This year it's a battle of traditional, hand-painted frames (Song Of the Sea and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) versus multi-million software (How To Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6) versus stop-action animation (The Boxtrolls)
Introduced in 2001, best animation category is getting competitive as the years pass and has quickly become one of the prestigious one in the field. Pixar has dominated the category with 7 wins and 9 nominations. Every Pixar film has been nominated for this category with the exceptions of Cars 2 and Monsters University.
This year, Pixar has lost to How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Boxtrolls, Big Hero 6, The Song Of Seas, and The Tale Of Princess Kaguya. The biggest shock in the nominations came when Academy snubbed The Lego Movie. Adored by public, critically acclaimed, and highest grosser in animation category, The Lego Movie was considered the sure winner this year. With this rejection, race was made easy for DreamWorks Animations's How To Train Your Dragon sequel.
Contenders this year range from digital animation to stop action to hand painted animation.
Let's have a look at the nominees -
Big Hero 6 — Don Hall, Chirs Williams, Don Conli [Walt Disney Animation Studios]
The Boxtrolls — Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight [Laika]
How to Train Your Dragon 2 — Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold [Dreamworks Animation]
Song Of The Sea — Tomm Moore and Paul Young [Cartoon Saloon]
The Tale Of the Princess Kaguya — Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura [Studio Ghibli]
Big Hero 6 -
Disney's Marvel-comic book based movie was one of the most anticipated movie this year. They toppled Christopher Nolan's Interstellar off the chart and had Stan Lee in it!
Big Hero 6 is a story of a robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamada who makes a super hero team, with a huggable, squishy-squashy robot Baymax, to fight a masked villain who is responsible of killing Hiro's borther Tadashi.
Defending champions, Walt Disney Animation Studios', first attempt at the superhero genre has paid off very well. Their sister company Pixar won Oscars for The Incredibles in the same genre. A soft robot which sees world with just one view that it needs healing, is the selling point of this movie. Round belly, elephant feet and baby step lure you in to loving Baymax.
Walt Disney have eight nominations and one win with Frozen in their Oscar kitty.
The Boxtrolls
Based on the book Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls is a stop-action adventure from Laika. This is Laika's fourth nomination. Their first nomination was Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in 2005. The movie was not on the radar until their Golden Globe nomination where they lost to How To Train Your Dragon 2.
The Boxtrolls is a story of Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), a human boy raised by these boxtrolls and how he tries to save them from pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Sir Ben Kingsely).
Traditional but grunge look of the story has been Laika's trademark over the years. The Boxtrolls is no exception. The details of characters, the town and effects of water and fire are all handmade. Take a look -
Though they have made it this far, it's unlikely that The Boxtrolls will take the trophy to their subterranean abode this year.
How To Train Your Dragon 2
The race was open for anyone after The Lego Movie was not even nominated. But so far DreamWorks Animations How To Train Your Dragon 2 has been riding high at award ceremonies. They bagged Golden Globes but were not even nominated for BAFTA.
Sequel to How To Train Your Dragon sees both Hiccup and Toothless as young adults after five years. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and gang encounter Drag Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou) a madman who wants to conquer the world. And Hiccup meets his long lost mother Valka (Cate Blanchett).
DreamWorks have achieved finesse with this film.They spent five years to develop the complexities of characters. You can actually see each strand of Hiccups hair waving with the wind!
Richard Deakins as visual advisor makes Dragon's every frame magical. In all these years no sequel has managed to win in this category except for Toy Story 3. This could be the year of another sequel.
Also read: Framing the story: Prediction for best cinematography at Oscars 2015
Song Of The Sea
Based on Celtic folk tale, Song Of The Sea is director Tom Moore's second Oscar nomination. This film is beautifully hand drawn movie. Song Of The Sea is a story of Celtic mythological creature selkie, who live as seals in sea but shed their skin to live as humans on land. In the film, Saoirse is a selkie escapes from her grandmother's home to save other fairy tale creatures that have been trapped in the modern world.
The story offers insight into sorrow, sibling friendship and magic. The film is incredibly easy on eyes even as I watched it in gif form on Tumblr (quite a task I tell you!). Soft, light-infused palette curates the tenderness of sea world.
Song of the Sea is the underdog in this category. Going back to the traditional roots, as opposed to multimillion software fanfare, could very well work in Moore's favour.
The Tale Of Princess Kaguya -
Studio Ghibli won their first Oscar in animation category for Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away in 2002. They have successfully made to the category three times since. Another movie with soft, water colour painted palette has stood against digital mastery.
The Tale Of Princees Kaguya is based on the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Decades in making, it's a story of an old bamboo cutter and his wife, who find a tiny girl in shining bamboo groves. She grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady (Chloë Grace Moretz). The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her – but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
Picturesque Japan plays an important role in the sentiments princess feels. Traditional might just win the day this year.
Our Prediction - Though I want The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya to win, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is the strongest contender here. It has the coming of age story, grief, drama and beautiful technique wrapped in one. Just to be safe I wouldn't ignore dark horse Song Of The Sea.
Winner for 2014: Frozen — Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho [Walt Disney Animation Studios]
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