Best Animated Feature 2019

[SLAM!]

The competing films of the 2019 Annecy Film Festival have been announced--I've chosen this as my signal to go ahead and create the Animated Feature thread for the forthcoming awards season. This is going to be an epic year with three major sequels in bitter contention for the win and a mixed bag of eccentric choices that could feasibly manage a nomination.

 

The big three competitors in this year's category are:

 

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Frozen II

Toy Story 4

 

It'll make for a very exciting race!

Edited April 17, 2019 by Slambros

[Morieris]

 

I don't know how well industry heads / critics will see TS4 as anything but milking it ("but the creators said it's NOT a cash grab", gee, nothing like unbiased professional statements!).

 

For now, I think it'll be Frozen 2. Commercial enough and popular enough. BUT...Dory didn't even get nominated, nor did Monsters University. This is a surprising tossup this year...

[SLAM!]

I know Missing Link just came out, and I'd probably be calling it a shoo-in for a nomination if it hadn't just bombed at the box office. Another stop-motion film that bombed at the box office was Early Man; we can all say with certainty that Mirai was the film occupying the wild-card fifth slot last year, and Early Man could have easily been in that wild-card slot (like Pirates! Band of Misfits was in 2012/2013), but there has to be a reason why it missed, and the act of blaming its box office is a perfectly valid gesture.  However, we must take into account that there is a lot of industry love directed towards Laika Studios; many people in Hollywood have to at least be aware of them. So Missing Link securing its nomination will be a matter of just how much the Academy really appreciates Laika. The Boxtrolls beat out The Lego Movie, yes... but that was five years ago, and times are subject to change.

 

Edit: to be honest, if you had asked me a month ago, I would've said Missing Link had a chance to be the winner. Now I think it has no chance.

Edited April 17, 2019 by Slambros

[Morieris]

I don't think we have nearly as many good contenders as last year though. Even in 2016, Kubo was nominated alongside The Red Turtle and My Life As A Zucchini. I can see it not even sneaking in, but walking full on, as there's still one spot left even after Disney x 2 , Dragons 3, and ML.

 

 

[SLAM!]

My Obligatory Foreign-Film Spotlight

 

I want to spotlight the interesting animated films that could find themselves running for this award underneath the surface of the mainstream Hollywood films.

 

The Annecy Film Festival has announced their slate of films, and while I'm sure more than a few of the competition films may not run for the Oscar until 2021 (if they ever do at all), it's entirely plausible that at least a few will find themselves in this year's Animated Feature submission list. The films running in the main competition are:

 

Bunuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles (Spain/Netherlands)

I highly expect this film to run this year, as it'll be backed by Gkids. It's about a legendary filmmaker and it's got a detailed 2D art style. It's got a shot.

 

The Bears' Famous Invasion (France/Italy)

I think it's about an empire of bears who live in the mountains or something. It's got a nice art style, and "2D Computer" and "3D Computer" are both on the techniques list.

 

Marona's Fantastic Tale (Romania/France/Belgium)

A lesson of unconditional love from the perspective of a small dog; another 2D animation.

 

Ride Your Wave (Japan)

That's right. Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby, Lu Over the Wall, and The Night is Short, Walk On Girl) is ALREADY putting out his next feature film (which is due out in Japanese theaters as soon as late May). The film is about a girl who loves surfing who fall in love with the young firefighter who saves her; the firefighters dies in the middle of the film, and he reappears to the girl as some sort of water spirit. (*I highly expect this film to be in the running for the fifth nomination.*)

 

Ternet Ninja (Denmark)

Meaning Checkered Ninja in Danish, this is a CG animation about a boy's ninja doll that's inexplicably come to life. This will not be a serious candidate because the animation is too... "sticky" for lack of a better word. But it looks like it's got a good story, and I'm happy Danish families have something to see.

 

The Relative Worlds (Japan)

A very sleek CG anime film about... parallel worlds... or something... it looks pretty good!

 

The Wonderland (Japan)

Take this with a grain of salt, but this anime film looks like it was made by the same studio who made a show of The Ancient Magus' Bride. They seem like a good fit for this story, which reminds me of The Wizard of Oz in the way it's both whimsically fantastical and comfortably psychedelic.

 

White Snake (China)

A CG animation with notable polish that tells a story of Chinese folklore. If this wins the competition, sound the alarm: it'll mean that China has seriously entered the animation game.

 

(I will give a deeper spotlight and analysis to whichever film manages to win the competition.)

 

****

 

Besides those, there are foreign films that I'm expecting to see on the list that weren't on last year's list, or some more potential candidates in general.

 

Funan (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)

This could be Gkids' main push. It's a hand-drawn tale of a mother searching for her child during the Khmer Rouge revolution.

 

Another Day of Life (Poland/Belgium/Spain/Germany/Hungary)

If you know the looks of films like A Scanner Darkly, you may know how this film looks. Honestly, it kind of looks like a video game cutscene. But it's about a reporter who writes about a civil war in Angola during the 70s. It might be a true story.

 

Children of the Sea (Japan)

An anime film which looks unlike any anime film I've ever seen before. It's about a supernatural experience shared by kids in an aquarium.

 

Weathering With You (Japan)

This is a serious candidate based on Makoto Shinkai's name alone. Your Name was snubbed back in 2016/2017, so if this film is up to par with that film if not better, expect people on Twitter to choose this film as the one they rally behind.

 

Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (France)

France's attempt at a family-oriented Illumination film; it managed to quietly amass $1.2M in limited release here in the specialty market of the domestic box office over the past few months. It'd be the one inexplicable foreign family film no one's heard of that sneaks into the submission list, bu I don't think it has anything to lose by submitting.

 

I Lost My Body (France)

The people behind this film tried to get it into Cannes and failed... But it's about a severed hand that tries to crawl its way back to its owner. This might be a 2020/2021 film to be honest.

 

The Swallows of Kabul (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland)

This film actually did manage to make it into Cannes. It's a tragedy based on a bestselling novel that's set in a Taliban-occupied Middle Eastern nation. Directed by two women, it boasts stunning animation and palpable production values. It is by the same French studio behind Kirikou and the Sorceress, The Triplets of Belleville, and Ernest & Celestine. Do not sleep on this: animated films that make a strong impression at Cannes have a strong track record of gaining success at the Oscars (Waltz with Bashir, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle).

 

(And I also expect anime films like Dragon Ball Super: Broly, I Want to Eat your Pancreas, Okko's Inn, and Penguin Highway to be on the submission list without having a serious chance at receiving a nomination.)

 

****

 

If I had to pick five of the films I've mentioned based on how serious of a candidate I think they are at this current moment, I would pick:

 

Bunuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles

Funan

Ride Your Wave

The Swallows of Kabul

Weathering With You

[titanic2187]

52 minutes ago, Slambros said:

My Obligatory Foreign-Film Spotlight

 

I want to spotlight the interesting animated films that could find themselves running for this award underneath the surface of the mainstream Hollywood films.

 

The Annecy Film Festival has announced their slate of films, and while I'm sure more than a few of the competition films may not run for the Oscar until 2021 (if they ever do at all), it's entirely plausible that at least a few will find themselves in this year's Animated Feature submission list. The films running in the main competition are:

 

Bunuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles (Spain/Netherlands)

I highly expect this film to run this year, as it'll be backed by Gkids. It's about a legendary filmmaker and it's got a detailed 2D art style. It's got a shot.

 

The Bears' Famous Invasion (France/Italy)

I think it's about an empire of bears who live in the mountains or something. It's got a nice art style, and "2D Computer" and "3D Computer" are both on the techniques list.

 

Marona's Fantastic Tale (Romania/France/Belgium)

A lesson of unconditional love from the perspective of a small dog; another 2D animation.

 

Ride Your Wave (Japan)

That's right. Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby, Lu Over the Wall, and The Night is Short, Walk On Girl) is ALREADY putting out his next feature film (which is due out in Japanese theaters as soon as late May). The film is about a girl who loves surfing who fall in love with the young firefighter who saves her; the firefighters dies in the middle of the film, and he reappears to the girl as some sort of water spirit. (*I highly expect this film to be in the running for the fifth nomination.*)

 

Ternet Ninja (Denmark)

Meaning Checkered Ninja in Danish, this is a CG animation about a boy's ninja doll that's inexplicably come to life. This will not be a serious candidate because the animation is too... "sticky" for lack of a better word. But it looks like it's got a good story, and I'm happy Danish families have something to see.

 

The Relative Worlds (Japan)

A very sleek CG anime film about... parallel worlds... or something... it looks pretty good!

 

The Wonderland (Japan)

Take this with a grain of salt, but this anime film looks like it was made by the same studio who made a show of The Ancient Magus' Bride. They seem like a good fit for this story, which reminds me of The Wizard of Oz in the way it's both whimsically fantastical and comfortably psychedelic.

 

White Snake (China)

A CG animation with notable polish that tells a story of Chinese folklore. If this wins the competition, sound the alarm: it'll mean that China has seriously entered the animation game.

 

(I will give a deeper spotlight and analysis to whichever film manages to win the competition.)

 

****

 

Besides those, there are foreign films that I'm expecting to see on the list that weren't on last year's list, or some more potential candidates in general.

 

Funan (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)

This could be Gkids' main push. It's a hand-drawn tale of a mother searching for her child during the Khmer Rouge revolution.

 

Another Day of Life (Poland/Belgium/Spain/Germany/Hungary)

If you know the looks of films like A Scanner Darkly, you may know how this film looks. Honestly, it kind of looks like a video game cutscene. But it's about a reporter who writes about a civil war in Angola during the 70s. It might be a true story.

 

Children of the Sea (Japan)

An anime film which looks unlike any anime film I've ever seen before. It's about a supernatural experience shared by kids in an aquarium.

 

Weathering With You (Japan)

This is a serious candidate based on Makoto Shinkai's name alone. Your Name was snubbed back in 2016/2017, so if this film is up to par with that film if not better, expect people on Twitter to choose this film as the one they rally behind.

 

Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (France)

France's attempt at a family-oriented Illumination film; it managed to quietly amass $1.2M in limited release here in the specialty market of the domestic box office over the past few months. It'd be the one inexplicable foreign family film no one's heard of that sneaks into the submission list, bu I don't think it has anything to lose by submitting.

 

I Lost My Body (France)

The people behind this film tried to get it into Cannes and failed... But it's about a severed hand that tries to crawl its way back to its owner. This might be a 2020/2021 film to be honest.

 

The Swallows of Kabul (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland)

This film actually did manage to make it into Cannes. It's a tragedy based on a bestselling novel that's set in a Taliban-occupied Middle Eastern nation. Directed by two women, it boasts stunning animation and palpable production values. It is by the same French studio behind Kirikou and the Sorceress, The Triplets of Belleville, and Ernest & Celestine. Do not sleep on this: animated films that make a strong impression at Cannes have a strong track record of gaining success at the Oscars (Waltz with Bashir, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle).

 

(And I also expect anime films like Dragon Ball Super: Broly, I Want to Eat your Pancreas, Okko's Inn, and Penguin Highway to be on the submission list without having a serious chance at receiving a nomination.)

 

****

 

If I had to pick five of the films I've mentioned based on how serious of a candidate I think they are at this current moment, I would pick:

 

Bunuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles

Funan

Ride Your Wave

The Swallows of Kabul

Weathering With You

Weathering With your can  have serious chance here if GKIDS is the distributor as FUnanimation strategy was proven failed  

[SLAM!]

Foreign Film Update

 

Two films that I spotlighted have received major boosts.

 

I Lost My Body has been added to the "Critics' Week Sidebar" section of Cannes. This is a very prestigious place for the film to be, because only seven first-or-second features are chosen annually for inclusion in the sidebar (out of the 1,050 features submitted this year).

 

And both I Lost My Body and The Swallows of Kabul have been added to the Official Competition Selection of the Annecy Film Festival.

 

Both films take major steps forward as potential Oscar prospects.

[titanic2187]

https://deadline.com/2019/05/gkids-acquires-weathering-with-you-makoto-shinkais-follow-up-to-your-name-teaser-trailer-1202621460/

‘Weathering With You’: Gkids Acquires Makoto Shinkai’s Follow-Up To Japan’s Top-Grossing Toon 

 

After the all-rights deal, the distributor has set an awards-qualifying run for 2019 with a theatrical release in early 2020 in both the original Japanese and a new English-language version. It opens July 19 in Japan.

 

 

If GKIDS really can pull off another Mirai success, while WwY is as great as Your Name, I can see finally a nomination for shinkai!

But i wasn't impressed by their qualifying run in 2019 strategy, mirai was released earlier and thanks for that, enough of people of has seen the film and built the oscar buzz consistently    

 

[SLAM!]

So it's been a while since I've shares thoughts about these nominations, so what better time than now:

 

Looks like I Lost My Body was a film that I was definitely wrong about. It ended up winning the main prize at Annecy. Plus, it got a Netflix deal. And it won a prize at Cannes. So, yeah. Everything is falling into place for its success.

 

I'm not sure what that means for Klaus though. Perhaps Netflix has enough clout to get both of those films in the race.

 

Funan released limited and didn't make much of a splash. Other films already or to be distributed by Gkids include Okko's Inn, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Promare, Another Day of Life, Children of the Sea, Weathering With You--those are the films that seem to be the ones that will receive awards-qualifying runs.

 

Speaking of Weathering With You, it premiered in Japan, and some Kotaku journalist said it was "good but flawed". I'm sure it'll still be popular, and I hope anime fans will continue to put enthusiam behind it, but if the film isn't masterful like that article suggests, voters might not give it the nod. We'll see.

 

The other two animated films screened at Cannes were The Swallows of Kabul (from the Ethel & Earnest studio) and The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily (from the French studio that helped make The Red Turtle). Neither of them made too big of a splash.

 

But Hollywood animation might have another film to contribute, that being Abominable from Pearl Studios. The trailer impressed those who saw it, and it releases in a sort of sweet spot between Angry Birds 2 and Frozen 2, increasing the likelihood of good box office. We'll have to see whether it falls out like Smallfoot or if it manages to keep itself in, because Dreamworks could use the credence of two nominees in the same year.

 

So far, the "no matter what" films are:

 

Frozen 2

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Toy Story 4

 

And other films that I think have a chance are:

 

Abominable

I Lost My Body

Klaus

Missing Link

Weathering With You

[cannastop]

16 hours ago, SLAM! said:

So far, the "no matter what" films are:

 

Frozen 2

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Toy Story 4

I would drop How to Train Your Dragon 3 and Frozen 2 from the "no matter what" category.

[SLAM!]

36 minutes ago, cannastop said:

I would drop How to Train Your Dragon 3 and Frozen 2 from the "no matter what" category.

 

I personally think both of them are locks because of how cutting edge the animation is in both films. Though it's understandable to be skeptical on both because DreamWorks has had little by the way of luck as of late, Frozen 2 has yet to release, and both films are sequels, which are oftentimes snubbed.

[cannastop]

My predictions for the 5 nominees.

 

1. I Lost My Body (assuming Netflix can pull it off)
2. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
3. Frozen 2
4. Toy Story 4
5. Weathering With You

I like the look of Klaus, but it's too niche. An animator's animated movie, it looks like. Also it's Netflix.

 

As for who will win, I think it's a dead heat between all the nominees except for How to Train Your Dragon 3. There is no clear frontrunner here.

Edited July 29, 2019 by cannastop

[cannastop]

If I had to bet on a winner, I would say Weathering With You. Maybe it's foolish, but hey.

Edited July 29, 2019 by cannastop

[CoolioD1]

6 hours ago, cannastop said:

If I had to bet on a winner, I would say Weathering With You. Maybe it's foolish, but hey.

yeah, that's not gonna do it. toy story 4 got good enough reviews for them to default to that. i'd say frozen 2 is its only real competition depending on the reception for it. these indie animations just don't have the muscle to pull it off. 

[cannastop]

4 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

yeah, that's not gonna do it. toy story 4 got good enough reviews for them to default to that. i'd say frozen 2 is its only real competition depending on the reception for it. these indie animations just don't have the muscle to pull it off. 

Hmm yeah didn't they say that about Incredibles 2 as well?

 

I dunno about giving two Oscar to two entries in a series, whether it is Toy Story or Frozen, even if it would be a neat milestone to achieve. I don't know if people will go for that.

Edited July 29, 2019 by cannastop

[CoolioD1]

47 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Hmm yeah didn't they say that about Incredibles 2 as well?

 

I dunno about giving two Oscar to two entries in a series, whether it is Toy Story or Frozen, even if it would be a neat milestone to achieve. I don't know if people will go for that.

Oh I didn’t realise Spider-verse was from an indie studio.

[cannastop]

1 minute ago, CoolioD1 said:

Oh I didn’t realise Spider-verse was from an indie studio.

There is precedent for a smaller movie to win the award. Spirited Away. I mean, granted, not technically an independent movie, but the general audience treated it like one, and Disney distributed it like it was. Then again, Weathering With You is not "independent" in its own country.

[CoolioD1]

1 minute ago, cannastop said:

There is precedent for a smaller movie to win the award. Spirited Away. I mean, granted, not technically an independent movie, but the general audience treated it like one, and Disney distributed it like it was. Then again, Weathering With You is not "independent" in its own country.

Spirited Away got a big push from Disney for awards. John Lasseter was pimping that movie a lot too. Spider-verse got lucky since the praise was so overwhelming and it was dominating a lot of the cultural conversation at exactly the right time but yeah they’ll still default to Disney/Pixar for it. And whether it’s independent or not in Japan doesn’t really matter. GKids are still the ones paying for the Oscar campaign.

[cannastop]

2 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

Spirited Away got a big push from Disney for awards. John Lasseter was pimping that movie a lot too. Spider-verse got lucky since the praise was so overwhelming and it was dominating a lot of the cultural conversation at exactly the right time but yeah they’ll still default to Disney/Pixar for it. And whether it’s independent or not in Japan doesn’t really matter. GKids are still the ones paying for the Oscar campaign.

Yeah true, and Miyazaki is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers ever and has a much richer oeuvre than Shinkai. I know it's likely that Toy Story 4 or Frozen 2 will win. I'm really just wondering how big of a splash Shinkai can make.

[SLAM!]

52 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Yeah true, and Miyazaki is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers ever and has a much richer oeuvre than Shinkai. I know it's likely that Toy Story 4 or Frozen 2 will win. I'm really just wondering how big of a splash Shinkai can make.

 

I was thinking about the prospect of a win for Weathering With You win earlier today. I think a win from a foreign film such as that one, or even I Lost My Body (which has the advent of Netflix as a means for voters and the public to watch them and, therefore, back it with the necessary amount of hype), is a slightly better prospect against sequels like TS4 and HtTyD3 and Frozen 2 than it would be against an original Pixad/WDAS.

 

And, if Gkids really is positioning the film as their main push, then it very well stand out among the rest.

 

There's a few reasons to believe this can succeed where other anime films have failed in terms of being nominated:

 

Character models. If you look at the Pokemon games/show and examine how the character models have changed over time, you'll see that they've been adapted to a sort of look that has set itself apart from the anime medium itself; therefore, Pokemon now feels like something much more universal than just Japan. And the character models are much more unique and defined in WwY than in other anime films.

 

Western lack of experience. There's talk online about how the film allegedly isn't as earth-shattering as Your Name, the director's previous film. But the vast majority of voters how are not as acclimated to anime films will likely fail to take that into account.

 

These two aspects will definitely help the film get a nomination at the very least. Anything can happen between now and January, but a showcase at TIFF is a great start for the film.