For our sixth Rundown article, we look at one of the year’s most controversial categories because of the big omission no one had expected. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Animated Feature as well as general commentary about the race. Friday, we’ll cover the only categories where real life is more important than fiction.

Best Animated Feature

Winner Predictions

• Big Hero 6 (PP R) [New]
• The Boxtrolls
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 (WL O) (TB R) [New] (TL O)
• Song of the Sea
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Runner-Up Predictions

• Big Hero 6 (WL O) (TB R) [New] (TL O)
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 (PP R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: After high profile wins at the Annie Awards and Golden Globe, How to Train Your Dragon 2 seem poised to carry off the Oscar that eluded its predecessor. With no Lego Movie to steal support, it’s got a much better shot than prior to nominations. The only problem is that anything could upset at this point as there were no front-runners other than Lego until it failed to get a nomination. My inkling is Dragon, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Another factor in Dragon‘s favor is the recent win of the more traditional princess narrative of Brave winning out over the critic’s consensus Wreck-It Ralph. That victory proved that there are more traditionalists in the Academy than those who know something about modern society. The video game generation could understand the nuance of Ralph whereas the older voter just couldn’t get it. That could be one of the reasons why Lego Movie didn’t place. Add to that the fact that Big Hero 6 is a superhero movie (and really a stealth Marvel movie) and you have fewer reasons for the Academy to go hip and instead stick to something more familiar.
Peter J. Patrick: I’ve only seen The Boxtrolls among the nominees, which I would love to see win, but since none of the precursors seem to be going in its direction I expect the winner will one of the more traditional animated films.
Tripp Burton: Without The Lego Movie, this category is a little confusing. I thought that Big Hero 6 would be the natural successor, but the continued success of How to Train Your Dragon 2 at both the Globes and the Annies seems to make it the front-runner. I’m still not sold on it, but I’ll ride the wave.
Thomas La Tourrette: Without the expected nomination and win of The Lego Movie, it seemed this would be a race between How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6. However, Dragon has become the prohibitive front-runner. The surprising win at the Golden Globes, is proving to not be such a surprise now that it has won the Annie Award as well. Big Hero 6 just does not seem to have caught on with the critics, though it still seems the more likely film to pull an upset rather than The Boxtrolls. Neither of the nominated foreign-made films will stand a chance. Dragon will handily take home the Oscar, which its predecessor was not able to do.

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