The West Bend Current

By Zach Church, Current Staff

Animated movies can’t seem to catch a break.

There were numerous fantastic animated films released in 2023. With movies like “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Nimona,” “Suzume,” and “The Boy and The Heron,” the medium proved it can still create quality experiences.

While “Spider-Man,” “Nimona,” and “The Boy and The Heron,” as well as Pixar’s “Elemental” and the international feature “Robot Dreams,” were nominated for the Best Animated Feature category of the 96th Academy Awards (airing at 6 p.m. March 10), they did not receive a single nomination outside the category.

Animated films are rarely given recognition in categories outside Best Animated Feature. Only three animated films have ever been nominated for Best Picture; the first of which, Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” was nominated 64 years after the Oscars’ inception. In 2009, Pixar’s “Up” was nominated for the big award, and the next year “Toy Story 3” was nominated. However, this was the last time an animated film was in consideration for Best Picture.

At the 74th Academy Awards, the Best Animated Feature category was unveiled, and “Shrek” was the first-ever film to win the award. This drew criticism from the public as previously Dreamworks’ 2001 fantasy film was frequently in discussion for Best Picture. When the awards ceremony aired, “Shrek” was not nominated. Some people believed the Academy created the Animated Feature category solely to avoid nominating “Shrek” for Best Picture. This happened again seven years later when Pixar’s “WALL-E” won Best Animated Feature but failed to secure a nomination for Best Picture. The following year, the Academy expanded the number of films nominated for Best Picture from five to ten partially because of the controversy.

In 2022, the Academy would face scrutiny over comments made during that year’s ceremony that regarded animation as nothing more than a children’s genre. The award for Best Animated Feature was presented by actresses who played Disney princesses in live-action adaptations: Hallie Bailey, Lily James and Naomi Scott.

“Animated films make up some of our most formative experiences as kids,” Bailey would say during the presentation.

James followed up this statement with, “So many kids watch these films over and over again,” to which Scott would add, “I see some parents who know exactly what we’re talking about.”

While most animated films nominated for the award are family-friendly, these remarks that make animation sound strictly for children were made during a year in which an animated PG-13 documentary about fleeing from Afghanistan was nominated. That same year, an acceptance speech was given that featured claims that animation should not be considered a separate cinema genre. This speech was not included as part of the broadcast.

Although there were many contenders, none of the animated features released in 2023 were nominated in a category other than Best Animated Feature. This means that this year’s ceremony will continue the Academy’s tradition of hardly acknowledging animated films beyond their animation.

“I believe that many of this year’s Best Animated Feature nominees deserved to be recognized in other categories,” said Noah Mintie, a junior at West Bend West High School. “We don’t award Oscars for individual genres like the Best Sci-Fi Film or the Best Thriller, and we certainly don’t have an Oscar for the Best Live-Action Movie because the films would be too different to compare. The same should apply to animation.”

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(Top image created by Zach Church, Current Staff.)