In the 17 years that the Best Animated Feature category has existed at the Academy Awards, Pixar films have claimed the Oscar nine times. Will Pixar’s latest animated movie “Incredibles 2” become their 10th champion, or might Wes Anderson‘s stop-motion film “Isle of Dogs” steal its Oscar bone?
According to Gold Derby’s racetrack odds, which are derived from the predictions made by expert journalists, staff editors and users like you, “Incredibles 2” has a heroic lead to win Best Animated Feature with 16/5 odds. “Isle of Dogs” sits in second place with 37/10 odds, followed by “Ralph Breaks the Internet” (5/1 odds), “Mirai” (11/2 odds), “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (8/1 odds), “Smallfoot” (28/1 odds) and “Early Man” (35/1 odds).
“Isle of Dogs” focuses on a group of canines who’ve been banished to Trash Island after a dog flu virus is unleashed. Anderson’s dystopian movie earned a respectful $32 million at the U.S. box office, while film critics gave it a 90% score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Likely one of Fox Searchlight’s major campaign strategies will be to remind Oscar voters that Anderson has been nominated six times in his career, but never won. His prior Oscar bids came for writing “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), directing “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009), writing “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), and directing, writing and producing “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014).
As for “Incredibles 2,” filmmaker Brad Bird is no stranger to the Oscars, winning for directing the first “Incredibles” (2004) and then again for “Ratatouille” (2007). If he prevails for “Incredibles 2” at the 2019 ceremony, Bird will make history as the first animated feature director to take home three trophies. The sequel, which features Elastigirl saving the world and Mr. Incredible as a stay-at-home-dad, is officially the highest grossing animated film in U.S. history. It brought home $608 million domestically, far outpacing the second-place contender “Finding Dory” at $486 million. “Incredibles 2’s” 94% score at Rotten Tomatoes also bodes well for its Oscar chances.
Pixar’s nine previous Best Animated Feature Oscar winners were “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Ratatouille” (2007), “WALL-E” (2008), “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3” (2010), “Brave” (2012), “Inside Out” (2015) and “Coco” (2017). Click through our photo gallery below to see how all 19 previous Pixar films fared at the Oscars. As of 2013, the trophies for Best Animated Feature are awarded to one producer and up to two directors.
PREDICT the Oscar nominations now; change them until January 22
Be sure to check out how our experts rank this year’s Oscar contenders. Then take a look at the most up-to-date combined odds before you make your own 2019 Oscar predictions. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until just before nominations are announced on January 22.
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