We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Missing Link

There is only one studio to date that has managed to secure a Best Animated Feature nomination every time they’ve made a movie. Not Pixar. Not Disney. Not Aardman. Laika is the undisputed king of the Animated Feature category, at least from a nomination perspective. Not a single one of their films have ever won.

Missing Link is the latest feature to bear the Laika name. The studio, known only for its stop-motion animation work, started out doing contract work, including Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, which was the first film they worked on to get an Oscar nomination for Animated Feature. That 2005 film had an 84% Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and an 83 from MetaCritic. From there, they created their first self-produced feature in 2009. Coraline earned a 90% Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes with an 80 from MetaCritic. It earned an Oscar nomination. Their first follow-up was 2012’s ParaNorman, which also earned an Oscar nomination with an 88% Fresh and 72 MetaCritic.

The continued producing Oscar nominee after Oscar nominee with The Boxtrolls in 2014 (76% Fresh, 61 MetaCritic). Their biggest success to date came two years later in 2016. Kubo and the Two Strings scored a near-perfect 97% Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a superb 84 from MetaCritic, their highest score to date from both. It also became their first film to score an Oscar nomination outside of Best Animated Feature, securing a nod for Best Visual Effects, the first fully animated film ever to accomplish the feat.

Although their fifth original film, Missing Link has taken a step back with its 89% Fresh and 68 MetaCritic scores, those numbers are still quite impressive and may be further proof that the film has a strong claim to a Best Animated Feature nomination.