The biggest news of the year for Disney has been their acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, but the house the Mickey Mouse built has had a tremendous year of filmmaking.
The Avengers was a major box office seller for the studio, but is surprisingly missing from its "For Your Consideration" Oscars Campaign. It is also missing from Paramount's campaign as that studio retained some financial rights to the film when Marvel was purchased by Disney.
Disney seems more interested in promoting its major animated films, two of which had solid box office campaigns.
The first film they released this year was Pixar's Brave. The film garnered a 78 percent approval rating on Rottentomatoes.com and had a domestic box office intake of $236 million. That ranks it as the 8th highest grossing Pixar film of all time. Disney is pulling for a Best Animated Feature nomination as well as a plethora of other nods including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and a number of technical categories.
Prediction: The film should garner the Best Animated Feature nomination, but no pundits are putting it into any other category at the moment.
Frankenweenie was released in September and garnered the best reviews of any Disney animated film this year. On Rotten Tomatoes it garnered an 89 percent approval from the critics, who lauded director Tim Burton for his return to form. Burton's popularity alone could propel the film to Oscar glory, but Disney is only putting this one up for a Best Animated Feature in addition to most of the same categories as Brave. Its $34 million box office gross could hurt its chances however.
Prediction: Like Brave, this film has a shot at Best Animated Feature, but no other categories. Best Song for "Strange Love" might have a shot, but the Oscars have yet to release the short list for songs and it may not even appear on it.
Wreck-It Ralph: Another major hit for Disney that garnered an 86 percent approval from the critics. Box office has been solid with the film taking in $121 million in its first three weeks. This film is being considered for 10 categories including Best Animated Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and a number of other technical categories.
Prediction: This film should be a lock for Best Animated Feature since the category has five spots. However, it is unlikely that the film finds itself nominated in any other categories.
Finally, Disney is pushing a short film entitled Paper Man for the Best Animated Short in a bid to win both categories for the first time ever.
Disney's three major animated films are likely to find themselves competing in the same category; a circumstance that gives them a high percentage chance of winning the Best Animated Feature category for the sixth time since the category was created in 2001.
Other Oscar Campaigns:
Warner Bros Promotes The Dark Knight Rises, Argo, Cloud Atlas, Magic Mike, and The Hobbit
Lincoln Leads Race for Dreamworks