Furry Movie Award Watch: February

The Annies are done and the Oscars were last Sunday. Rango inevitably won Best Animated Feature, so there is really not much reason to go on about it. Meanwhile, the Ursa Major nominees will be announced next month, so guess what next month’s column will be about.

For now, however, we might as well begin the process all over again; that’s right, I’m going to call next year’s Oscars and Annies right now!

I mean, everyone knows it’s going to be Brave, anyway.

crossie’s current best guesses

At this point in next year’s animated awards race, there is next to nothing to go on. To steal a bit from Donald Rumsfeld, about the only thing we have in the “known known” category is that 11 animated movies will be released to American theaters this year.

The known unknowns are much more obvious; we really don’t know much about all but one of these movies other than they exist. We don’t know which ones will end up stinking, and which ones won’t. We also don’t know what else will come to theaters; independents and foreign movies will probably show up, we just don’t know which ones. This also means the final number of nominees at the Oscars is still an unknown.

Finally, there are the unknown unknowns. Will AMPAS or ASIFA change the rules for their awards yet again? Will a frontrunner get tangled up in some bizarre scandal which shouldn’t affect the race, but totally will? Will the crazies saying the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world this year turn out to be right after all? Nobody knows.

That said, here are the eleven movies we know are in the race, some rough stabs at their chances at the Oscars and Annies, and, since this is a furry site, after all, how furry the movies are.

Brave

Pixar may have had an off year last year, but that’s no reason to bet against it this year. Brave will probably be another box office and critical juggernaut. Never mind Best Animated Feature, it’s already gotten buzz for Best Picture.

Not very furry, though. There’s a bear in it; maybe it’s more anthropomorphic than it seems.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

The second movie out of the gate, The Lorax will be hitting a theater near you soon. This is the first movie that is a total mystery; it'll either be quickly discarded, or be the first big surprise. Essentially, I’m not expecting much from this movie.

I guess it counts as furry, if you count anthropomorphized vague orange things as anthropomorphic animals. Sadly, vague orange thing is looking like one of the furrier characters of the year.

Frankenweenie

There are three dueling Halloween movies this year; this one seems like the safest bet to go to the Oscars, seeing as how Tim Burton has been there before. It is also one of three stop-motion animated movies this year, another one co-directed by one of the co-directors of the movie that beat Tim Burton last time.

The title character is a dog, but though he isn’t a particularly normal dog, he doesn’t seem to be a particularly anthropomorphic one, either.

Hotel Transylvania

Another dueling Halloween movie; sounds like a CGI pseudo-remake of Mad Monster Party? starring Adam Sandler. For some reason does not scream “Oscar” to me. Good chance of a werewolf and other such anthropomorphic animal supporting characters.

Ice Age: Continental Drift

The first movie was nominated for the Academy Award; the second and third were not. You do the math. Admittedly, Puss in Boots pulled off a similar feat this year, but the premise of the movie, about a sea voyage, seems to be about as close to “we’re desperate … have we done space yet?” as you can get in a franchise about prehistoric mammals.

On the plus side, uncontested anthropomorphic animals, so we’ll have something to nominate for the Ursa Majors.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

The first movie was not nominated for the Academy Award, and neither was the second. Once again, you do the math. I don’t even currently have it in play for the Annies, if only because DreamWorks has a better looking movie out this year, and I decided to give every distributor a shot.

Also once again, uncontested anthropomorphic animals, and they aren’t even extinct, to boot.

ParaNorman

The third Halloween movie, and also stop-motion. Laika had some success with the stop motion kiddie horror Coralinein the Oscar category, so a definite contender, though minus big gun (in animation, anyway) director Henry Selick and facing a similar movie from big gun (not just in animation) director Tim Burton.

Doesn’t seem the least bit furry.

Pirates! Band of Misfits

The third stop-motion movie, and Nick Park has won this award before, albeit with a different co-director. It's another obvious stop-motion pick – though the Oscars seem to like stop-motion, so I would not be the least bit surprised if all three were nominated.

Doesn’t at first appear to be very furry, but there is apparently a chimpanzee butler of some kind, so there is that.

Rise of the Guardians

I put forward a theory in my review of Puss in Boots that you can count on DreamWorks to put out a “prestige” movie every year to try and gain an Oscar nomination. And if they haven’t always been so successful at winning the Oscar, you can almost count on them to get nominations; with the double dose this year and Cars 2 no show, DreamWorks has tied Pixar for most nominees by a single studio. This year, Rise of the Guardians looks like the movie that fits the bill.

One of the titular Guardians is the Easter Bunny, so something for us furries there, though it must be disappointing for owl fans to learn this is not a sequel.

The Secret World of Arrietty

The only animated movie out so far, and it’s a contender. Even when not being directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli movies are major players. This movie has set the bar high for the beginning of the year. Also, already takes the obligatory foreign film spot at the Oscars.

I at one point thought the characters would have tails, which wouldn’t exactly make them furry, but would be kind of furry-esque. The guys with the tails are apparently the the Littles, not the Borrowers. Rookie mistake, I know.

Wreck–It-Ralph

Disney’s home studio has got to be a contender, right? Seriously, it has been over a decade since the category was started, and though Disney has distributed a fair number of winners and nominees, it has frequently struggled to even gain nomination for its own studio. Unfortunately, a CGI movie about video games does not sound like the sort of movie the Academy would embrace.

Although the titular character is human, it’s about video game characters. At least one furry supporting character has to appear, right?