OVP: Best Animated Feature Film (2021)
The Nominees Were...
Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino, & Clark Spencer, Encanto
Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellstrom, Signe Byrge Sorensen, & Charlotte de la Gournerie, Flee
Enrico Casarosa & Andrea Warren, Luca
Mika Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, & Kurt Albrecht, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada, Osnat Shurer, & Peter del Vecho, Raya and the Last Dragon
My Thoughts: Disney has always been an omnipresent threat for nominations in the Animated Feature race. While this category was created because of the large breadth of animated films around the turn-of-the-century, including non-Disney movies like Anastasia, The Iron Giant, and Shrek, this has largely the become Disney moment in the ceremony, given Disney/Pixar has won 15 of the statues in the 22 occasions this has been a category. Nowhere is the Mouse House's omnipresence felt more than in this lineup, when it managed to pull off what most pundits all season had assumed was impossible-nominations for all three of its major films that year.
Encanto is likely the best-remembered (not just because it won), largely due to the way that "We Don't Talk About Bruno" became an online sensation and Disney's longest-charting hit of all-time. The movie that surrounds it is quite magical too. The story, which Disney has done incessantly (there's something special in all of us) is nicely turned upside down by showing that there is literally nothing supernatural about our main protagonist...but she's still the glue that keeps the family together. Aided by pretty animation and great music, this is Disney's best twist on this format in a while, possibly since Coco.
Luca gives off the vibes of a movie I'd be obsessed with, and not just because it is taking inspiration from the unlikeliest place imaginable, Call Me By Your Name. The film is about finding friendship, but also the realities of friendship (that some relationships are meant to only be a part of our lives, not all of our lives)...bittersweet is a good flavor in animation, and this one does it in a way that has largely gone extinct. Since we're comparing the films, Luca has more distinctive, beautiful animation and more guts in its story than Encanto-the ending, in particular, is better, and much more thoughtful. Conversely, Encanto is a better-constructed story and does much more with its side characters (an important aspect of Disney films) as this movie's side characters are forgettable, and honestly, the story itself is a bit slight. Still, this is a movie that has aged extremely well with me, in a way I didn't expect when I first caught it.
Disney's final nomination was for Raya and the Last Dragon, the first movie I saw after a long drought of not being in theaters due to the global pandemic (Raya was the movie I saw first after I got vaccinated for Covid and ended my quarantine). I remember weeping at the opening credits, but soon settled into the fact that this was kind of mediocre Disney fare. The animation is good but glossy, not as much personality as something like Luca, and Raya as a leading princess is not interesting, largely played as a one-note badass than anything resembling some of the studio's more intriguing, complicated heroines like Mulan or Belle. Awkafina's sidekick of Sisu is funny (she's a natural in animation, and I hope she does more of it), but this is pretty forgettable and the movie Oscar could've skipped and gone with an independent film.
Speaking of, there are two nominees here that aren't from Disney, and worth exploring. First up is Flee, an animated documentary that doesn't quite work in its format, and I don't mean animation. The movie jumps around in our protagonist's life, but in doing so it feels disjointed, and like it's not connecting to our main character. It is extremely dry to the point of being brittle as a subject matter, and while it works when it comes to talking about the life of a queer man in a deeply homophobic society (it's not like it's not an important subject), cinematically I found it to be a bust.
Our final film is The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which (along with Luca) was one of only two films here to really skirt around the theatrical release window rule (the other three were theatrically available to most audiences even if I only caught Raya and Encanto in a movie house). This developed a weird sort of cult following, and like Flee, it has openly queer characters in its plot (combined with the subtext of Luca and Raya, this is honestly the gayest this category has ever been). Long, but it never feels that way, Mitchells has some solid character work (I adored the speechless dog, and Olivia Colman as a villainous Siri knockoff is fabulous). The animation, though, was the least of the bunch, a kitchen sink approach that feels like it's attempting to be in the shadow of Into the Spider-Verse but instead it just feels a bit cheap. Still, great story & a fun movie.
Other Precursor Contenders: One of the reasons that Disney was able to stampede this season was that there was a lot of groupthink for the Animated Feature contest. Look at the Globes, which skipped Mitchells for My Sunny Maad, but otherwise copied Oscar in nominees & winner. BAFTA only did four nominees, so Raya was out but the rest was Oscar's lineup, and they also went with Encanto. In terms of sixth place, I would probably say it was the GKids film Belle, which had a late-breaking studio release and felt like a dark horse if one of the frontrunners fell, but none of them did.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I generally think that we should only be three-wide here, but even five-wide there's no animated film in 2021 that I saw that feels like it was a big snub.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I generally think that we should only be three-wide here, but even five-wide there's no animated film in 2021 that I saw that feels like it was a big snub.
Oscar’s Choice: I do wonder in a world where Mitchells and Luca get larger releases if Encanto gets upended (Mitchells feels like a word-of-mouth hit that could've gone somewhere). But without even box office, the Family Madrigal takes it with ease.
My Choice: I will also give it to Encanto, in a tighter race than I would've guessed in 2021 against Luca. Behind it, I'd say Mitchells, Flee, and Raya.
And that's our Animated Feature film race. Does everyone collectively agree with the consensus here, or does someone want to try their own path? Why do you think Disney fandom peaked in 2021 (it was back to only one nominee the next year even with three contenders)? And who do you think Belle was the closest to taking out of the top five? Share your thoughts below!
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