Golden Globe Animated Feature Contenders Posted…

It’s one of those things—finding out who’s been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Animated Feature Category. Everyone has an opinion. This year offers up some interesting fare. The following made the list:

• The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - This will cause the most controversy obviously, for its heavy use of performance capture. I'm sure many people will be disputing its inclusion in this category.
• Arthur Christmas - Haven't seen this film yet, but heard really good things about it and hope it does well, purely for Aardmann’s sake. We are good friends of theirs in the UK and have several escapees working there. They have become a British institution for their great work over the last 20 years.
• Rango - I was highly impressed with Rango, not so much for the animation but more for the effects work. The level of detail applied in the texturing and rendering surpasses any seen in an animated movie, in my opinion.
• Puss in Boots - Generally spin off movies don't win awards, simply because the idea is not an original one, and so I don't expect Puss in Boots to be included in the final group.
• Kung Fu Panda 2 - I was a little critical of Kung Fu Panda 2 at first, as I thought it didn't live up to the first movie, but it's still a great piece of work and worthy of being included. I really liked the inclusion of the traditional animation to explain the back plot, and some of the animation, especially the fight scenes, is top notch.
• Cars 2 - Although I have not seen Cars 2 I think it's fair to say this is the weakest of the Pixar nominees for some time. The Cars franchise is certainly a big money maker for Pixar, but has never been a favorite with older Pixar fans. It's a big ask for them to keep delivering movies like Wall E and Up year after year.
• Happy Feet Two - Animal Logic will be hoping to repeat their previous feet (no pun intended) of winning the award for the original movie.
• Rio
• Gnomeo and Juliet

I'm afraid I haven't seen Rio or Gnomeo and Juliet so cannot really comment on whether or not they deserved to be in this list. What I can say is that it's nice to see a wide range of animation companies involved this year, without the certainty that Pixar or Dreamworks will steal the show again.

It's a great shame that we don't have any stop motion projects in this year’s awards, especially as I'm a big fan of the medium. That said, the team behind Coraline are currently working on ParaNorman due to be released next year, and if Coraline was anything to go by I expect that to be a strong contender for the  2012's award.

Any favorites on this list? We’d love to hear which film you think is the winner this year and why. Post your comments on our blog.