For our thirteenth Rundown article, we look at long-form animation. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Animated Feature as well as general commentary about the race. Next week, we’ll start off on Monday with a category that is most aligned with Best Picture.

Best Animated Feature

Winner Predictions

• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
• I Lost My Body
• Klaus
• Missing Link
• Toy Story 4 (WL O) (PP O) (TB R) [New] (TL O)

Runner-Up Predictions

• I Lost My Body (WL O)
• Klaus (PP R) [New] (TB R) [New] (TL R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: While it would be easy to say that the Annie Awards going hard and heavy for Klaus means that the race dynamics have changed, that’s probably not the case. Until now, it was I Lost My Body of the two indie features that was receiving the most attention. When you look at the precursor tallies, Toy Story 4 won 29 prizes, 58% of the total. I Lost My Body was second with 13 awards (26%). After that was Missing Link, which won a shock victory at the Golden Globes, with 3 (6%). Klaus is tied for fifth with a single award, the Annie. Even fellow nominee How to Train Your Dragon has more citations. With this knowledge in hand combined with the PGA victory for Toy Story 4, I’d say this is Pixar’s to lose and the what it might lose to is I Lost My Body, not Klaus.
Peter J. Patrick: They tend to vote for the most popular film in this category so Toy Story 4 should be an easy winner, but watch out for surprise nominee Klaus, which took the lion’s share of this year’s Annie Awards.
Tripp Burton: Toy story 4 seemed poised to steamroll this season, but it keeps losing precursors left and right (and never to the same film). I think it still holds on to the win here, but this could be a ballot-buster for any Oscar pool. It if loses, it is probably because Netflix is putting its might behind Klaus and doing pretty well by it.
Thomas La Tourrette: This category has me confused. I had always thought that Toy Story 4 was going to win it easily, and I still think it will. It is not as good as Toy Story 3, but it seemed a likely winner, especially when Frozen II was not even nominated. Then the Golden Globe went to Missing Link, a decent Laika feature, but not their best. And then the Annies gave not only most of their love to Klaus with seven wins including best animated feature, but they also shut out Toy Story. They have at other times gone a different direction than the Academy, with wins for the first two How To Train Your Dragon films over Oscar winners Toy Story 3 and Big Hero 6. But this almost feels a little different. I just keep thinking that I am not certain they are ready to proclaim a total independent film for best feature. Having not awarded the first two Dragon films, I doubt they will now. Missing Link is good, just not as good as some of the earlier Laika made films, so it does not totally feel like a winner. I Lost My Body did win the Annie for independent feature, but may just be a little too strange for the Oscars. That leaves Klaus and Toy Story 4. The fourth Toy Story film was not a needed sequel, but it is always fun to spend time with Woody, Buzz, and the gang. Klaus was an enjoyable telling of an alternate Santa Claus origin story. Neither is a must win film, but something has to. Pixar has a good track record at the Oscars, so I will still predict Toy Story 4 to win, but it is not a sure thing.

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