen.  If you’re forcing me to stay Disney, certainly I wonder about Brother Bear (a movie I’ve actually not seen yet!).
3. A movie that won an Oscar you don’t care for:  Brave.  It’s an all right film, but I didn’t feel like it lived up to Pixar standards for me.  Plus Wreck-It Ralph was that year, which I absolutely love.

4. A film about a robot you love:  Wall-e.  Not exactly a ton of options though!
5. Film with relatively no dialogue you love:  I have to go Wall-e again.  It’s probably the only Disney movie that’s been nominated for this Oscar with relatively little dialogue, and they do it well.
6. A film you like but everyone else loves:  Lilo and Stitch.  I’ve just never gotten the Stitch obsession.  It’s a cute film, but he’s such a little troublemaker!  I’m too much of a goody two-shoes that Stitch would just annoy me haha.
7. A film which has grown on you each time you see it: The Incredibles.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the superhero thing when it first came out, but I love it more and more now.

8. A movie you wish you could convince everyone to watch: Monsters, Inc.  It’s probably my favorite Pixar movie.
9. An underrated comedy:  Wreck-It Ralph is hilarious if you’re a geek.  While I’m not hugely into video games my husband is, so I could relate to a lot of it.
10. What is a movie made for kids (or marketed to kids) that scares you or that would have scared you:  The only one on this list which seems like it has a scary feel to it is Frankenweenie, and I haven’t seen it.

11. A movie based on graphic novel you love:  A believe it was originally a Marvel comic, so Big Hero 6 is the only one that would really work here.
12. A sequel better than original:  Toy Story 3.  I really enjoy the first Toy Story but the third one was my favorite out of the three.
13. A movie you like parts but really don’t like other parts:  Big Hero 6.  I loved the character of Baymax but found much of the rest of the movie to be a little too predictable for my tastes.

14. A movie about a family you love:  The sisterly bond in Frozen is absolutely one of the strongest points of the film, and I love the message that it sends about family.
15. A movie that takes strange turn in act 2:  Brave.  I enjoyed the first half of the movie (though I felt like we kind of already knew it from so many previews), but the second half was just a little
16. A Favorite Disney Princess movie:  As much as I enjoy Frozen, Princess and the Frog wins this one for me.
17. A favorite movie about 2 friends:  Depends on what you consider friends, but I love the partnership of Carl and Russell in Up.

Which 2015 animated movie do you think will get the Oscar?  I think and hope it will be Inside Out myself.  We’ll also see how the reception to the Good Dinosaur is!