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Okay Film Fans, We have 3 new categories in our Oscar challenge for you.

Today we take on the nominations for Best Animated Feature Film, Best Original Song, and Best Score.

Let’s start with the cartoons. Animated Feature Film finalists are:

• A Cat in Paris Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico & Rita Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2 Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots Chris Miller
• Rango Gore Verbinski

The list is notable for its omission. After nearly a decade of animated dominance, Pixar Studios have been left out of the pack. This is because Pixar’s contribution this year was the shockingly disappointing Cars 2. More surprising was the omission of the excellent The Adventures of Tin Tin. This Spielberg-directed, Peter Jackson-produced film was a box office sensation overseas with a decent domestic performance.

Instead, the bigger domestic hits Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2 have made the short list, both sequels to previous winners/nominees in the category. The nomination of French film A Cat In Paris and Spanish film Chico and Rita meant the first time in the history of the category for 2 foreign animated films to be up for the Oscar.

Rango recently came away the Annie Award (the Oscar for the animation industry) for best feature film. Our money is on Rango to take home this award again, We enjoyed the film but we believe it will not be remembered as a cartoon classic like previous Disney and Pixar winners.

Music (Original Song)

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
• “Real in Rio” from Rio Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

This category operates under special rules, where the academy scores songs 1-10, and only songs earning over 8.25 earn a nomination. This year only two songs were eligible for a nomination. This could be a sign that films don’t necessarily focus on creating original songs anymore.

The favorite seems to be “Man or Muppet” although obviously the chances are 50/50. However, this song was actually a surprise choice from The Muppets, considering the variety of options. “Life’s A Happy Song” seemed to be the obvious choice while “Pictures in my Head” was also a strong contender.

“Real in Rio” was a strong song from the animated film Rio but we have  a feeling it won’t earn the top honor.

Music (Original Score)

• The Adventures of Tintin John Williams
• The Artist Ludovic Bource
• Hugo Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse John Williams

(Click the links to take a listen for yourself!)

This category we’re leaving up to others to conjecture, although we think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch should have been nominated. Perhaps it was a bit too similar to the score for The Social Network, which they won the Oscar for last year. We loved the very underrated score for Hanna by The Chemical Brothers, which didn’t stand much of a shot against these more traditional nominees.

The favorite for this category is The Artist with its whimsical score that captured the feeling of the silent film perfectly.

What do you think about this set of nominees? Who would you like to win?

Cartoon bt Ed Stein, http://edsteinink.com/

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Take the hint; move on.

You may have better luck wooing frustrated Democrats who still have a soft spot for you.