MUMBAI: A record twenty one animated features have been submitted for Oscar consideration.
Computer-animated films continue to dominate, generating big box office as four of the year‘s top 10 highest-grossing films have been computer generated creations. For the first time, stop-motion animation films also had a big year with more than one of the nominees in the feature animation category, being a stop-motion film. Several small time producers at home and overseas served up traditional, hand-drawn fare.
CGI

Since Pixar‘s Toy Story became the first feature-length computer-animated film released way back in 1995, CG has been used to produce a string of animated hits. This year, Disney offered Pixar‘s Brave and Disney Animation‘s Wreck-It Ralph; DreamWorks Animation fielded both Madagascar 3: Europe‘s Most Wanted and Rise of the Guardians which opened on 21 November; and Fox/Blue Sky Studio‘s Ice Age: Continental Drift, Universal/Illumination‘s Dr. Seuss‘ The Lorax and Sony Pictures Animation‘s Hotel Transylvania all hit it big.
Stop-Motion

Among the hopefuls this year are Tim Burton‘s Frankenweenie, which to date has grossed $63.2 million worldwide for Disney. Producer Laika‘s sophomore feature ParaNorman that has collected $97.3 million worldwide is the second film in the category. They are followed by director Peter Lord‘s The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Hand drawn

This year, contenders include three hand-drawn features from GKIDS Films, the New York-based distributor that crashed the Oscar party one year ago with the surprise animated feature nominations for Chico and Rita and A Cat in Paris, grabbing slots that many expected to go to more high-profile contenders such as Steven Spielberg‘s The Adventures of Tintin.

GKIDS is putting up for consideration From Up on Poppy Hill from Studio Ghibli, The Rabbi‘s Cat, and Zarafa. Rounding up the list of contenders in the category are Walter & Tandoori‘s Christmas and The Mystical Laws.