One Category at a Time: Animated Feature

Alright. Phase 1 is over and done with, and I think most will agree that despite The Social Network's unprecedentedly strong start with the critics, it's The King's Speech that came hurtling into Phase 2 with the most momentum at just the right time. So with 22 business days remaining until Oscar night, that leaves me just enough time to get down to what I love to do; a category-by-category breakdown of the nominees, who should win, who will win.
Starting off is Best Animated Feature. Regrettably, the list of submissions this year was one short of making that arbitrary magic number of 16, so the field of nominees could be no larger than three, resulting in the sad exclusion of the wonderful Tangled. As consolation, however, we still have a trio of terrific movies, any of which would make a deserving winner.

Obviously, Toy Story 3 is the one to beat. Its whimsical humour and heartstring-tugging finale were more than enough to push it into the Best Picture race. Much like Up last year, that should really be all the information we need to call it for a victory here.

But is it an "easy" victory?

The other two nominees will take some votes as well. Maybe not so much The Illusionist, which simply doesn't have as big an audience, but How to Train Your Dragon has its champions. Dreamworks showed us that they are capable of telling stories with genuine emotion behind them, and that's the sort of movie that gets votes. Probably not enough to topple the Toys, but hopefully this is a sign that Dreamworks is on the track for a creative hot streak.

Will win: Toy Story 3
Runner-up: How to Train Your Dragon

Should win: Toy Story 3
Should have been nominated: Tangled