Animation: Is It Just For Kids and Why Does The Academy Not Value It?

The definition of animation is the following: a motion picture consisting of a sequence of drawings, each slightly different so that when filmed and run through a projector the figures seem to move. Now for many, animation just seems like it’s centered around an age demographic of 5 -12 year olds but shockingly enough the average age range for animation viewership is between 18 – 24 years old. Now there could be many reasons for that as it could be for nostalgic reasons or maybe it’s because animation is more than just a “children’s sort of genre”. Back in 2022, during the Academy Awards ceremony and the Best Animated Feature category, the presenters said that “kids” watched animated films over and over again and that it is formative to “kids”. Now yes that’s basically what the general statement you will hear from people; “animation is just for kids”. And yes there have been many animated films that are literally just for kids but something really bothered me with how the presenters presented animation because really think about this one little statement; “animated films are just for kids”. As someone who has been watching animation since he was a kid, I have valued the genre as a whole for many years. I could even say it’s my favorite genre of film over comedy and horror. Now while I do love both those genres, animation for some reason has really connected with me more than both of those genres. But this now brings me back to why the statement bothered me. The five films that were nominated that year were the following, Encanto, Flee, Luca, Raya and the Last Dragon and Mitchells vs. The Machines. You know what all five of these films have in common? None of them should be “just for kids” type of animated films. On paper Luca seems like a “just for kids” animated film but its deep message about self acceptance and embracing differences is very mature for a children’s film. Then there is Mitchells vs. The Machines and well that film too on paper could be a “just for kids” type of film but it has a deep message of the importance of human connection and respecting the differences in others. Now that too is pretty mature for a children’s animated film. Surely Raya and the Last Dragon won’t feature a mature deep message too. Learning to trust and forgive but also the power of letting go of your past. Yeah, that one isn’t as mature as the other two but it’s still pretty mature for an age demographic between 5 – 12 year olds. Then there is Flee and this one literally is for the adults. It is a film about a refugee from Afghanistan who comes to America to escape the dangers in his country. Yeah let’s remember that the presenters said that these films were watched by kids over and over again. How much do you want to bet that no child watched this film because not only is it an adult animated film, but it was also a PG-13 documentary about a person who went through a dark time in his life as a refugee. Clearly this film is “just for kids”. But then we have our eventual winner for Best Animated Feature, Encanto. A film that yes was for children and many songs were sung in elementary schools, I would know I heard them first hand, but it won the award, but once again this film had a very deep mature message. The film’s message is self acceptance, the impact of family expectations, but also generational trauma. The film literally speaks about how much the main character, Mirabel, struggles to be a part of the family as everyone in the family has something special about them. That is literally a deep message that children may understand but ultimately more young adults would understand as imagine a child caring about being accepted for who they are at an elementary age range compared to young adults who struggle to be

accepted in their own homes just because they are different.

Now you may be wondering why I took my time to explain what all five of these films have in common. It’s pretty clear but they all have a deep message that is more mature than what their age demographic is centered around; hence why I believe why the “just for kids” statement really annoyed me in this awards ceremony. But this now leads me to my main focus in this long rant. Is animated films just for kids but also why is animated films respected less as mature films? In this long rant, I will be taking a deep dive into the animation film genre and give it the benefit of the doubt but also the respect it truly deserves. I will be bringing up the Academy Awards as it is the biggest award to win for films next to the BAFTA and Golden Globes but I will also be bringing up how animation hasn’t been respected well in the awards ceremony. But before we talk about the now, we must talk about the beginning.

Chapter 1: The Very Beginning (The Creation of Animation and Walt Disney’s Impact on the Genre)

Animation found its first general audiences back in the 1800’s with the creation of the stroboscopic disc. This disc was used to show images one by one in a quick succession giving off an illusion that the image you are seeing is moving. The flip book in 1868 is another true calling for moving images as well as it did the exact same thing but in a more sophisticated way. Moving images with paper and our own hands; this actually would be a big part into how animation was created as animation is moving pictures that we draw and at one point the method of a flip book was how these cartoons that animators created moved. It wasn’t until 1906 for when animation would hit the big screens.

The early 1900’s was when animation and cartoons was born as cel animation was invented and our first memorable animated character, Felix the Cat, was created but it was in 1928 where animation and animated films were about to hit its highest peak as one man created a character so memorable he became the poster boy for a billion dollar company. And what better character can be more memorable and successful than Mr. Felix the Cat; well how about a mouse.

While there were other huge animators that started the impact, like Winsor McCay and his 1914 film Gertie the Dinosaur, It was in the 1920’s where a certain animator began his long success with animation and his name was Walter Elias Disney. Walt Disney was an animator who worked for the Slide Company and he would create cutout animated commercials. That’s where he got his start but he knew that he could do more because he knew he had the potential. He started to experiment with drawn animation techniques and found a calling. He even began working with two other huge animators at the time, Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harman, among other animators and they would create a series of seven minute fairy cartoons but this would then lead to Walt to create a full on character, Oswald the Rabbit. However he would lose his original idea to Charles Mintz and had to come up with something that he could make his own. With the help from Iwerks, he created a mouse character that would later be the Disney Company’s mascot, Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse became the forefront of the animation industry and were the pioneers of animated films. Steamboat Willie was the first short animated film Disney created that found its huge success. From there it became obvious that Walt had a future with the genre so he then help create the very first huge full length animated film. After the success of Steamboat Willie, Disney created many Mickey Mouse animated short films that would introduce us to other characters including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto as these characters would become the faces of the Disney Company next to their highly profiled mascot Mickey Mouse. But Walt wanted to create a full length animated film as he believed it would be more profitable to make a full length movie rather than continue to working on shorts. Bambi, Gulliver’s Travels and even the Odyssey and Iliad were all ideas brought up to Disney for the full length feature film but Disney wanted to do something else. While Bambi would later become a Disney animated feature in 1942, a different film was still being decided by Disney. He then decided to make an animated film on a Brothers Grimm tale, Snow White. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was born and Disney knew then and there he had himself a hit as not only was this the very first full length animated film, but this was Walt’s first of many full length films for the Walt Disney Company. It was a huge success for the company but also for film as well as it made $8 million in its first release and it became the highest grossing film of 1938. Since 1938 it has gained over $400 million and to this day it continues to be impactful for animated films as without it we wouldn’t see the medium of the genre be around today or at least be as impactful as it is today.

But it’s impact in the box office and as a whole can’t be said without it’s big accomplishment; being nominated for an Academy Award. It was nominated for Best Original Score, thus becoming the first animated feature film to be nominated for an Academy Award. From there, Walt Disney’s success would sky rocket as he would later come out with more impactful animated features like Pinocchio, Bambi and Dumbo. The beginnings of animated films were all centered around this man as without him animated films as a whole would probably not have existed until far later in his time. But he wasn’t just making animated film “just for kids”. He was just making animated films as an art form and even back then they weren’t kid friendly films. After all 20 minutes into Snow White has a bounty hunter going after her to kill her. Pinocchio literally has so many mature moments including children smoking and drinking beer and well Bambi; well the death of a parent is pretty mature for a child early on so to include it in an animated film at that time is pretty intense to say the least. Even in the early years of animated films, they had mature moments and deep messages hidden in them that may not be understood by children but would be understood by young and even older adults. I don’t think Walt made his films for children either but more for families. They have something for everyone in them. But that also where my next focus needs to be; animated films that have something for everyone.

Chapter 2: Animation and It’s Unique Way Of Being More Than Family Friendly

Now before I could mention the films of animation I need to go back to the short film era as well as while Disney was creating full length films, another studio was creating short films that were more than just family friendly. Back in the 1930’s Warner Bros. began creating animated short films that would create some of the most beloved animated characters of all time, the Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky the Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, Yosemite Sam, etc. would become huge stars in the animated world as they weren’t like Mickey and the gang but more violent and mature. Animation as a whole was family friendly and the Looney Tunes characters certainly were but they were the first few animated characters to be very violent at the time including using guns, TNT, knives, axes and of course adding in so much violence with anything they could get their hands on. Plus let’s not forget the addition of smoking cigars, drinking alcohol and having some sexual innuendo moments in the shorts. The Looney Tunes were the mature animation before we got adult animation. But they weren’t centered mainly for adults, they were centered for families. Family Friendly animation is usually a mixture of both for kids and adults as it has something for both generations. After Looney Tunes other family friendly animated shorts would appear like Popeye, Tom and Jerry and Rocky and Bullwinkle. But I’m not focused on the shorts as they helped impact the full length films that we are talking about today but they do need some love as without them there would be a different type of medium for animation.

Now family friendly doesn’t mean it needs to be friendly in any way but it needs to be subtle to every member of the family. So in animated films, there needs to be something for every family member in the film that they can relate too. I’m going to use a more recent animated film that was nominated for the Academy Awards this year to explain this fully. Originally I was going to use The Wild Robot as it was my favorite animated film in 2024 and I connected with it pretty well but I think I might have to use Inside Out 2 for this one as its deep message but overall its story might hit better with my main focus here.

Now Inside Out (2015) was a very huge animated film when it first came out and years later many people talk about how much it influenced them. The film was about the emotions that lived in a young girl’s head but its main message was about the importance of integrating all emotions to balance and fulfill a person’s life. The film used Sadness and Joy as a way to bond them together, telling us the viewer that sometimes you need a little bit of sadness to bring in something happy. Yes it will make you sad but it’s something that can bring you happiness and sadness. Like say you lost in a game and you are sad that you lost but then that once teammate of yours comforts you and now it brings you happiness because you know you aren’t alone and it leaves you a memory that brings sadness and joy. That itself was very powerful from Pixar and then 10 years later they brought out something more powerful, Inside Out 2. Inside Out 2 focuses on Riley’s emotions once again but this time it brought in a more mature emotion that many viewers can relate to, Anxiety. For kids anxiety may seem like something adults deal with but from someone that has had anxiety since he was a kid because he couldn’t focus in school during tests and would stress out and worry he would fail because he didn’t want to get in trouble with his parents and fail the classes, but also was struggling with his ADHD diagnosis so he had a hard time test taking in general to the point where it stuck with him throughout his entire time in school in the later years, I can understand why I related to this movie more than other kids but that’s why they created this character. Anxiety in the film is heavily shown in this film and we obtain this emotion early on in life as I explained before about myself. But usually it happens in junior high or high school as those are the years where kids begin to find themselves and start to understand who they are. So how did the animators and storytellers of Inside Out 2 make this film family friendly then? Well they told this story to kids to teach them the struggles that will come later on in their lives but also they related to many young adults/adults and teens that deal with anxiety in their everyday lives. New emotions arrive during our adolescence years like anxiety and the usual age demographic to most people (5 – 12) probably wouldn’t understand this topic but putting it in an animated film will help them understand but also it would also help the parents of said children as they may be struggling with anxiety still to this day and they could relate to the moments in the film like having a full on panic attack and the only way to breathe is to have a balance and have a healthy sense of themselves. All of this in a film that to some can be said to be “just for kids” but in a way it was perfectly balanced for everyone as this family friendly animated film did just that. It’s a very unique take to use this type of feeling as both a character and a story arc for our other characters but it balances being a film that yes is for kids but also for families as everyone could relate or learn something from this animated film.

Now this is something many animated films have done in their films, balancing something mature for its audience while also being a G/PG animated film as there have been other films like it that can be quite family friendly to almost be centered more towards adults. 2020’s Soul literally was aimed more for adults but it of course needed to be family friendly so it added in a story and message that could teach children a thing or two but also it related to the young adults to older adults watching. Toy Story 3 practically was about getting older and letting go of your childhood as we said goodbye to Woody and the gang. Then we did it again in Toy Story 4 and probably again in Toy Story 5. The entire Shrek franchise literally is about accepting yourself for who you are as Shrek already accepts himself for who he is in the first films but deep down he feels alone because everyone is afraid of him. The later films explain accepting yourself in other ways but the first Shrek literally has that story of “feeling alone” written all over it and many kids and adults know that feeling very well. Animators and storytellers all use these unique ways to make an animated film family friendly and so each member of the family can relate to something or have something for them in said film whether it’s from a very mature joke to a very deep message. At that point the animated film is not “just for kids” but “for all”. But there are more than just family friendly animated films as well sometimes we have some that are past the PG rating.

Chapter 3: Very Non-Family Friendly Moments and Adult Animation

By the 1950’s, animation has become a popular medium in the film genre. Disney continues to bring in their hot streak of films with Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and other studios begin to show their presence in the animation film world. Now while many of them weren’t in the United States, these films still made an impact in their countries they were being showcased in. But one film in 1954 changed how we saw animation; they would become a bit more non-family friendly and a bit more adult rated. This film is called “Animal Farm” and while it was Rated G, it is considered an adult animated film. Based off the George Orwell novel of the same name, Animal Farm’s deep message is about the corruption of power and tyranny. Now for a film rated G to be about propaganda and corruption of power, well that isn’t something kids would understand but then showing it in animation form and also seeing animals being murdered and animals kill other animals, well that doesn’t seem “G”. Of course this focus has now come to the adult side of animated films as while to our presenters earlier in the 2022 Academy Awards; “these animated films are watched by kids”, these films I am going to talk about aren’t.  In fact these films aren’t subjected for kids but parents will still let them watch. This has happened to you or others once or twice because it’s an animated movie, there is no harm in it and it’s colorful animation so let’s put it on the television for them to watch.

The first well known adult animated film called “Fritz the Cat” was an “X” rated adult animated film based on the comic strip of the same name and well this film had a lot of adult things in it that wasn’t “just for kids”. Smoking and drinking has been seen before in an animated film as we mentioned earlier with Pinocchio but sexual scenes and full on nudity hasn’t. Yes this film had it all hence why it was “X” rated. Now parents knew probably that this film was not for children clearly from the poster but if you didn’t know of said character and didn’t see the poster then well you were in for a surprise. Of course many years have gone by since Fritz the Cat and adult animated films have gotten stronger with films like South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Eight Crazy Nights, Beowulf, The Simpsons Movie and Sausage Party all have included sexual nudity or murder or even just very mature rated things that aren’t “just for kids”. Now while these are just examples of said adult animated films, none of them can say they were nominated for Best Animated Feature in the Academy Awards. 

Anomalisa is the first main adult animated film to be nominated for said award. The film is rated “R” and is very dramatic as the stop motion film takes us into a psychological journey as we follow this man who is trying to find fulfillment in his life. Now while it doesn’t need sex or murder to be in said film, this film takes a very real approach with how people find their fulfillment in life. Then we have Loving Vincent, a film that is about Vincent Van Gough and what might have happened in his final days. Now if you didn’t know, Van Gough committed suicide and this film takes this approach in a very well mannered way but also gives us a beautiful story of a postman who investigates the final days of the painter. Finally there is the most recent nominated adult animated film, Memoir of a Snail. The film literally tells a tragic story of a woman who has gone through many tragic things including losing her friend, death of a family member and being fully alone. I learned more about this film while visiting the Museum of the Moving Image and it is a very tragic animated film that I would love to watch one day. But here’s the thing here, while adult animated films have become more self aware in the last twenty years and are even being highlighted in awards shows over the last 10 to 15 years, there is still the part of family friendly films having non-family friendly moments in them. Look losing a parent is terrible but to see it in many animated films over the years is tragic. It started with Bambi but it gradually continued with other films like The Lion King, The Land Before Time, Finding Nemo, Tarzan and so much more. Hell even Death itself plays a huge role in some animated films like Coco with the land of the dead and the Mexican culture with the dead and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which pretty much has Puss in Boots running away from Death. Then there are tragic moments that happen in these films like seeing Clayton getting killed by a hanging in Tarzan to the destroyed village in Mulan; these scenes are more powerful and mature for a young audience and it’s all inside a family friendly film.

Then there are non-family friendly themes in these family friendly animated films. Hunchback of North Dame has multiple dark themes and I mean Hellfire and the character Claude Frollo are very problematic as well. He has lust for a woman and almost murders Quasimodo as a baby because he looked hideous. Zootopia literally is a film that has racism in it, something not many children will recognize but can learn just from watching this film. Up even has a very mature story and a huge moment where we watch Carl live his life with Ellie but it ultimately ends after she gets sick and passes away. Children have always watched these adult themed moments in these animated films that is centered for kids but we were just kids when they came out so we didn’t know then what we know now and what’s crazy is once we get older we will re-visit these films and start to relate to them. I think that’s the whole point of these stories, why these films have some very mature themes and moments in them. We learn later on when we grow older about life and these films are kind of our introduction to these themes and messages the storytellers and animators are trying to show and tell us. Yeah as a child we won’t get them then, but we will understand them fully now. And hey maybe you do understand them then, but that still proves a point that I made earlier, they relate to everyone in their own way. Sure we have gotten many adult animated films over the years but sometimes adult animated films don’t have to be for just adults but rather they are just mature animated films children would watch. Like The Boy and the Heroin or Spirited Away, sometimes they are just animated films that have a deep message and beautiful animation that yes is for a general audience but it is also kind of adult like with its themes. That doesn’t fully make them adult animated but more animated to an extent of being more adult then family friendly.

Chapter 4: The Animation Film Boom in the Academy and Hollywood

Now I need to pause for a moment on one of my main focuses and move on to another as while I will finish explaining my main focus of said piece here, I do need to move onto a sub part of my main focus and that is why the Academy and Hollywood have been treating Animated films so poorly lately. In the 1960’s, animation kind of took a downward spiral for film. That is not to say that there weren’t any good animated films, but there was a certain boom in adult animation as anime and more mature animated films, as mentioned before, started to get the spotlight. As far as the big companies, the biggest fall from grace was Disney. Other studios began to spotlight their talent as Disney started to have some stiff competition. Warner Bros. finally began to put out full length feature films as while the quality of the beginning of the films were nowhere near Disney’s level, they still began to show off their talent early on. MGM, while it came out with the more adult oriented films for animation, started its spread of full length animated films more and more and by the 1980’s, MGM started to really compete with Disney with films like The Secret of Minh, The Care Bears Movie and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Disney at the time was in their Dark Era and while they were putting out films like Robin Hood and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, another huge animator started to show that it can really compete with Disney. Don Bluth’s popularity began to sky rocket as this filmmaker/animator would come into Disney at one point but would then depart soon after and during the 1980’s while Disney was going through its Comeback Era, Bluth was working with other studios and creating films that were competing with Disney. We already mentioned two with Nimh and All Dogs Go To Heaven but then there were other films like An American Tail and The Land Before Time. But Disney would finally return to making huge hits, box office wise and heavily positive critique by critics, as they entered into their most powerful era, the Renaissance Era.

From 1989 to 1999, Disney was pushing out hit after hit as films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Mulan gave Disney it’s most spotlighted era as these films during these times finally took a mantle in the biggest stage of them all, the Academy Awards. Of course the awards at this point that it was being nominated for and even winning at times was “Best Original Score” and “Best Original Song” so at this point yes they were getting award nominations at the biggest film awards show event ever, they still weren’t getting the respect they truly deserved as the films I mentioned for the Renaissance Era were all huge box office hits for Disney and in many cases the biggest/most popular films of said years they came out. However one film in said era did the unthinkable as for the first time ever, an animated film was nominated for Best Picture. In the 1992 ceremonies, the Best Picture award was nominating five of the biggest films of the year 1991. Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides, the eventual winner The Silence of the Lambs and are spotlighted animated film, Beauty and the Beast. It lost yes, but to be recognized and not get a Screenplay or Best Director nomination but still get into the Best Picture category is pretty sweet. But then why didn’t this also happen for The Lion King or Aladdin, they were just as great films with great powerful stories and they did extremely well in the box office and with critics, clearly they deserve the honor too? Or what about Hunchback of North Dame and Mulan, they were more mature Disney animated films that had religion and war included in them with also some very dark scenes, why couldn’t they get nominated?  Well I have a theory with this as I believe Hollywood and the Academy didn’t respect the medium of animation so well. They respected it enough to honor one film in the Best Picture category, but why did it take 64 years to do so? I think because to the Academy and Hollywood, animation is “just for kids”, it isn’t a genre of film that will get honored so much to the point where it needs to be honored in the awards ceremonies. Or maybe they thought they were an afterthought as while yes Walt Disney was honored in the Academy Awards heavily in his early years as he is tied with Sean Baker with the most awards in one night (5), it wasn’t enough to justify animated films needing to be honored by the Academy. But some of these animated films not being heavily honored and with the more heavy hitting awards were successful in the box office and with critics. Something needed to be changed and happen as we have more competition rolling out as Dreamworks and Pixar began its journey and were putting out some great films. Especially Pixar as they started the computer animated trend that would later change the way animated films were created. Not only that but there 1^st feature film, Toy Story, not only was nominated for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, it became the first animated film nominated for a Screenplay category. Something needed to be done. So the Academy made that change and in 2001, a new category was created that would spotlight the best animated films of said year, Best Animated Feature.

Chapter 5: Best Animated Feature and Animation’s Biggest Competing Years in Hollywood

It is 2001; the Academy just announced their brand new category for animation, Best Animated Feature. Not only was this a huge peak for animation, but it was the beginning of the competing years for animation. By 2001 a whole bunch of studios were pushing out bangers. Disney was in the beginnings of their 2^nd decline in box office revenue but they pushed out an underrated film called Atlantis: The Lost Empire and while it didn’t too so well in the box office, it has gained a cult following and was heavily praised by critics. Warner Bros. brought us Osmosis Jones, a film that would later spawn a television series. The film was a box office flop, however it has also gained a cult following. A Japan studio called OLM, Inc. gave us Pokémon 4Ever, it was the 4^th full length film for Pokémon and while it didn’t do well in the box office or with critics, it still was loved by the Pokémon fans. Walt Disney Pictures brought us another film with Recess: Schools Out and it performed well in the box office. Warner Bros. also pushed out a straight to VHS full length film that is heavily beloved, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. Studio Ghibli gave us one of the greatest animated films ever that would then win Best Animated Feature in 2003 after it was released in the United States, Spirited Away. But our main three films to be nominated for the very 1^st Best Animated Feature were the following: Nickelodeon’s Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Pixar’s Monster’s Inc. and DreamWorks’ Shrek. Now while Nickelodeon wasn’t the hugest threat in the film industry, especially in the animation film industry, they still pushed out some great films and would eventually win in 2011 with the film Rango. But the two huge competing companies next to Disney, Warner Bros and in 2002 a new company called Blue Sky were Pixar and DreamWorks. At this point both studios decided to mainly focus on 3D computer animation for their films as while Pixar did it first with Toy Story, DreamWorks would change to this style of animation as while they dipped their toes with it with the film Antz, Shrek was the reasoning why most studios began to make their films with computer animation as while Pixar started it with Toy Story, DreamWorks popularized it with Shrek. Shrek would also win Best Animated Feature in 2002, becoming the first animated film to win this award in this category. But this was the beginning of the competition as from there every year or so it felt like Hollywood and every huge studio was pushing out a new animated film and some of the biggest animated films of  all time came out during these competing years.

Pixar had their own Renaissance Era as they were pushing out hit after hit including Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and Up. It’s also worth noting that Pixar’s Up and Toy Story 3 would both become the 2^nd and 3^rd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture. I will circle back to this moment in a bit but it is incredible to see how huge of a moment this was for animation as while Pixar was cooking with its best years, DreamWorks was also cooking out a decade full of heavy hitter. Shrek 2, Over the Hedge, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wear Rabbit and Kung Fu Panda led a pretty decent 2000’s for DreamWorks. Disney on the other hand was struggling finding its audience as while they did push out some good films like Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog, they weren’t doing so well in the box office with some of their films and it started to show that they were heading towards computer animation as while The Princess and the Frog became their last ever hand drawn animated film, Chicken Little became their first ever computer animated film and it was around this time they bought out Pixar and started a huge partnership together that has gotten stronger even today. Blue Sky was created in 2002 and their first film needed to be a big bang to compete with Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks and thankfully their 1^st film Ice Age was a smash hit, so much so that it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003. While it never was on the same level of the Big 3 of animation studios, it too used computer animation for all of its films thanks to the success of DreamWorks’ Shrek and Pixar. While the big competition was between Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks; Blue Sky, Warner Bros. and every other studio creating animated films were doing everything upon anything to get their stories out. But from 2003 – 2010, DreamWorks and Pixar took over the animation category in the Oscars but for the first time ever, animated films were getting more recognition. The competition we were seeing in Hollywood was proving itself as something to recognize in multiple different categories. From Original Score and Original Song to Screenplay and Sound Editing, there was a time where animated films were being valued and recognized. Again it wasn’t Best Picture, but it was great to see animated films get the appreciation. Of course it was mostly Pixar films at that span of years to get the biggest award nomination mentioned before as Up and Toy Story 3 both got nominated for Best Picture in 2009 and 2010, it was something insane to see as the Academy knew how there was an increase in animated films and how great a percentage of them would do each year. That and there were a lot of live action films that would do so incredible that the Academy needed to update their amount of nominations from 5 to 10. Yes that may have been a reason why both films were nominated but let’s look a bit deeper on this.

Chapter 6: Best Picture Nominations for Animated Films and the Decline of Animation being represented in the Academy Awards

In 2010, Up was nominated with 9 other films and it became the 2^nd animated film (1^st for Pixar/2^nd for Disney) to be nominated for Best Picture. Precious, Avatar, A Serious Man, Up in the Air, An Education, Inglorious Bastards, District 9, The Blind Side and the eventual winner, The Hurt Locker, all were nominated next to Up and for Up to even be nominated with such strong contenders is astonishing to think about. I mean after almost 20 years for an animated film to be nominated again even though there were more popular/ bigger films that were heavily praised to not have gotten nominated. The Lion King, Wall-E, Ratatouille, Shrek, Mulan, Aladdin, The Prince of Egypt, all of these animated films were not nominated since Beauty and the Beast was nominated but to think we finally saw it happen again. While it didn’t win, it still has to be an honor to be recognized and for animation; well it’s something special as it finally felt like the medium was getting recognition, to not be seen as second fiddle to live action films. At that time and even now we are seeing animated films become the highest grossing films in the box office to even the highly praised films by critics. Hell even some of the best films of all time can’t touch some of the animated films I mentioned prior because while they were marketed towards kids, teenager and adults were the huge demographic to go to the theater and watch them. It’s brilliant to see animation as a whole get its love and valued so much by Hollywood in 2010 that in 2011, they did it again.

Toy Story 3 might be one of the greatest animated films of all time. At the time of its nomination it was the highest grossing film of 2010 and 4^th greatest of all time, bringing in over a billion dollars in the box office. And the crazy part is, out of the 10 highest grossing films of 2010, 5 of them were animated. Animated films were competing heavily that year and it showed with the box office revenue they all brought in for the studios they were under. But for Toy Story 3 to be nominated for Best Picture and somehow still lose was crazy. Even then I was shocked it lost, and of all the films to lose to, it had to be The King’s Speech of course. Films like Inception, The Social Network and Black Swan were probably the only competition against Toy Story 3, they too lost to a forgotten film and yet that was also the last time animation was nominated for Best Picture as they became a forgotten medium for a while in the Academy Awards.

Animation in the 2010’s was as strong as they ever were before. Every studio was pushing out so much films, some good, some not so good (CARS 2 and the Emoji Movie just to name a couple) and they were dominating the box office and the good films that did come out were getting praised heavily by critics. While they did get a couple of nominations with Visual Effects and even Best Original Song, there was a decline for animation in the Academy Awards that they kind of just felt like a prize when they were nominated for more than just their category. I mean we are talking about films like The Lego Movie (which didn’t even get nominated for Best Animated Feature and still is a crime today), a film that had a very unique screenplay and the direction for this film was amazing. Or even Frozen, a film that beat Toy Story 3’s all time grossing animated film record in just 2 years of the film taking the spot from Lion King; it could only obtain Best Original Song. While I’m not a big fan of it I will say it should had gotten at least some love for the musical score at least. I could even say the How to Train your Dragon franchise got zero recognition in any category other than Best Animated Feature. Hell even Into the Spider-verse, one of the greatest animated films of the 2010’s and possibly of all time, couldn’t even get a single award nomination other than Best Animated Feature. It couldn’t get more recognition which is crazy because it used multiple different animation styles in said film so Editing or even Screenplay could had been something it got recognized or nominated for and yet it didn’t. There was a time where animation was actually making strides in the Academy Awards as it was getting more nominations than just Best Animated Feature. 611 films have been nominated for Best Picture since the Academy Awards first started and only 0.0049099836% of said films were animated, meaning its barely has a percentage of nominations ever and yes I did the actual math to show that not only has there been 3 films out of 611 that were nominated for Best Picture, but the main reason is to show how there has been a decline of representation in the Academy Awards for animation and honestly I think it’s because the medium as a whole isn’t valued well enough by the Academy or Hollywood.

Now within the last few years going into this year, only 4 animated films have been nominated for other awards other than Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score and Best Original Song. And I’m not including Best Score or Song because while it is a great honor for the films, it’s more the song and the people involved with the song that is being nominated and the same goes with the score. The four films that were nominated for other more slightly bigger nominations were Soul (Best Sound), Flee (Best Documentary and Best International Film), Flow (Best International Film) and The Wild Robot (Best Sound). That’s it, that’s all the representation these four films were worth. Now I’m not going to drag the films down as these are some impressive categories to be nominated for and it’s an honor, but why can’t we see the issue at hand. Animation is not just valued by the Academy but Hollywood itself as while yes the Academy decides the films and people that will get nominated, the studios and people of Hollywood are also to blame. Producers and Distributors must submit the film to the Academy so they could then be voted in to be nominated for the Oscars. Of course there is some eligibility for said submission but nine out of the ten times it’s a go to submit. So when it comes to animated films why aren’t more films being submitted each year? And if they have been submitted why aren’t they being chosen for the main nominations? I could be crazy to say this but honestly it’s both our fault but also Hollywood just doesn’t respect animation anymore and we don’t either. We automatically see them as films to put on the screen for kids to be distracted or films that we bring “just the kids” to go enjoy because it’s not like any other age demographic is going to care to watch it even though that has been factually proven the opposite.

Chapter 7: Animated Films Seen as a Kids Genre and Academy not Valuing Animation

It is at this time that I now can fuse both my focuses together and say that we are still in a time where animation is barely represented in the Academy but we the people that watch the animated films, the people that go to the theaters with their children to see the next big animated films of the big studios, we are just as big of the problem as the Academy. My main argument started because the three presenters for Best Animated Feature back in 2022 flat out said “kids watched these films over and over again” and that pretty much is saying these films were mainly only watched by kids and not the adults. And the society we live in today will just see Animation as a kid’s genre. So much so that even the Academy doesn’t show it enough love and I mean after all that I said, do you the viewer reading this post see Animation as a “just for kids” genre. But why does this happen to Animation; after all there are adult oriented animated films out there and even some animated films that do come out that are rated PG often have some mature moments and a very deep mature message. To be honest with you, I think it’s because we don’t value the medium as much as we do for live action films because they constantly have different ratings and they all are centered on certain age demographics. Let’s use three films with three different genres. Joker is a film that is rated R; the film was simply for ages 17 and up and had very mature scenes not for kids. Automatically it’s for adults and we could say that because it’s rated R and it has very strong language and scenes with both murder and abuse in it. Now let’s talk about The Dark Knight, a film that is Rated PG-13 but also has some very mature scenes and killing in it too. But there is something different about The Dark Knight compared to Joker as The Dark Knight doesn’t focus heavily on its mature scenes and its graphic scenes don’t fully show the kills in its scenes thanks to the camera work of the director. So automatically it can use the PG-13 rating and can be viewed by ages 13 and up. That’s not to say kids won’t watch it either because it’s a Batman film but they must be with a parent or an age range of 13 – 17 to watch said film. Finally there is Superman (1978), a film that was rated PG and has violence in it and some mild mature scenes but yet it wasn’t too mature for it to be rated anywhere higher than PG. Kids are able to see this film even though it has some mild mature scenes in it. Now these three films are comic book live action films so let’s use this type of scenario with three different ratings but with animated films.

Let’s start with a PG rated animated film. For this purpose I will use The Incredibles, a superhero animated film that has violence and some mild mature moments but it also has a very violent death that is partially seen in the film but yet it is rated PG. Then we have The Simpsons Movie as this film is rated PG-13 but was still viewed by many kids as The Simpsons is a adult animated show on Fox that is watched not just by adults by many families so for the film to have some adult/mature scenes and violence in it and still be viewed by kids then I guess it’s no harm. But what about an R rated animated film, there no way children would be allowed to watch an R rated film.

Batman: The Killing Joke, an animated Batman film that has very graphic scenes and a ton of mature moments in the film that shouldn’t be viewed by children. And yet the film is available at this time on MAX, so yes children have a way to watch the film but also it’s a Batman animated film so parents would automatically put it on for their kids despite it having a R rating and why is that; after all it is rated R so clearly parents should know that. Well each film we said here all have one thing in common, animation but also violence and parents don’t seem to care because its animation so clearly it’s not a big deal to pop on the screen to distract the kids because it’s a genre mainly centered for kids. But clearly that isn’t the case as The Simpsons and Batman: The Killing Joke are both adult animated films and clearly not “just for kids”. You see many people see animation as “just for kids” or they would even say “aren’t you too old to be watching this movie” when an adult is watching an animated film because it’s animated. And this honestly grinds my gears because on paper yes animation seems like it’s a children’s genre for film, but it’s actually not as many adults find the genre to be soothing to their mental and even relate to some of the animated films I have mentioned earlier on. Films like Inside Out or Soul or Shrek have used mature themes and messages that a child wouldn’t fully understand until they develop their own maturity level once they reach their teenage years or even adult years. I’ll even use a film that is directly aimed towards children but has a very adult theme in its story.

By now many of you have seen the film Lilo and Stitch; and why wouldn’t you as it is one of the more beloved Disney films ever. But what adult theme are we talking about here in this film about a blue alien life form who befriends a young girl in Hawaii?  Well have you ever just felt alone and not loved by others? In Lilo and Stitch both characters parallel to one another as Lilo is this weird girl who is fixated on random things that not many kids in her hula school like. She is the odd ball out of the bunch and it’s not just in school but at home. Now this is not saying that Lilo is not loved by her sister but she is also getting into fights with her mainly because Lilo is different and with knowing this little bit of information you can see that she is alone with how she feels with life. Yeah her sister tries to bond with her and understand her but it’s not as easy as one would think it would be. But then there is Stitch and his side is not like Lilo’s but more complex. Stitch is not from Earth so automatically he is very well the odd ball out but he was created to be like a little monster and he doesn’t understand himself and he doesn’t understand why he acts the way he does so he just does things. He kind of levels with Llio as they are both alone in this world until they find each other but here’s the thing though; Stitch is more complex than Lilo as we just stated but Lilo also has trauma in her life as she lost both her parents so her reasoning of being the way she is comes from the psychological side of grieving and to cope she uses these weird fixations to find joy. For Stitch, there is no trauma in his life as he is an experiment who doesn’t understand the world he is living in nor the world he once was living in. Even when he and Lilo are together we see that she doesn’t fully understand why he is the way he is; ultimately making Stitch more alone than she is as while there is love and understanding in this relationship, Stitch can’t just explain his ways of being himself as he doesn’t understand how to express it, which is why he is very alone. The theme of being alone and feeling alone is a very adult theme for a kids movie as kids in the age range this is centered around won’t fully understand the psychological side of this theme until they are quite older. But how does this example correlate to what I mentioned before? Well Lilo and Stitch also has a lot of violence from guns being used (blasters) to Stitch causing havoc in some scenes but the way violence is shown here is more kid friendly. However I never call this film a kids film as while yes the age range is let’s say 4 – 10, I can argue that it is a film for everyone but us as a society call this film a kids film because it’s Disney and animated and has this cute little fur ball character that will work well for toys and merchandises for kids, even though I see a lot of adults wear Stitch ears and apparel in Disney World more than I see kids wearing it. So is this animated film a “just for kids” film? I don’t think so. The Academy didn’t care who the film was for as they still nominated the film for the 2^nd ever Best Animated Feature category in the Academy Awards and it lost to Spirited Away, an animated film that has a lot of mature themes that was also under the same umbrella here as a “just for kids”.

Maybe I’m crazy but since the Academy made this category for Animated films I feel like these animated films have only been just subjected to being under this category. And that itself isn’t fully true as yes they have gotten other bigger award nominations including the biggest of them all, Best Picture; but is it me or does the Academy not value Animated films enough? Think about it, out of all the things we talked about here, only three animated films have been nominated for Best Picture and yet I could name so many more that truly deserved to be up there in that Best Picture category. The Lion King is a instant classic that I truly love and will always be bias for and I truly think he could had been nominated in 1995 for Best Picture. Wall-E in 2008 could had been nominated as it was one of the highest rated films that year and had one of the highest box office number in said year and yet it’s only claim to fame was Best Animated Feature but it also was nominated for Best Screenplay, a category that is huge in the Academy Awards, but yet it didn’t get the Best Picture nomination. Call me crazy but I would even nominate Shrek for Best Picture as at the time it was a cultural phenomenon and made history for animation but yet it didn’t get nominated for Best Picture. It too was nominated for Best Screenplay and yet the Academy decided not to nominate the best animated film of said year. Actually let’s list every animated film on here that got a nomination for either Best Original or Adapted Screenplay. Best Original (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Inside Out) and Adapted Screenplay (Shrek and Toy Story 3). Only two of these nine films were nominated for Best Picture (Up and Toy Story 3). So you see how the Academy values animation. It gives you that big shock to be nominated for a Best Screenplay category but that’s as far as you will go as you will have to be a huge animated film of said year to pull the heart strings to be nominated but while both Up and Tory Story 3 do so, why is it that we still consider them children’s movies? After all Up is about a old man who is alone in this world and goes on this journey but in reality he is alone because the one thing he loved the most, his wife Ellie, passed away and he no longer lives life like everyone else as his biggest part of his life that brought him joy, love and happiness was taken away from him. Then you have Toy Story 3, a film about Woody and the gang needing to say goodbye to their owner Andy as he is getting ready to go to college. In this case the toys represent us as we say goodbye to either our childhood or that special someone we care about and Andy being that childhood or someone we love and Woody being the heart and soul of the film we parallel with him as we grew up with this gang of toys so we now need to say goodbye and live on with our lives to adulthood. Both these films have mature themes and both films were nominated for the biggest category and yet since Toy Story 3’s nomination back in 2011, no other animated film has been given the respect it deserves and been nominated for Best Picture. Films like Inside Out, Anomalisa, Coco, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Soul, Encanto, Flee, The Boy and the Heron and The Wild Robot, all of these films with some mature moments and themes were all not nominated for Best Picture. Even before the Best Animated Feature existed, I mentioned Lion King but what about the very first full length feature animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, or other films like The Prince of Egypt, Mulan, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, why couldn’t they all be nominated. They were all huge animated films and had some very mature moments and themes; clearly the Academy would love to feature them in this category. Nope. The Academy doesn’t see value in animation as while yes lately we have seen one or two animated films get some love, it’s not enough. Why can’t an animated film be nominated for Best Director? Why hasn’t one single animated film won a Screenplay award? Better question is why hasn’t a single Animated film been nominated for Best Picture and win? The answer: the Academy doesn’t value animated films because they aren’t real.

Chapter 8: In Conclusion

If I could be honest, I see animation as more than just a motion picture consisting of a sequence of drawings, each slightly different so that when filmed and run through a projector the figures seem to move. But that’s why I think the Academy and even society doesn’t value animated films because they are fictional characters we are watching in an animated form, something that is neither real nor a living thing. But I kind of find that to be a half ass way in seeing things as you can watch a live action film of a fictional character like Batman or The Avengers and while yes they are a living thing, they themselves aren’t real too as they are based off of comic book characters which is another form of animation. I can take this to a whole new level as I could even bring up anime films/comics that become live action films like Death Note or Scott Pilgrim and how they too are fictional characters that are living things but aren’t real as they too are based off of fictional animated characters. Let’s get even deeper than that and use live action films of animated films. Disney is pretty well known for these lately so films like Aladdin or Mulan or most recently Lilo and Stitch, fictional characters that are living things but not real. Are we seeing a pattern here? Now films based off of real life people or based on true stories could also even be in this factor as not every character in said film could be based off of a real life person and can as well make them a fictional character. Live action movies aren’t fully real themselves and yet we value them more than animated films. The Academy values them more than animated films but yet if my argument can be used again how can films like Avatar or The Black Panther or even Wicked get nominated and valued so much even though they too aren’t real but films like The Wild Robot, Flow and Into the Spider-Verse can’t be nominated. It’s clearly become more well known here that I have rested my case here that the half ass answer I said earlier about animation not being real but live action is has been revoked as live action films to a very certain extent aren’t real too so how do we conclude this whole argument and how do I get you all to see my side of things.

You can honestly love animation or hate animation, however you feel about the genre is how you feel, but in the end of the day we should all appreciate the medium as a whole as while the film themselves may seem like they are “just for kids”, they are for everyone. But the other thing here is I think it’s time for us as a society and even the Academy to start valuing it more as they are running toe to toe with live action films in the box office and even critically a lot of animated films are critique better than live action films and it’s more complex to critique but they have high rated percentages on Rotten Tomatoes or even in other film review websites including LetterBox. Now I’m not saying every animated film needs to be valued and appreciated for the awards season but they should get more appreciation in general as they can leave an impact with us just as much as live action films can. After all, a lot of live action films have left an impact with me in my life time, animated films that I have loved kind of impacted me a bit more. Now I’m not saying everyone is going to be like this or feel this way but I know I am not alone. But the reason why I have this feeling is actually pretty understandable. You see back when I was in college and learning more about film I kind of asked myself which films impacted me in my life at that point and why I had such a bond with them. The few films that came to mind were The Dark Knight, obviously because it is my favorite film of all time, but then I thought about Lion King, Toy Story and Aladdin. Aladdin was more because of Robin Williams but Lion King and Toy Story were my childhood favorites but also they left an impact with me because of their hidden messages. Toy Story is more complex than Lion King but being loyalty, change and fear of being alone are some hidden messages in Toy Story that I took in as my biggest fear is being alone and I am a very loyal person to the people I care about so automatically I really valued this film the older I got but the complex side comes from the change as we all go through change in life but change only happens when the person makes that change rather than it happening on its own. And I won’t lie, early on in life I had a hard time with change and eventually I grew out of it but I honestly think Toy Story taught me that lesson as I then grew up with the next two films and learned that change was a big part of those films and I myself began to accept change and was ready to keep moving forward. But in order to move forward you need to stop worrying about the past, which takes us to Lion King. The Lion King’s hidden message about learning from your past really hit me hard and stuck with me in my lifetime. I used the quote Rafiki said in my high school year book but it honestly stuck with me ever since. Not to mention and make this even get darker but like Simba I also don’t have a father anymore and he watches over me as I grow older but I feel like a lot of people can say this but this leads me to my point though; animation films aren’t just for kids. I learned more from animated films than I did with live action films since I got older. Even the ones I grew up on I started to learn more and more on the very dark themes and messages some have to the very mature themes and messages that are hidden inside them. More importantly I think adults go to see animated films more than children do as yes they do bring their kids to see them and some may say it’s to distract them for a couple of hours, I think they are secretly going to not only re-live their youth but because there is something powerful in the film that they too can value and appreciate. It’s not like this for every animated film but you will know the ones that they are when you watch a trailer or read about the plot before seeing the film. This is also why I think the Academy should really give animation more value and appreciation too because like live action films, animated films have something to say and really leave an impact with many people. Yeah it’s hard to talk about the acting cause it’s practically just voice acting but why can’t we give that award out or why can’t we also have a director for an animated film be nominated; it’s not like they aren’t doing what other live action film directors are doing as they are doing their job, directing the film but just with animation. Hell I think more screenplays nominations need to be given to animation because there is a whole lot of animated films that have recently come out the last 10 years that have great screenplays and honestly some could win the award. The Academy needs to stop being so old school with film and embrace animation as a whole as there are so many animated films that were honestly better than half the films that came out in said years they were nominated and I’m not saying that to prove a point it’s a simple fact. But because they are animated and a “medium just for kids”, the Academy sees it as that and sugar coat them with little awards that yes is great to be nominated for but it’s meaningless unless you actually see the film and then you see how well the film was developed in multiple categories for the Academy and how they too should get some sort of recognition. I know I sound like a broken record or a VHS tape that’s stuck on a certain part of the film reel but we need to truly value the medium of Animation so much more. In the end of the day, animation is more than just a kids film; they are films that bring joy to all, a genre of film that can take the ease off of many people, a genre of film that can be more adult than it is kid friendly, a genre of film that has been used by many directors to show a traumatic moment in their life to teaching young ones and even young adults about some very mature lessons, but most of all they were most likely our first introduction to film and later our introduction to our children’s introduction to film as while yes we were introduced to it as kids, we grew old with them and they become no longer just kids films but just a regular film for all.

Epilogue

The whole purpose of this was to gradually connect everyone to animated films. Some connect with them in a very nostalgic ways; others will connect with the film’s story and message. I was very passionate about writing this as it was something that grasped my mind for a long time. The whole idea of Animation really inspired me to go in depth with what I believe is the greatest genre of film as you can do whatever you want in animated films. That can be the same thing for live action films but there needs to be some sort of reality in them, even if they are films about ghost possessions or superheroes, pretty much anything that can’t happen in real life; they still have boundaries in these films and that’s why in animation those boundaries can be a bit broken to the point where anything is possible. And that’s why I love animated film and why I hope this reaches the right people; the people who have this same feeling and wants to see animation get the appreciation and value it deserves and that includes in the Academy Awards and many other award shows that doesn’t give it the respect it truly needs. I honor this piece to all that has brought animation to life and told many stories in their own way and gave the medium itself the respect and helped give it the path to become one of the greatest genres of film in the world.

“Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever” – Walt Disney