Nomination talk is animated this year
Most of the Oscar races are so wide open right now that speculating about them would be pointless. But one category has grabbed my interest, because academy rules have made this competition as fierce as Thunderdome. Only in this case, the chant would be "Ten films enter, three films leave." Last week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced 10 films were eligible for the animated feature Oscar. When the category was created in 2001, the academy stipulated that only three films could be nominated if fewer than 16 are eligible. I have seen six movies on the list and consider five of them worthy of a nomination. The one I consider unworthy, "Madagascar," almost certainly will be one of the nominees. In alphabetical order, here are the eligible films: "Chicken Little," "Gulliver's Travel," "Hoodwinked," "Howl's Moving Castle," "Madagascar," "Robots," "Steamboy," "Tim Burt...