Oscar Nominees: Best Animated Feature

My predictions: 4/5, picking “Monsters University” over “The Croods”
My ballot: Come back in February!
The nominees: The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest and Celestine, Frozen, The Wind Rises

Oscar voters get to have their cake and eat it too this year. The undeniably best American animated film, “Frozen,” is here. The two foreign films that were truly in the running – “Ernest and Celestine” (which I just saw and highly recommend, review to come) and “The Wind Rises” (which I must see) – both made the cut. Two enormous crowdpleasers, “The Croods” and “Despicable Me 2,” both made it. And they get to stick it to Pixar for producing “Monsters University,” a film that would easily get a spot over those two for me. Overall, this is a more well-rounded list than usual, but I wish “Monsters” would have been on it.

My current bet to win: Still betting on Frozen though one of the foreign entries could take it.