Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Animated Feature 2023

The Contenders:

The Boy and the Heron (winner)
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

What’s Missing

I don’t watch a great deal of animated films, so this is the category where I tend to have seen the fewest possible other films. In fact, the only film I watched in this category that isn’t one of the nominees is Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. I didn’t love all of the actual nominees, but I at least liked them, and Dawn of the Nugget isn’t better than any of the five actual nominees.

Weeding through the Nominees

5. I was very disappointed with Elemental. The problem here might well be that we all tend to still have wild expectations for anything that comes out that has the Pixar name attached to it, and Elemental isn’t better than just fine. A large part of my issues with the film is that I’ve absolutely seen this before, most recently as Zootopia. The bigger issue, though, and it is a big issue, is that I absolutely don’t buy the romance. The entire film lives and dies on whether or not we buy the relationship between Ember and Wade, and I simply don’t. It’s not a bad movie; it’s just not a great one.

4. I’m in the minority in that I didn’t love The Boy and the Heron, but it’s another movie that I wanted to like a lot more than I actually liked it. My problem with it is that it feels not schizophrenic but dissociative. The plot doesn’t so much feel like a plot but pieces of multiple plots strung together with baling wire, and it simply doesn’t work for me. I understand that Miyazaki is a true genius in every way that word can be used, but this feels so much like lesser Miyazaki to me. It almost feels like he was trying to purge himself of story ideas and put all of these half-formed plots into one place to make sure he used them all.

3. The first movie I watched in this category for this year was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and I figured it was going to be my winner. Obviously, I’m not giving it the win, but I liked it a great deal. It’s a natural continuation of the first Miles Morales Spider-Man movie, building on the lore and the story extremely well. What ultimately puts this in third place for me rather than higher up is that this is only the first half of a movie. I don’t have a problem with sequels, but I do have a problem with films that create this sort of obvious cliffhanger. Tell a complete story, even if you know that the larger story has more to come.

2. I spent some time deciding who I wanted on top and while Robot Dreams could have been my winner, I decided to put it in second place. It’s a lovely story, and one that is really nicely told without any real dialogue. I mostly love how much this takes place in a recognizable world; the characters use real-world products and live in real places. It’s also a story that works for all ages. There may well be things that only adults will fully understand, but that’s more about life experience than anything else. It’s a sweet story and one worth seeing, and I love the nomination. I’d have been okay with this win, but it’s not my pick.

My Choice

1. After a lot of thought, I ended up going with Nimona as my winner for this Oscar. It would be fair to complain that I put Elemental in last in part because it’s a lot like other movies, and there’s a lot of The Iron Giant in Nimona. Sure, but The Iron Giant is more than 20 years old, so Nimona isn't picking fresh bones. Additionally, the characters in Nimona are genuinely different, and while a lot of kids’ movies are about people who don’t belong finding a way to belong, this describes virtually all of the characters here. Nimona cares about its characters and cares about how all of them are depicted. It would be my choice four out of five times, and it’s my choice today.

Final Analysis