8 Non-Disney Movies That Should Have Won Best Animated Feature

The Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars has been dominated by Disney and Pixar movies, meaning that some animated classics have been ignored. The category was introduced at the 74th Academy Awards, honoring movies from 2001. Shrek was the inaugural winner, but it didn’t take long for Disney to establish a stranglehold on the category, and they have won 15 of the 23 awards so far. While many of these awards were well-deserved, there were some more contentious winners that have led to accusations of bias.

As people start to make their 2025 Oscars predictions, Disney has yet another strong contender in Inside Out 2. However, movies like Flow, The Wild Robot and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl mean that Disney is actually the underdog for once. If Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 both fail to win, it will mark the first time that Disney has gone three years without winning Best Animated Feature since the category was invented. This could symbolize a new dawn, as the Academy starts to recognize the incredible diversity of animated movies from all over the world.

8

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

The DreamWorks Classic Would Have Been The Studio’s Third Win

How to Train Your Dragon - Poster

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9/10

How to Train Your Dragon

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Release Date

March 18, 2010

Director

Dean DeBlois
, Chris Sanders

Cast

Jay Baruchel
, Gerard Butler
, Craig Ferguson
, America Ferrera
, Jonah Hill

The first two Toy Story movies came out in the 1990s, before the Academy had created the Best Animated Feature category. While they couldn’t get the awards they deserved, it always seemed likely that Toy Story 3 would take home the Oscar. It’s a great movie, but its win may also have been a nod to the first two movies in the franchise. Under slightly different circumstances, How to Train Your Dragon might have clinched the grand prize. As it turns out, all three How to Train Your Dragon movies have been nominated, but none have won.

Under slightly different circumstances, How to Train Your Dragon might have clinched the grand prize.

How to Train Your Dragon stands tall alongside the best DreamWorks movies, with a healthy balance between humor and action. It was the perfect movie to start a franchise, and the upcoming live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon underlines its lasting popularity. This is a move into Disney territory for DreamWorks, but they will be hoping for a more positive response than some of Disney’s live-action remakes. It will be a tough task recapturing the magic of the orignal.

7

Wolfwalkers (2020)

Any Of Tomm Moore’s Animated Movies Would Have Been Worthy Winners

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9/10

Wolfwalkers

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Release Date

November 13, 2020

Director

Tomm Moore
, Ross Stewart

Cast

Tommy Tiernan
, Eva Whittaker
, Simon McBurney
, John Morton
, Honor Kneafsey
, Maria Doyle Kennedy
, Jon Kenny
, Sean Bean

Wolfwalkers is the third movie in a criminally underrated trilogy, after 2009’s The Secret of Kells and 2014’s Song of the Sea. While the movies aren’t connected in terms of their story, Tomm Moore imbues them each with a similar atmosphere as he brings Irish folklore to life. Wolkwalkers retells the famous story of the 17th century werewolves of Ossory. It’s an uplifting environmental fable that focuses on the power of human connection and bravery. While it received a number of awards and nominations, it lost Best Animated Feature to Pixar’s Soul.

One thing that helps Wolfwalkers stand out from other animated movies is its eye-catching art style. It’s animated in 2-D, but it doesn’t feel too much like a throwback. There are errant lines and hurried strokes that give Wolfwalkers the appearance of a sketchbook that has come to life. This draws attention to the animation, which is perfect for a story that tries to revitalize old Irish myths for the 21st century. Beyond its quirky visual charms, Wolfwalkers is also an enchanting tale that’s easy to get fully wrapped up in. All three of Tomm Moore’s Irish folklore animations received nominations for Best Animated Feature, but none won.

6

Kubo & The Two Strings (2016)

Laika Have Received Plenty Of Oscar Nominations But No Awards

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8.8/10

Kubo and the Two Strings

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Release Date

August 19, 2016

Director

Travis Knight

Cast

Charlize Theron
, Art Parkinson
, Minae Noji
, Ralph Fiennes
, Brenda Vaccaro
, Rooney Mara
, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
, Alpha Takahashi
, Matthew McConaughey
, George Takei

Laika have developed a reputation as masters of stop-motion animation, starting with child-friendly horror hits like Coraline and ParaNorman. More recently, they have scaled up their ambitions. Movies like Kubo and the Two Strings represent a blending of different genres, with horror, action, comedy and adventure all given equal weight, and the result is a stop-motion masterpiece that can be appreciated by people of all ages. Kubo and the Two Strings takes inspiration from Japanese watercolor, woodblock carving and origami to suit its setting.

imagery-from-Kubo-and-the-Two-Strings-and-Coraline

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Zootopia won Best Animated Feature over Kubo and the Two Strings at the 89th Academy Awards. Zootopia is one of Disney’s better animated movies of the last decade, but it isn’t as visually distinct as Kubo and the Two Strings, or other nominees like The Red Turtle and My Life As a Courgette, for that matter. Not only is Kubo and the Two Strings a more interesting experiment than Zootopia, it’s a brilliantly told story that deserves more recognition. Laika’s next movie, Wildwood, will be hoping for a stronger box office showing and perhaps even some more luck during awards season.

5

Loving Vincent (2017)

The Academy Usually Likes Movies With A Story Behind Their Creation

Loving Vincent 2017 Movie Poster

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Loving Vincent

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Release Date

September 22, 2017

Director

Dorota Kobiela
, Hugh Welchman

Cast

Robert Gulaczyk
, Douglas Booth
, Jerome Flynn
, Saoirse Ronan
, Helen McCrory
, Chris O’Dowd
, John Sessions
, Eleanor Tomlinson
, Aidan Turner

Loving Vincent generated a lot of interest before it came out, which is rare for an independent animated movie. Each of the movie’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas in the style of Vincent van Gogh, the subject of the story. The production employed 125 painters from all around the world. Ultimately, this ambitious investment turned out wonderfully, and Loving Vincent proved to be much more than a gimmick. It’s one of the most original animated movies of recent years, proving the untapped potential of the medium. The Academy honored Pixar’s fantasy musical Coco instead.

Each of the movie’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas in the style of Vincent van Gogh.

While Loving Vincent is a touching tribute to the artist, it isn’t a traditional biopic. The story follows the little-known mystery of Vincent van Gogh’s death that has persisted for over a hundred years. The artist himself mostly exists in the shadows, as a man carries out a solo investigation into his apparent suicide. There are plenty of references to real figures from Van Gogh’s life for his fans to pick up on, but Loving Vincent works just as well for the uninitiated who might want to discover a real-life murder mystery that has created conflicting theories for decades.

4

Flee (2021)

Flee Would Have Been A Bold Choice For Best Animated Feature

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9/10

Flee

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Release Date

December 3, 2021

Director

Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Cast

Belal Faiz
, Sadia Faiz
, Milad Eskandari
, Zahra Mehrwarz
, Fardin Mijdzadeh
, Elaha Faiz
, Daniel Karimyar

Disney had three strong contenders for Best Animated Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, with Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon both losing out to Encanto. One movie looking to spoil the party was Flee, and it would have been a groundbreaking moment for the Best Animated Feature category. Flee would have been the first animated documentary to win at the Oscars and the first Best Animated Feature winner that wasn’t made with a young audience in mind. Persepolis lost out to Ratatouille many years earlier, but Encanto‘s win is even more controversial.

Flee tells the story of a man who escaped his home country of Afghanistan to eventually settle in Denmark. It lays bare his trauma, the different paths of himself and his family, and his fear that he might still be found and forcibly returned to a country that persecutes him for his sexuality. Flee proves that animation is capable of dealing with heavier topics, but the Academy has always awarded Best Animated Feature to children’s movies, ignoring some of the medium’s most interesting and experimental work.

3

The Lego Movie (2014)

The Lego Movie Wasn’t Even Nominated

The LEGO Movie Poster

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9/10

8.8/10

The Lego Movie

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Release Date

February 7, 2014

Director

Phil Lord
, Chris Miller

Cast

Chris Pratt
, Alison Brie
, Channing Tatum
, Nick Offerman
, Liam Neeson
, Will Ferrell
, Cobie Smulders
, Elizabeth Banks
, Will Arnett
, Charlie Day
, Jonah Hill

The Lego Movie was originally tipped as an early Oscar contender, but it wasn’t even nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards. It was a strong year for the category, with Song of the Sea, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and How to Train Your Dragon 2 all competing. Ultimately, Disney scooped yet another award for Big Hero 6. The stiff competition may have been one reason why The Lego Movie was overlooked, but it’s also possible that the Academy voters looked down on it as an exercise in advertising.

It’s possible that the Academy voters looked down on it as an exercise in advertising.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller eventually won their Oscar with 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but they could have won years earlier with The Lego Movie. Despite what it looks like from the outside, The Lego Movie is so much more than a celebration of a beloved children’s toy. The story, the animation style and the irreverent humor all tie in to Lego’s philosophy of creativity and boundless imagination. Subsequent Lego movies haven’t quite hit the same heights, and there are now confusing plans for some live-action Lego movies to expand the franchise.

2

Klaus (2019)

The Christmas Animation Came Out In A Competitive Year

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Klaus

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Release Date

November 8, 2019

Director

Sergio Pablos

Cast

Sergio Pablos
, Jason Schwartzman
, J.K. Simmons
, Rashida Jones
, Will Sasso
, Norm Macdonald
, Joan Cusack
, Neda Margrethe Labba

Just like with Toy Story 3 nine years earlier, Toy Story 4 was the overwhelming favorite to take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards. This is a shame in some ways, because the Academy nominated four other great movies who would have been worthy winners, and each one brought something different to the table. I Lost My Body‘s experimental, mature style was ignored, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World failed to bring home a first Oscar for one of the best animated franchises ever.

Klaus is a brilliant Christmas movie, and one of only a handful from recent years that seems to have staying power.

Klaus is a brilliant Christmas movie, and one of only a handful from recent years that seems to have enough staying power to ensure it gets watched every holiday season for years to come. Its sweet style is a throwback to classic Christmas cartoons in some ways, but it incorporates more elements of 3-D composition to ensure that it stands out and feels fresh. The story is also a thoughtful synthesis of old and new, putting a twist on some traditional Christmas tropes while still retaining the magic and joy of the genre.

1

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Wes Anderson’s Charming Stop-Motion Comedy Should Have Snapped Pixar’s Streak

fantastic-mr-fox

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7/10

9/10

Fantastic Mr. Fox

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Release Date

November 13, 2009

Director

Wes Anderson

Cast

George Clooney
, Meryl Streep
, Jason Schwartzman
, Bill Murray
, Willem Dafoe
, Owen Wilson

Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of Wes Anderson’s best movies, even though it was his first venture into animation. 2018’s Isle of Dogs also earned an Oscar nomination, ultimately losing out to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but Fantastic Mr. Fox should have pipped Up years earlier. Up was the third in a row of four consecutive Pixar movies to take home Best Animated Feature, proving that the Oscars ignored the variety of animated movies. Fantastic Mr. Fox‘s stop-motion style allows Anderson full control, which suits his artistic sensibilities perfectly.

Roald Dahl adaptations

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Fantastic Mr. Fox initially puzzled some critics, who weren’t sure whether to categorize it as a children’s movie or a more mature story. After all, Anderson adds several flourishes to Roald Dahl’s children’s book which don’t seem like they’re designed to appeal to younger audiences, like Mr. Fox’s financial balancing act and his anxieties over his public image. Whether it should be classified as a children’s movie or not, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a brilliant action comedy that has the same wit and singular vision of Anderson’s other movies.