Written by Karlamon :

With a great year of animation out of the way, the time has come to for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to announce the nominations honoured to the best of 2014 cinema. With plenty of acclaimed animated films in 2014 (well, at least better than what we got in 2013), it was a tough call on which ones would get in, especially when Pixar was absent that year. But now the nominations for Best Animated Feature have been announced and here they are!

With the help of Marvel, Disney's Big Hero 6 succeeded in pleasing a wide range of audiences, whether its critics, families, animation fans, or superhero buffs. In addition for being nominated, it was also helped that Disney's animated short Feast (shown before Big Hero 6) was nominated for Best Animated Short.

A bit more underground was Laika's third Oscar-nominated stop-motion flick The Boxtrolls, which helped breath more life into the alternative animation style and transporting audiences into their weird, yet whimsical world. Stop motion films are always a defiant pick for nominations, so The Boxtrolls was a good choice for the nominations.

DreamWorks soared high when it unleashed How to Train Your Dragon 2. Not only was it the highest grossing animated film of 2014, but it was also adored by critics and fans everywhere. (Heck, its even among my all-time favourite films ever!) With that film recently winning the Golden Globe, there might be a good chance that Hiccup and Toothless will score the Oscar too.

From Cartoon Saloon, the Irish studio that made The Secret of Kells (another of my all-time favorites), Song of the Sea was one of the two 2D animated films nominated this year to help keep the 2D animation medium alive. Just watching the trailer alone made my jaw drop just by how gorgeous the movie looks, and I'll defiantly watch it as soon as possible. If Dragon 2 doesn't win, Song of the Sea getting the award will truly blow me away.

The final nomination for this year is The Tale of Princess Kaguya, which unfortunately may be among Studio Ghibli's last films for quiet a while following Hayao Miyazaki's retirement and the studio’s reported "break". However, this was another great candidate for the nominations because the Japanese painting art style is very different from any other animated film, even when compared to other Ghibli films, and I love it when animated films take risks to distinct themselves from others.

The biggest surprise this year was that The Lego Movie didn't make the cut for the nominations, considering it was among the most popular and critically acclaimed animated movies of the year. But despite that, it did get nominated the Oscar for Best Original Song for Everything is Awesome.

In contrast to the Oscars, the most hilarious news is that the legendary animated bomb Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return got nominated a Golden Raspberry Award, which was to Kelsey Grammer who voiced the Tin Man for Worst Supporting Actor (his nomination was for three other movies too). Animated films earning a Razzie nomination is very rare, with the only ones being The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (a special Razzie for “Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million” which I find completely stupid), Eight Crazy Nights, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Thumbelina (the ONLY animated film to win a Razzie). The fact that Legends of Oz got a Razzie nomination really emthersises on how bad of a movie it is.

So what animated movie do you think should win the Oscar? Place your bet in the comments below. ;)