Animated Golden Globe likely for Disney

The smash Sing and the acclaimed Kubo and the Two Strings have their work cut out for them at this weekend’s 74th Golden Globe Awards ceremony, because here’s the thing: Disney rarely surrenders the animation crown.

The Golden Globes, airing Sunday, began honouring best animated feature film a decade ago, and since then, a Disney Animation or Disney/Pixar movie has taken home the trophy eight times. Pixar alone has won this category seven times, including last year’s Inside Out, and Disney Animation’s mega-hit Frozen won for 2013.

The only non-Disney winners have been Nickelodeon Movies/ Amblin’s The Adventures of Tintin (2011), the Steven Spielberg-directed action adventure that featured cutting-edge motion-capture effects, and How to Train Your Dragon 2, (2013), directed by former Disney talent Dean DeBlois (Mulan, Lilo & Stitch), and produced by DreamWorks Animation, which Spielberg co-founded. (Dragon 2 upset Disney’s Big Hero 6, which then went on to win the Oscar.)

So how does that all bode for this year? The most striking aspect is who’s not here: Pixar, often a lock, was shut out for 2016, as Finding Dory failed to get a nod.

Yet Disney Animation has two very strong nominees: Zootopia, which is one of only two animated films to top the $1-billion mark this year (the other being Dory), and the visual spectacle that is Moana. Both films received positive reviews.

So who’s got a shot to try to take down Disney?

The Oregon-based Laika scored its third nomination ever with the strikingly beautiful Kubo, and France’s Rhone-Alpes Studios (the lone foreign contender here), received a nod for My Life As a Zucchini. Both films are critically acclaimed (with scores 84 and 85, respectively, on Metacritic.com).

One catch here is both Kubo and Zucchini are stop-motion animation, so as gorgeously handcrafted as they may be, a Golden Globe win would be historic.

So that leaves Illumination Entertainment’s big hit Sing. Although the American Idol-with-animals is proving popular at the box office, reviews overall have been middling at best.

So barring a huge upset, every sign points to Disney winning the animation Globe yet again — with Moana’s lush marine beauty trying to take down the engaging, politically laced story of Zootopia.

LAIKA STUDIOS/FOCUS FEATURES Kubo and the Two Strings is a beautiful entry into the Golden Globes’ competition for best animated film, but it’s stop-motion animation, which likely puts it behind Disney Animation’s Moana and Zootopia, and Illumination Entertainment’s Sing.