Of all the 92nd Academy Awards, The Best Animated Feature category was really difficult to predict. 2019’s biggest animated film release and box office hit Frozen 2 didn’t make it to the noms and so the playing field really was perceived to be open. Toy Story 4’s win comes after the long reign of Pixar movies bagging Oscars and nominations right from Wall-E, Up, Inside Out, Coco and Bao. The streak was somewhat broken when Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Oscar. The bold, highly enjoyable animated movie experimented with artwork and created visuals worthy of the 91st Academy Awards. The same cannot be said about the proceeding award-winner. Toy Story 4, is largely known a basic Pixar film. It’s the fourth film of a very long-running franchise. Back when it released, I wondered what the fork happened to moving ahead with the times?
Toy Story 4 Review: The Infinite Nostalgia Trip Goes Beyond Toy Existentialism. But Should You Give a Fork?
The politics of nostalgia was too strong with this film. Oscars 2020 animated feature winner Toy Story 4 did exactly what its predecessors did. Apart from the addition of Keanu Reeves (who makes everything better), there wasn’t much to it. In an award show where not many favourites were snubbed (apart from the obvious female director snub Natalie Portman pointed out), the Klaus Oscar snub is the only one we really felt.
Imdb Then came along Netflix’s Klaus. To animation junkies it truly was a Christmas wish answered. Director Sergio Pablos’ film about the origin story of Santa revolves around a post-man in training who befriends a hermit-like toymaker in a snowed-in town. Klaus is a 2D hand-drawn animation film enhanced with contemporary tech. It broke several traditional barriers of 2D artwork. All of it was achieved in a world where 3D takes precedence.
Back when predictions were doing the rounds, we thought it would be the second film of this kind to win an Oscar. The film won Best Animated Film at the BAFTAs and nothing apart from the continual need to provide Toy Story 3’s sequel with an award stood in its way. Sergio Pablos briefly commented on the Pixar and experimentation with 2D and CG.
“How do you bring high-end 2D back to the front lines essentially is my question. Klaus seems like a good opportunity to do that. But I also was keenly aware that when Disney they tried to revive 2D animation, their angle was to lean heavily on nostalgia. It was more about have you been missing these, than here’s something new. I feel that hurt them in the long run and I think that we didn’t want to fall into that. So we said, okay, let’s see what is intrinsically to 2D animation and what elements of it are not really choices, but technical limitations. I set out to demolish some of the technical limitations as much as we can. Because we’ve had new technology that we haven’t tried to use in 2D, so I was like let’s give it a try and see what happens.†- Sergio Pablos (via Polygon)
Apart from the visual technical aspects, Klaus is a deeply original take on the myth of Santa Claus, making it a fresh Holiday special. The premise includes diversity, political commentary and more importantly, it grounds these elements in reality - something Pixar movies have always been unable to do. Pixar’s Disneyland-like ideology doesn’t allow for more serious stories to develop. Klaus is a drastically different movie from what Oscars are used to in terms of animated feature winners. It didn't deserve to lose to a fork!
Full disclosure: Toy Story 4 feels like a default winner in the absence of Frozen 2, like the movie, the Academy couldn’t get over the unending nostalgia trip.
Check out Oscars 2020: The full winners list
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