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2022 Animated Feature Oscar Analysis

2022 was not a big year for animation with only one truly great movie released during this period. The Academy’s slate is solid. It could have been even better, but overall they mostly covered the best films released this year. There is only one Disney-Pixar release here, which was refreshing. Netflix also landed in there and it was great seeing DreamWorks get back in the game too. We also got one independent film and one stop-motion movie, but no foreign films in a year that was quite bad for foreign animation.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

5. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

As I’ve already stated above, I am so glad that DreamWorks Animation finally released a popular film that even landed on this Oscars slate. And yes, the movie is gorgeously animated with a different visual style to it. The humor is quite charming too. But my issue here is that the movie deals with a fascinating theme of mortality, but it fails to explore it properly due to its rushed nature and an overemphasis on frantic action scenes that never end. It’s solid, but the first movie was infinitely better and more emotionally impactful.

4. Turning Red

Turning Red is Pixar’s most limited movie so far in terms of appeal. It deals with a very specific time and place while the subject of female puberty is obviously far from universal. As a male viewer, it’s just wasn’t as interesting to me, though I surely appreciated its strong aspects. One is the core mother-daughter relationship that was very well developed. The other is that climactic third act that was very well imagined. The animation is also fine as is the overall red panda concept, but the supporting players needed more development.

3. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a wonderfully endearing flick that is very slight and episodic in its narrative, but it features such a cute protagonist that is very memorably designed. It also has a couple of great messages, strong visuals and excellent dialogue. It’s a thinly plotted, but undeniably charming indie film that deserved to be on this slate in terms of pure quality, but not so much on the technical terms having in mind that this is a live-action/animated hybrid and certainly not a fully animated film.

2. The Sea Beast

In a weak slate, the strong but not great Sea Beast easily takes the number two spot. This Netflix charmer is very clearly influenced by ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, so it lacks authenticity. The didacticism in pulling off its animal rights message was also a problem. However, it’s still a hugely important message for children and the movie is quite moving. The animation is gorgeous, the characters are quite good and the adventurous elements are quite remarkable. It was an unexpected nominee and I am so glad that it ended up here.

1. Pinocchio

Clearly the best animated film of the year and the one that will prove to be one of the greatest winners in this category so far is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. This marvel of breathtakingly detailed stop-motion animation is also very powerful in its storytelling as del Toro set out to adapt the original novel, but change its time period and include additional themes of mortality and humanity. The end result worked almost flawlessly in creating this idiosyncratic story that almost moved me to tears in its heartwarming ending. This was a huge missed opportunity for the Academy to include it in the Best Picture slate as they continue their animation hatred.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Apollo 10 ½ – This Richard Linklater movie is extremely nostalgic, but still universal in its themes of growing up and the passage of time. It’s a wonderful film that features superb dialogue and an endearing, melancholic tone that set it apart from other animated fare this year. The Academy snubbed it unfortunately as the overall reception to it has been rather unfair.

Charlotte – Charlotte is a biopic that isn’t great at anything that it does, but it’s perfectly good nonetheless. It has a powerful ending, strong dialogue and a visual style that is quite pleasing to the eye. It deals with a very interesting real life story through a tone of impending doom throughout that made the film very interesting.

The Bad Guys – The Bad Guys has a weaker second half as it lost a lot of steam in that section, but this is still a heist comedy that is a whole lot of fun in its memorable characters and dialogue. Its animation is also different and unique. This was surely a very good year for DreamWorks.