Can Netflix or any other newcomer take home the Oscar as the best animation competition heats up?

Disney won the animation category with three nominations last Oscar season, resulted in a win for Encanto. This year, Netflix is ​​going strong with more than a few competitors, including by Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio. DreamWorks Animation is back with some contenders of its own, as Apple, A24 and GKIDS look for their first Academy Award win for Best Animation. With only five nominations, who will fight for the award?

Walt Disney Studios has some competitors this year, but their front runner is Pixars Blush. Director Domee Shi reflected on her own difficult teenage years to write a story about a young girl struggling to please her family as she reaches puberty. Blush follows Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl from Toronto who works at her family’s temple to make her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) proud. Due to a family blessing/curse, Mei turns into a giant red panda when she experiences strong emotions, which is not ideal for a teenager. The film, the first Pixar film directed exclusively by a woman, received critical acclaim for Shi’s portrayals of female friendships and the mother-daughter bond.

After working in Disney animation for 25 years, director Chris Williams decided that Netflix was the right place to finally make the animated action adventure he had always dreamed of. The Sea Beast. The film follows Jacob (Karl Urban), a sea monster hunter, and Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator), a young stowaway, as they join the crew of Inevitable in a hunt for the elusive Red Bluster. After falling overboard during a difficult battle, Jacob and Maisie are stranded on a deserted island surrounded by animals. The pair soon discover that the animals are not as sinister as they should be, leaving Jacob to grapple with the idea of ​​what it really means to be a hero. Sony Pictures Imageworks, which also animated Netflix’s latest nominee The Mitchells against the machineswas challenged by Williams to create scenes of epic battles between hunters and the animals at sea which are notoriously difficult to animate. The Sea Beast became Netflix’s most successful animated film to date, with over 160 million hours watched.

Netflix’s closest competitor is My father’s dragon, directed by Nora Twomey and based on the 1948 children’s novel of the same name. The film is about Elmer (Jacob Tremblay), a young boy who helps his mother run a candy store in her small town. When the store is forced to close as the town’s population dwindles, he and his mother move to a busy town where the resulting problems cause a rift in their relationship, leading Elmer to run away. A cat he befriends, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, tells him of a dragon kept on Wild Island that can solve all his problems. On the island, he meets the clumsy and curious Boris the Dragon (Gate Matarazzo), and the two embark on an adventure to save Wild Island. Unlike the 3D animation of The Sea Beast, My father’s dragon sticks to a 2D storybook style that has led to positive reviews and popularity among younger viewers.

Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro delivers a visually stunning stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio’s fable, reimagining the story set in 1930s Italy during Benito Mussolini’s Fascist rule. After losing his son Carlo to an aerial bombardment, woodcutter Geppetto (David Bradley) carves a wooden boy from the tree near Carlo’s grave, which has recently become home to a cricket named Sebastian (Ewan McGregor). A mysterious forest spirit (Cate Blanchett) brings the doll to life, names it Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) and promises Sebastian a wish if it serves the boy’s conscience. Del Toro, who co-directs with Mark Gustafson, brings his signature artistic style to the project, bringing a touch of playful anarchy to the story of a son trying to live up to his father’s expectations.

DreamWorks Animation is back this year with two big contenders The Bad Boys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Based on a series of graphic novels for children, The Bad Boys follows a group of anthropomorphic criminals, mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos). After he was caught, Mr. Wolf concocts a play to escape from prison, claiming that the group wants a chance to reform for good. Although it starts as a ruse, Mr. Wolf is soon excited by the chance to improve. The film grossed over $250 million worldwide and was the second highest-grossing animated film of 2022.

DreamWorks earned their first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 Shrekand this year they release the sixth part of the series Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Then the story unfolds Shrek forever, when Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is accidentally killed by a bell and discovers he is living on his ninth and final life. He soon learns of a wishing star that can help them get his life back. However, in his quest he is hunted by a mysterious wolf. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish had its wide theatrical release on December 21, to positive reviews from audiences and critics, citing its incredible cast of voice actors and dark tone.

A24 entered the race this year Marcel wears the shell with shoes, based on a series of short films written by director Dean Fleischer Camp and Jenny Slate. Documentary-style filmmaker Dean (Fleischer Camp) is seen moving into an Airbnb where he finds a small talking seashell named Marcel (Slate). Living at home with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini), Marcel has found quirky and imaginative ways to deal with problems in his daily life. Dean begins filming Neville’s antics and uploads the videos to YouTube, making Neville a cultural phenomenon worthy of attention 60 minutesLesley Stahl. Despite having animated characters interacting with the live-action world, the film managed to get nominated for Best Animated Feature and has since gained a lot of traction in the race.

After receiving the first nomination in the category for wolf walker In 2021, Apple wants to secure its second nomination this year happiness, directed by Peggy Holmes. Sam (Eva Noblezada) is the unhappiest person in the world. Her life changes for the better when she finds a lucky coin which she soon loses due to her accident. Bob (Simon Pegg), a black cat with a Scottish accent, searches for the coin only to accidentally lead Sam to the mystical Land of Fortune, where the two must embark on a journey to find it and their fortune to stop. The film’s strength lies in its voice acting and choreographed animated sequences, enhanced by Holmes’ background in dance.

although Lovely failed to win the nomination last year, GKIDS gets a new chance with its animated musical Inu-O. Based on the novel Tales of Heike: Inu-Oh Directed by Hideo Furukawa, the film follows two outcasts in 14th-century Japan: Tomona (Mirai Moriyama), a blind biwa player, and Inu-Oh (Avu-chan), a disfigured noh dancer who lives with a curse was born. The two discover they can hear the spirits of the Heike, a tribe of warriors whose stories have been lost to time, and the pair begin performing their stories in a new style similar to modern-day hair metal. Inu-Oh’s appearance telling the Heike stories begins to cure him of the curse and make her a star, but they soon attract the attention of the country’s ruling power, who do not want those stories told . The film received immediate criticism as a story of actors forced to tell the truth to those in power through a moving performance style.

last year’s winner, Encanto, got a big boost in popularity thanks to the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” but this year, there aren’t any songs going viral to keep a movie in the public eye. Will Disney or DreamWorks be able to pull off another win, or will Netflix finally break through with several films, including Del Toro’s long-awaited remake of Pinocchio? Will GKIDS or Apple secure their first win after only receiving nominations, or will A24 pull off an upset Marcel the shell? Compared to last year, this season seems to be the game for everyone to win.