Disney didn’t fare as well as they might have liked in this year’s Oscar nominations, with “Saving Mr. Banks” being shut out of both the Best Picture and acting categories.
While “Frozen” was a long shot for best picture, it also wasn’t among the nine nominees, and it’s worth noting that the Academy can nominate up to 10.
Probably most surprising was the omission of Emma Thompson in the best actress category for her role of P.L. Travers in “Saving Mr. Banks,” a story about the making of “Mary Poppins.” Tom Hanks in the role of Walt Disney also wasn’t nominated, but he hadn’t garnered much accolades among the other awards this season while Thompson had been nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award.
The film did get one other nomination for Thomas Newman’s original music score.
“Frozen” was nominated for best animated feature, but faces four competitors. Previous years the category has been tighter with three or four nominees. Disney animation has never won the best animated film category, having usually lost out to Pixar, such as last year’s “Brave” win vs. “Wreck-it Ralph.” “Tangled” wasn’t even nominated in its year.
Pixar Animation Studios, which is owned by Disney, also had a rare misfire with no nomination this year for “Monsters University.”
This is the 13th year for the category that was introduced in 2002. Past winners have been “Shrek,” “Spirited Away,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” “Happy Feet,” “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E,” “Up” and last year’s “Brave.”
“Frozen” also was nominated in the best original song category for “Let it Go,” with music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, although it faces stiff competition from U2’s “Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom,” which just won a Golden Globe.
The only other Disney films nominated for Oscars were the box office misfire “The Lone Ranger,” which garnered nominations for Visual Effects and Makeup & Hairstyling and “Iron Man 3,” which was nominated for Visual Effects.
Despite the lack of Oscar love, Disney isn’t crying too hard with “Frozen” having made $319 million domestically and more than $700 million worldwide and still going strong. And in 2013, “Iron Man 3” was the second highest grossing film of the year behind the “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” having netted more than $400 million in the U.S. and more than $1.2 billion worldwide. “Monsters University” took in $268 million in the U.S. and more than $700 million worldwide. Other big winners in 2013 for Disney were “Oz The Great and Powerful” and “Thor: The Dark World,” both of which made more than $200 million in the U.S. and were Top 12 for the year.
Even “The Lone Ranger” made nearly $90 million in the U.S. and more than $260 million worldwide.
Disney has had only four films ever nominated for Best Picture including “Mary Poppins” in 1964, “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991, “Up” in 2011 and “Toy Story 3” in 2012.
Disney did owned the Weinstein Brothers-founded Miramax Studios from 1993-2010. That studio netted 15 nominations for Best Picture including four wins, for “The English Patient” in 1996, “Shakespeare in Love” in 1998, “Chicago” in 2002 and “No Country For Old Men” in 2007. The other nominees were “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, “Good Will Hunting” in 1997, “The Cider House Rules” in 1999, “Chocolat” in 2000, “In The Bedroom” in 2001, “Gangs of New York” in 2002, “The Hours” in 2002, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” in 2003, “The Aviator” and “Finding Neverland” in 2004 and “There Will Be Blood” in 2007.
Disney-owned Touchstone was a production company for five nominees for best picture: “Dead Poets Society” in 1989, “The Insider” in 1999, “War Horse” and “The Help” in 2011 and “Lincoln” in 2012.
Walt Disney himself won 22 competitive Academy Awards between 1932 and 1969, the last of which for “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” was awarded after his death. He died in 1966. He also received three honorary awards.
rtribou@tribune.com
