Might as well do a short awards round up here, but neither My Little Pony: The Next Generation or Space Jam: A New Legacy were submitted to the Academy for consideration for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The former is following in the footsteps of My Little Pony: The Movie (Next Generation never got a theatrical release, but that doesn't disqualify it this year due to the pandemic); I thought Netflix might at least submit it this time, but seems like the writing was on the wall and there is absolutely no need to try and boost the number of submissions anymore to get the max five nominee count.
Space Jam: A New Legacy seems to be disqualifying itself as an animated movie; I don't think they'd actually have any problem under the current rules qualifying. Warner Bros. probably also saw the writing on the wall.
Other than that the frontrunner seems to be Encanto, though history of the category says Luca should win sight unseen. If there's an original Pixar movie, it wins, automatically, never mind if it's actually a weaker movie; however, it might get knocked for also never really even getting a token theatrical release. Of course, that didn't hurt Soul, but then Soul was a better movie, plus the pandemic was in a much worse state last year.
Raya and the Last Dragon probably got knocked out of real contention for the win early on; going out early is not a death sentence for this category. However, unlike it's nearest comparison, Zootopia, it wasn't a massive hit that also hit the zeitgeist hard. In fact, when it's opening box office was below Tom & Jerry's, it got a reputation as a bit of a box office bomb. The fact that it wound up having decent legs for a pandemic movie and ended up doing about as good as it could, all things considered, kind of got lost. However, it's showing at the Annies up there has proven the kind of people who nominate these kinds of things pay attention, at least, so it went from an iffy Oscar nom to near certain. Of course, not super surprising for a Disney movie (and the lack of a Director nomination is eyebrow raising).
Also, Kelly Marie Tran's performance was great, but if you're only going to nominate one voice actor from Ray and the Last Dragon and it's not Awkwafina, what are you even doing?
Might as well do a short awards round up here, but neither My Little Pony: The Next Generation or Space Jam: A New Legacy were submitted to the Academy for consideration for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The former is following in the footsteps of My Little Pony: The Movie (Next Generation never got a theatrical release, but that doesn't disqualify it this year due to the pandemic); I thought Netflix might at least submit it this time, but seems like the writing was on the wall and there is absolutely no need to try and boost the number of submissions anymore to get the max five nominee count.
Space Jam: A New Legacy seems to be disqualifying itself as an animated movie; I don't think they'd actually have any problem under the current rules qualifying. Warner Bros. probably also saw the writing on the wall.
Other than that the frontrunner seems to be Encanto, though history of the category says Luca should win sight unseen. If there's an original Pixar movie, it wins, automatically, never mind if it's actually a weaker movie; however, it might get knocked for also never really even getting a token theatrical release. Of course, that didn't hurt Soul, but then Soul was a better movie, plus the pandemic was in a much worse state last year.
Raya and the Last Dragon probably got knocked out of real contention for the win early on; going out early is not a death sentence for this category. However, unlike it's nearest comparison, Zootopia, it wasn't a massive hit that also hit the zeitgeist hard. In fact, when it's opening box office was below Tom & Jerry's, it got a reputation as a bit of a box office bomb. The fact that it wound up having decent legs for a pandemic movie and ended up doing about as good as it could, all things considered, kind of got lost. However, it's showing at the Annies up there has proven the kind of people who nominate these kinds of things pay attention, at least, so it went from an iffy Oscar nom to near certain. Of course, not super surprising for a Disney movie (and the lack of a Director nomination is eyebrow raising).
Also, Kelly Marie Tran's performance was great, but if you're only going to nominate one voice actor from Ray and the Last Dragon and it's not Awkwafina, what are you even doing?