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2006 Animated Feature Oscar Analysis

Unlike last year in this category, 2006 is quite the opposite in many ways. Unfortunately, in terms of quality it suffers as all of the three nominees are either solid or good with no truly great films being nominated. And in terms of variety, it’s also a weak field as all three are CGI movies. Still, all three are good and coming from different studios, which is a good thing.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

3. Monster House

Monster House has a lot going for it. One thing that it gets so right is the storytelling. It’s actually rather sophisticated, and unlike so many forced in that regard gimmicks, this one features a genuinely strong flashback that enriches the whole film emotionally speaking. It’s also pretty good and respectable in its horror atmosphere as this rare horror flick made for smaller audiences. I am glad that such a smaller movie was nominated, but still its incredibly annoying fast pace and dated animation hurt it in the long run.

2. Happy Feet

This one is an utter mess. It switches genres from a musical to a comedy to a full adventure drama, but it’s quite unorganized and not deftly edited. Though silly and modernized, I liked most of its music and humor with the sidekicks being a lot of fun. But the second half is where the greatness is introduced first in the form of a thrilling, dangerous adventure, and then in the form of a beautiful ecological message. Its ending is truly special, and the animation’s stellar. It ended up winning an Oscar, and I am fine with that, though one other nominee is better to me.

1. Cars

Yes, I would actually put Cars first in this ranking. I do honestly find this movie extremely underrated, being judged solely based on its very weak sequels. And that simply isn’t fair when it’s such a good, though not great movie. It’s familiar in most of its story, but the ending is so brave in the protagonist losing the race that I find the movie very commendable for going there. The animation’s also terrific, the characterization is solid and I loved some of the memorable scenes here with that nostalgic sequence on the history of the town being so poignant. It starts off on a wrong foot, but it proceeds to become better and better, leading to one of Pixar’s most underappreciated efforts.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Azur & Asmar – This Michel Ocelot artistic masterpiece was shamelessly snubbed by the Academy when in fact it was the clear best animation of the year. It’s a gorgeous fairy tale, enchanting and so endearing, while being particularly authentic in its Middle Eastern setting, and beautiful in its ornamental animation.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – How did this movie fail to garner a nomination in such a weak year? It’s clearly the best animated film of the entire year, and it just goes to show the Academy’s shameless bias against anime features. This coming-of-age anime features such a beautiful finale, and a genuinely well crafted, excellent time travel narrative.

Over the Hedge – This underappreciated DreamWorks film is far from great owing to some annoying humor here and there, and very predictable storytelling, but the characters are uniformly good, some of the humor is great and it’s just such an endearing, fun flick with excellent action throughout.