The 3 Nominees (?)
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Nickelodeon	Monsters, Inc Disney/Pixar	Shrek Dreamworks
Strengths: It probably delights the youngsters more than adults but considering its timely release and that it's doing quite well at the box office they may hold it in higher regard than expected. Weak spot: Seems like it could get lost in the crowded CG animation shuffle.	Strengths: Pixar aims high and rarely misses. The film is a delight. Disney is putting all of its collected might behind this one. Weak spot: The inexplicable love of all things Shrek and the fact that expectations might be too high given Pixar's overall supremity. The precursor awards and top ten lists have all but ignored it. What exactly is going on here?	Strengths: The obvious lock for the nom and given the public adoration, the probable win. For the other films it's like going up against The Lion King in 1994. Early precursor awards have even been awarding it above Waking Life which would seem the natural critics favorite. Weak spot: I hate to burst the bubble but it's just not a very good film.

The 2 Challengers
Final Fantasy Columbia	Waking Life Fox Searchlight
Strengths: It's a landmark film within animation -even if it didn't come off the way they probably intended. It has fans here and there. Now that expectations have died down will they give it another look? Weak spot: No one especially loved it. The low box office may kill its chances. Do they really want this category all CGI the first time out?	Strengths: Unquestionably critically well regarded. Fascinating. Weak spot: ...but it probably needed to sweep the critics awards to be considered the most important animated film of the year. I don't know what critics have been thinking but Shrek is doing far better. The Oscars are more conservative than critics so my early guess is that they're going to be resistant to something this adult in the debut year of the award. This could be a surprise omission.

The 5 Remaining Eligible Films. There's one new entry. Basically There's Not Much of a Chance For Any of These.
Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu The Tooniversal Company	Osmosis Jones Warner Bros.	Ramayana: The Prince of the Light Japan/India	The Trumpet of the Swan Columbia/TriStar	Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust ?
The poster for this movie looks like all Disney cliches and character types kind of threw up all at once. Yikes. This is the story of a teen descendant (natch) of the famous explorer. Throw in some time travel, a beautiful princess, a dinosaur and seagull ...and you've got what sounds like a really embarassing film.	It turns out that this flop films mix of live action and animation was "animated" enough to net it eligibility in this category. I haven't seen the film but I actually thought it wasn't a bad idea for a film. Chris Rock stars as the white blood cell trying to ward off sickness in Frank's (Bill Murray) body.	This is an anime take on the Indian legend of Prince Ramayana -sent from up above to save a good king and his people from an evil king. It was apparently 8 years in the making at an expensive price tag in the 10 figures. Screening buzz has wielded mixed to negative reviews.	Whatever.	Was at first deemed ineligible but that ruling was later overturned. Anime films, however good, still seem like a stretch for the Academy to embrace.

Not Submitted or Deemed Ineligible. For Various Reasons. Interesting, Non?
Atlantis Disney	Cats & Dogs	Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade	Monkeybone	Recess: Schools Out
The most interesting exclusion but this was Disney's own doing. They know that the film is not well loved AND they're trying to rally support behind Monsters, Inc. Sure maybe it's playing dirty but it's not like Shrek didn't start the war.	Did not apparently pass the 75% animated test to place in the category. No great loss apparently.	No word so far on what they'll do with foreign language animated releases. And this one is not crossing over significantly.	Another live / animation mix but this one was a box office disaster.It has its cult following apparently but it wasn't considered "animated" enough.	Whatever.