Disney’s juggernaut Frozen 2 and Laika’s hybrid stop-motion/CG Yeti tale Missing Link tied for the most nominations in the feature categories, with eight apiece. Netflix’s Santa Claus origin story Klaus, a 2D movie from Despicable Me co-creator Sergio Pablos, followed close behind with seven nominations. And critical and box office hits Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4 and Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World earned six apiece, as did I Lost My Body, the French indie acquired by Netflix after it became the first animated movie to win the Nespresso Grand Prize at Cannes.
The nominations for best animated feature went to Frozen 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Klaus, Missing Link and Toy Story 4. Aforementioned I Lost My Body was nominated for best independent animated feature, alongside four movies from indie distributor GKIDS: Bunuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Okko’s Inn, Promare and Weathering With You.
The Hollywood Reporter breaks the Annie noms:
Feature:
Frozen 2, Walt Disney Animation Studios
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, DreamWorks Animation
Klaus, Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Missing Link, LAIKA, LLC
Toy Story 4, Pixar Animation Studios
Indie Feature
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Sygnatia, Glow, Submarine, Hampa Animation Studio
I Lost My Body, Xilam for Netflix
Okko’s Inn, Madhouse
Promare, TRIGGER, XFLAG
Weathering With You, Toho Co., LTD. / STORY Inc. / CoMix Wave Films
Best FX for Feature
Abominable, DreamWorks Animation
FX Supervisor: Amaury Aubel
FX Supervisor: James Jackson
FX Lead: Domin Lee
FX Supervisor: Michael Losure
FX Lead: Alex Timchenko
Frozen 2, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Benjamin Fiske: Benjamin Fiske
Alex Moaveni: Alex Moaveni
Jesse Erickson: Jesse Erickson
Dimitre Berberov: Dimitre Berberov
Kee Nam Suong: Kee Nam Suong
Missing Link, LAIKA, LLC
CG Look Development Lead: Eric Wachtman
Lead CG Effects Artist: David Horsley
Senior Technical Director: Peter Stuart
Lead Technical Compositor: Timu Khodzhaev
Lead CG Lighter: Joe Strasser
Toy Story 4, Pixar Animation Studios
Effects Lead: Alexis Angelidis
Effects Artist: Amit Ganapati Baadkar
Effects Artist: Greg Gladstone
Effects Artist: Kylie Wijsmuller
Effects Artist: Matthew Kiyoshi Wong
Weathering With You, GKIDS
Key Animation: Hidetsugu Ito
VFX Artist: Yuko Nakajima
VFX Artist: Jumi Lee
Chief Photography: Ryosuke Tsuda
Best Character Animation
Frozen 2, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Andrew Ford: Andrew Ford
Character: Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Sven
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, DreamWorks Animation
Justice. The best animated film of the year gets the most nominations. Sorry, not Missing Link. The Frozen ladies get short shrift again for Josh Gad (still a great choice and has all the funniest lines). Maybe the Pixar hegemony will finally be ended this time.
People seem soft on it for some reason but if any of the sequels is going to get awards this season I really wish it was How to Train Your Dragon. I think all 3 are good films but Dragon perfectly rounded out a brilliant trilogy that wasn’t won yet and I would really like to see an award for the trilogy as a whole. In saying that it saddens me how much this is taken up with sequels – I just saw Klaus and it’s great and I liked Missing Link but I don’t think either are winner material so I’m holding out hope for weathering with you or I lost my body (which I haven’t seen yet), otherwise I think we are probably defaulting to Toy Story, which is a really good movie but one that I’d rather didn’t win on principle.
Sadly I feel that Dragon 3 is the weakest of the series. It still bothers me to no end that part 2 lost to the tired retread that was Big Hero 6. So even though I’m not particularly high on the trilogy caper, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing it win as an acknowledgment to the absolutely tremendous first 2 episodes of the franchise.
All the sequels weren’t even as good as their predecessors, which Toy Story and Frozen already won. It’s the reason all the Pixar sequels have failed to win or even be nominated. Monsters University, Finding Dory, Incredibles 2, etc. Personally I would like to see Missing Link win this year because we all know Pixar’s Soul already has next year wrapped up.
Yeah… Toy Story 4 (84 M/97RT) is not as good as TS3 (92 M/99 RT) so… let’s just downgrade and give this to the lowest-ever winner in terms of Metacritic (would be true for both Missing Link and Frozen) and one of the lowest ever in RT too. If the animators go for that narrative and snub TS4 of a nomination (if it’s nominated, it wins in broad branch voting), they deserve the insignificance by which most branches still see animated films.
Frozen II was more poorly received than Brave, the more meh winner this category ever had. Despite all the goodwill because of the first movie…
Yeah I actually disagree with the assessment Toy Story 3 always gets. It felt like a tired retread of the far superior TS2 for the bulk of its running time. Not until its admittedly bravura final 30 minutes did it finally separate itself. 3 is actually my least favorite of the series. My personal order is 2>4>1>3.
Though I completely agree with Brave. It never should have won. A poor, facsimile of better Disney princess movies from Pixar. It was without question the worst of the 5 nominees that year. 3 terrific stop motion films to choose from and they picked a knock-off of Brother Bear. Laika should have received their first Oscar instead.
As far as Frozen 2 goes, I actually think it is a fine sequel. Obviously it can never manage to equal the original, but for what it sets out to do, I feel it accomplishes that quite well.
Tim Burton truly deserved that Oscar but box office burned Frankenweenie. Box Office matters and matters a lot in categories that actors don’t care that much about. The most widely known film is usually picked up in the final round. The fact that Burton might never win a competitive Oscar ever because of a generic film like Brave just make me even mad about it.
The one that missed big where I thought it would do better is Abominable.
So it looks like there are 7 films that are the top contenders: Frozen 2, Missing Link, Toy Story 4, How to Train Your Dragon 3, Klaus, I Lost my Body, and Weathering With You.
I definitely think at least one of the 3 sequels (which many pundits have out front as locks) is going to get snubbed. I think Toy Story 4 may get left out. After the big celebration for the 3rd entry, this one is anti-climactic by comparison and voters could feel like, “we already did that.” Frozen 2 and Missing Link seem fairly solid. From there it’s anyone’s game I think.
1. Toy Story 4
2. Missing Link (Laika dueness)
3. Klaus
4. I lost my body (this one really impressed me)
5. anything else. Probably Frozen II or How to Train your Dragon 3. I would not discard The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, just yet, in my opinion is almost as good as the original, that was terribly snubbed in 2014.
If this happens, I will be happy the animators never get close to a Best Picture or Screenplay nomination at the Oscars ever again.
Frozen II and Missing Link are in another reality versus Toy Story 4 in terms of storytelling. They are just visually more showy. Frozen (the first) was already far from the best winners this category ever had but still had charismatic characters and great songs. This one doesn’t have a special story and the songs are the worst in Iger’s era. A pretty uninspired work by the Lopez. It’s a pretty much average animated film.
Visual storytelling has always ruled this category. I haven’t actually seen Frozen 2 yet, I’m just going off of what these nominations and industry reactions/history tell us.
I was personally quite disappointed in Toy Story 4. Not that it was a bad movie, but after #3 it seems so inconsequential. Toy Story 3 works on so many levels, for kids and adults, and is a masterpiece of storytelling imo. #4 is good but never reaches those heights…so I left the theater thinking “ugh another cash grab. why didnt they just leave it be?” I know I’m not the only one who shrugged their shoulders at it and that’s why I am considering dropping it from my predictions (the branch similarly shrugged their shoulders at the “good-but-not-as-good-as-the-last-one” Finding Dory. Ditto the creative and genuinely funny Lego Movie, which they saw as a cash in to sell toys. This despite both being box office juggernauts).
The difference between Zootopia and Finding Dory is just 1 Metapoint and 3 % in RT for Zootopia. Back a couple of years, Monsters University and the original Frozen. 9 Metapoints and 10 % in RT for Frozen.
The difference between TS4 and Frozen II are gigantic 19 points in Metacritic and 21 in Rotten Tomatoes. They belong to different realities.
I lost my body, 81 MC, 95 RT
Klaus 63 MC, 91 RT
Toy Story 4 84 MC, 97 RT
Frozen II 65 MC, 77 RT
Missing Link 68 MC, 89 RT
How to train your Dragon The Hidden world 71 MC, 91 RT
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 65, 85 RT
Weathering with you 72 MC, 100 RT
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles 75 MC, 100 RT
MC would give us a quintet like this…
Toy Story 4 – 84
I lost my body – 81
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles – 75
Weathering with you – 72
How to train your Dragon The Hidden World – 71
RT would give us a quintet like this
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the Turtles – 100
Weathering with you – 100
Toy Story 4 – 97
I lost my body – 95
Klaus / How to train your Dragon The Hidden World – 91
Box Office would give us
Frozen II
Toy Story 4
How to train your Dragon The Hidden World
The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part
Missing Link
So that combo would give us…
Locked
Toy Story 4
How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World
Looking Good
I lost my body
Weathering with you
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles
Longshots
Klaus
The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part
Frozen II
Missing Link
The Academy has never nominated 3 Foreign-Language Films in Animated. And with the voting open to the entire membership now I’ll be surprised to see all 3 “Looking Goods” make it. I think Frozen 2 is making it with TS4 and HTTYD3. Netflix could get I Lost My Body or Klaus in or even both. They have become pretty Oscar-hungry. If only one then the 5th is between Abominable, Missing Link and your other 2 Looking Goods.
I would say that Buñuel would be snubbed, in favor of Missing Link, then Klaus, then Frozen II (underwhelming reception), then LEGO… there are reasons for the 4 Longshots to be nominated, if different. Buñuel may be underseen and that is why it is the most endangered of the Looking Good troop. But given reviews, it seems that if it is seen, it is in.
Animators, as usual, favoring visuals over storytelling. Frozen II and Toy Story 4 are in different realities. The only thing that unites them is outstanding visuals but Frozen is more showy.
Frozen II is an average animated film with great visuals but with the weakest set of original songs in any Disney musical during Iger’s tenure. Toy Story is still terrific storytelling (something the first Frozen never was, actually).
For me, storytelling is important (for any genre or medium). But I prefer the animation of Frozen II and, I actually love the music this time around. TS4 is very good. But I was more impressed overall, slightly, by Frozen II. I wonder how many AMPAS voters will feel similarly.
Netflix is pushing both pretty hard actually. I’m always seeing ads in the city and getting invited to screenings. I’m skeptical they will get both of them in (though they would have in the old system with just animators branch voting) but I think one of the pair makes the cut.
I guess Netflix is not sending screeners but just giving free subscriptions… if that is true, could it be considered a bribe, and therefore, be disqualified?
I believe Netflix does do screeners still for certain voting bodies (I know I got very fancy screeners for 2017 with Okja, Meyerowitz Stories, First They Killed My Father, Mudbound). I thought Academy members are still getting those no? But for most other groups (guild, press, etc) they have access to a Netflix screener site and/or free subscription.
It isnt the first year theyve given out free subscriptions and their films havent been tossed out yet. So I dont see it as a disqualifying act/bribery.
Weird that Toy Story 4 didn’t get a directing nomination. Every single animated feature Oscar winner except Happy Feet has been nominated in the category
I love you to death but this formatting is so hard to read
So true!
Finally somebody said it!… 🙂
Sad that Josh Cooley didn’t receive a Directing nod for Toy Story 4. 🙁
Justice. The best animated film of the year gets the most nominations. Sorry, not Missing Link. The Frozen ladies get short shrift again for Josh Gad (still a great choice and has all the funniest lines). Maybe the Pixar hegemony will finally be ended this time.
Happy to see Weathering With You get some recognition. That is the best animated film this year.
Promare deserved a few more nominations – Music comes to mind.
People seem soft on it for some reason but if any of the sequels is going to get awards this season I really wish it was How to Train Your Dragon. I think all 3 are good films but Dragon perfectly rounded out a brilliant trilogy that wasn’t won yet and I would really like to see an award for the trilogy as a whole. In saying that it saddens me how much this is taken up with sequels – I just saw Klaus and it’s great and I liked Missing Link but I don’t think either are winner material so I’m holding out hope for weathering with you or I lost my body (which I haven’t seen yet), otherwise I think we are probably defaulting to Toy Story, which is a really good movie but one that I’d rather didn’t win on principle.
Sadly I feel that Dragon 3 is the weakest of the series. It still bothers me to no end that part 2 lost to the tired retread that was Big Hero 6. So even though I’m not particularly high on the trilogy caper, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing it win as an acknowledgment to the absolutely tremendous first 2 episodes of the franchise.
I hear everyone saying this but I haven’t yet figured out what peoples’ problems with it are? I thought the whole trilogy was great!
All the sequels weren’t even as good as their predecessors, which Toy Story and Frozen already won. It’s the reason all the Pixar sequels have failed to win or even be nominated. Monsters University, Finding Dory, Incredibles 2, etc. Personally I would like to see Missing Link win this year because we all know Pixar’s Soul already has next year wrapped up.
Yeah… Toy Story 4 (84 M/97RT) is not as good as TS3 (92 M/99 RT) so… let’s just downgrade and give this to the lowest-ever winner in terms of Metacritic (would be true for both Missing Link and Frozen) and one of the lowest ever in RT too. If the animators go for that narrative and snub TS4 of a nomination (if it’s nominated, it wins in broad branch voting), they deserve the insignificance by which most branches still see animated films.
Frozen II was more poorly received than Brave, the more meh winner this category ever had. Despite all the goodwill because of the first movie…
Yeah I actually disagree with the assessment Toy Story 3 always gets. It felt like a tired retread of the far superior TS2 for the bulk of its running time. Not until its admittedly bravura final 30 minutes did it finally separate itself. 3 is actually my least favorite of the series. My personal order is 2>4>1>3.
Though I completely agree with Brave. It never should have won. A poor, facsimile of better Disney princess movies from Pixar. It was without question the worst of the 5 nominees that year. 3 terrific stop motion films to choose from and they picked a knock-off of Brother Bear. Laika should have received their first Oscar instead.
As far as Frozen 2 goes, I actually think it is a fine sequel. Obviously it can never manage to equal the original, but for what it sets out to do, I feel it accomplishes that quite well.
Tim Burton truly deserved that Oscar but box office burned Frankenweenie. Box Office matters and matters a lot in categories that actors don’t care that much about. The most widely known film is usually picked up in the final round. The fact that Burton might never win a competitive Oscar ever because of a generic film like Brave just make me even mad about it.
do the hoopla
The one that missed big where I thought it would do better is Abominable.
So it looks like there are 7 films that are the top contenders: Frozen 2, Missing Link, Toy Story 4, How to Train Your Dragon 3, Klaus, I Lost my Body, and Weathering With You.
I definitely think at least one of the 3 sequels (which many pundits have out front as locks) is going to get snubbed. I think Toy Story 4 may get left out. After the big celebration for the 3rd entry, this one is anti-climactic by comparison and voters could feel like, “we already did that.” Frozen 2 and Missing Link seem fairly solid. From there it’s anyone’s game I think.
I also believe that the 5 will come from those 7.
I think the race is…
1. Toy Story 4
2. Missing Link (Laika dueness)
3. Klaus
4. I lost my body (this one really impressed me)
5. anything else. Probably Frozen II or How to Train your Dragon 3. I would not discard The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, just yet, in my opinion is almost as good as the original, that was terribly snubbed in 2014.
My 5 is same as yours… I think Dragon will get the boot unfortunately.
I also think I Lost my Body is ahead of Klaus. This branch has a prosperous historic of snubbing Christmas movies despite them hitting all precursors.
I lost my Body is better than Klaus. That being said, Klaus would be a worthy nominee.
If this happens, I will be happy the animators never get close to a Best Picture or Screenplay nomination at the Oscars ever again.
Frozen II and Missing Link are in another reality versus Toy Story 4 in terms of storytelling. They are just visually more showy. Frozen (the first) was already far from the best winners this category ever had but still had charismatic characters and great songs. This one doesn’t have a special story and the songs are the worst in Iger’s era. A pretty uninspired work by the Lopez. It’s a pretty much average animated film.
Visual storytelling has always ruled this category. I haven’t actually seen Frozen 2 yet, I’m just going off of what these nominations and industry reactions/history tell us.
I was personally quite disappointed in Toy Story 4. Not that it was a bad movie, but after #3 it seems so inconsequential. Toy Story 3 works on so many levels, for kids and adults, and is a masterpiece of storytelling imo. #4 is good but never reaches those heights…so I left the theater thinking “ugh another cash grab. why didnt they just leave it be?” I know I’m not the only one who shrugged their shoulders at it and that’s why I am considering dropping it from my predictions (the branch similarly shrugged their shoulders at the “good-but-not-as-good-as-the-last-one” Finding Dory. Ditto the creative and genuinely funny Lego Movie, which they saw as a cash in to sell toys. This despite both being box office juggernauts).
The difference between Zootopia and Finding Dory is just 1 Metapoint and 3 % in RT for Zootopia. Back a couple of years, Monsters University and the original Frozen. 9 Metapoints and 10 % in RT for Frozen.
The difference between TS4 and Frozen II are gigantic 19 points in Metacritic and 21 in Rotten Tomatoes. They belong to different realities.
I lost my body, 81 MC, 95 RT
Klaus 63 MC, 91 RT
Toy Story 4 84 MC, 97 RT
Frozen II 65 MC, 77 RT
Missing Link 68 MC, 89 RT
How to train your Dragon The Hidden world 71 MC, 91 RT
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 65, 85 RT
Weathering with you 72 MC, 100 RT
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles 75 MC, 100 RT
MC would give us a quintet like this…
Toy Story 4 – 84
I lost my body – 81
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles – 75
Weathering with you – 72
How to train your Dragon The Hidden World – 71
RT would give us a quintet like this
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the Turtles – 100
Weathering with you – 100
Toy Story 4 – 97
I lost my body – 95
Klaus / How to train your Dragon The Hidden World – 91
Box Office would give us
Frozen II
Toy Story 4
How to train your Dragon The Hidden World
The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part
Missing Link
So that combo would give us…
Locked
Toy Story 4
How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World
Looking Good
I lost my body
Weathering with you
Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles
Longshots
Klaus
The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part
Frozen II
Missing Link
The Academy has never nominated 3 Foreign-Language Films in Animated. And with the voting open to the entire membership now I’ll be surprised to see all 3 “Looking Goods” make it. I think Frozen 2 is making it with TS4 and HTTYD3. Netflix could get I Lost My Body or Klaus in or even both. They have become pretty Oscar-hungry. If only one then the 5th is between Abominable, Missing Link and your other 2 Looking Goods.
I would say that Buñuel would be snubbed, in favor of Missing Link, then Klaus, then Frozen II (underwhelming reception), then LEGO… there are reasons for the 4 Longshots to be nominated, if different. Buñuel may be underseen and that is why it is the most endangered of the Looking Good troop. But given reviews, it seems that if it is seen, it is in.
Animators, as usual, favoring visuals over storytelling. Frozen II and Toy Story 4 are in different realities. The only thing that unites them is outstanding visuals but Frozen is more showy.
Frozen II is an average animated film with great visuals but with the weakest set of original songs in any Disney musical during Iger’s tenure. Toy Story is still terrific storytelling (something the first Frozen never was, actually).
For me, storytelling is important (for any genre or medium). But I prefer the animation of Frozen II and, I actually love the music this time around. TS4 is very good. But I was more impressed overall, slightly, by Frozen II. I wonder how many AMPAS voters will feel similarly.
Happy to see both Klaus and I lost my body strongly featured (including Best Director), hopefully this leads to Oscar nominations…
Netflix is pushing both pretty hard actually. I’m always seeing ads in the city and getting invited to screenings. I’m skeptical they will get both of them in (though they would have in the old system with just animators branch voting) but I think one of the pair makes the cut.
I guess Netflix is not sending screeners but just giving free subscriptions… if that is true, could it be considered a bribe, and therefore, be disqualified?
I believe Netflix does do screeners still for certain voting bodies (I know I got very fancy screeners for 2017 with Okja, Meyerowitz Stories, First They Killed My Father, Mudbound). I thought Academy members are still getting those no? But for most other groups (guild, press, etc) they have access to a Netflix screener site and/or free subscription.
It isnt the first year theyve given out free subscriptions and their films havent been tossed out yet. So I dont see it as a disqualifying act/bribery.
Weird that Toy Story 4 didn’t get a directing nomination. Every single animated feature Oscar winner except Happy Feet has been nominated in the category