It shouldn’t be a surprise that of the 19 films submitted for Oscar nominations in the Animated Feature Film category this week, merely 6 have the look of traditional 2D cell-type animation (even though they may have been done with digital software), and only one, O Apóstolo (from Spain), was filmed with stop-action puppets.
The dominating visual style of the non-CG films is anime: even the Brazilian Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury owes more in its visual approach to Japan than Disney. The French-Belgian Ernest and Celestine, developed from a Belgian children’s book, is visually true to the source, with softly drawn characters that look like book illustrations and water color-like painting for the backgrounds, standing out of the rest of the submissions for its completely different look. The original French is being re-synched into English with stars including Forest Whittiker, Lauren Becall, Paul Giametta and William H. Macy for release in 2014. The Smurfs 2 is a blend of CG animation and live action, but passes the requirement of greater than 75% of the film being animated.
Below is a list in alphabetical order, and notes where the animation style is “traditional/2D drawing/anime/stop-motion” rather than primarily CG.
- “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”
- “The Croods”
- “Despicable Me 2”
- “Epic”
- “Ernest and Celestine” (trad/2D drawing)
- “The Fake” (trad combined with cg)
- “Free Birds“
- “Frozen”
- “Khumba”
- “The Legend of Sarila”
- “A Letter to Momo” (trad/2D anime)
- “Monsters University”
- “O Apóstolo” (stop action)
- “Planes”
- “Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion” (anime combined with CG)
- “Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury” (trad/2d/anime with CG)
- “The Smurfs 2” (CG animation + Live action – passes Academy rule of at least 75% animation)
- “Turbo”
- “The Wind Rises” (Trad/2d/anime)
Here are the trailers for all of the 19 submitted films:
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[toggle title=”Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs 2″ expanded=”in”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/7PmUemZywgg” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”The Croods”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/zBdiFU6DgpE” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Despicable Me 2″][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/TlbnGSMJQbQ” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Epic”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/j6Nwdpa5PcU” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Ernest and Celestine”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/UJ1rmOYLr2U” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”The Fake”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/a5AFq3NezKA” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Free Birds”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/UhxSOkTFGvo” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Frozen”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/-WdC4DaYIeQ” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Khumba”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/XWJx_UCMQlU” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”The Legend of Sarila”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/GvsExrARHnI” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”A Letter to Momo”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/NNYIb9Ui2T0″ fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Monsters University”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/xBzPioph8CI” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”O Apóstolo”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/vTxi6XrsdMU” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Planes”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/fTyXnRDBnXA” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/7u8RbWSp_XU” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/u3ttAL0AKyM” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”The Smurfs 2″][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/W-yEIIMtwCA” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Turbo”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/ZSsCj8yXUU0″ fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
[toggle title=”The Wind Rises”][youtube url=”http://youtu.be/PhHoCnRg1Yw” fs=”1″ hd=”1″ showsearch=”0″][/toggle]
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[signoff icon=”icon-attach”]The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Jan. 16 at 5:30 a.m. PST from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles, California.[/signoff]
