The Animation Shortlist 2010

I really wanted to write about this yesterday, but the candidates for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations have been announced. Only 15 films made the cut, meaning that there will be only three nominees this year. That's a shame, too, since there were five last year and this year has been a terrific year for animated films. The candidates are as follows:

Alpha & Omega

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

Despicable Me

The Dreams of Jinsha

How to Train Your Dragon

Idiots and Angels

The Illusionist

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Megamind

My Dog Tulip

Shrek Forever After

Summer Wars

Tangled

Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Toy Story 3

Clever of Toy Story 3 to be last alphabetically, making you think it didn't make the cut. Of course, its pretty much guaranteed that that film will easily win this category this year, much less pick up a nomination. And How to Train Your Dragon seems like a lock for a nomination as well, since its also got great reviews and box office. Which means the remaining 13 films will have to battle for that final spot. The most likely contenders are The Illusionist, which is directed by Sylvain Chomet (2003's Oscar-nominated The Triplets of Belleville); Despicable Me, which picked up some terrific reviews; Megamind, which is playing strong and earned some pretty decent reviews; Idiots and Angels, which has played well on the festival circuit; and My Dog Tulip, which is supposedly a pretty terrific little surprise of a film. I wouldn't count out Legends of the Guardian or Tangled, as the former is visually gorgeous and decently received while the latter is Disney, who's not afraid to give a big push for awards contention.

Interestingly enough, I was expecting the CGI/live action Yogi Bear to make the list, but apparently not enough of it was animated to make the cut. If it had been, there would have been enough films to warrant five nominations. Just another reason to despise that film sight-unseen (another being the awful trailer).

So what do you think? Who's worthy of a nomination this year?