Cars is racing ahead, but Happy Feet is dancing up close behind in this year's Oscar race. Cars images © Disney/Pixar. All rights reserved. Happy Feet images © 2006 Warner Bros. Ent. Inc. All rights reserved.

Each year AWN takes a look at the Oscar buzz to see what films are leading the pack and which ones are falling behind. For 2006, 16 films were ruled eligible, which means there can be five nominated features. With the studios pushing for five nods, I doubt the Academy will only pick three.

As always, Pixar has the frontrunner with Cars. The studio has had three nominated films before and two wins. DreamWorks' mega-hit Shrek was the only film to keep Pixar from going three for three with a Monsters, Inc. win in the first year for the animated feature category back in 2002.

DreamWorks also has two wins in its past for the previous mentioned Shrek and last year's Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. This year, the studio that Katzenberg built has two films -- Over the Hedge and Flushed Away -- in the running for nods. Both films have a very good shot of being nominated. Over the Hedge is fun and funny, which the Academy likes in its animation. And a good box office performance doesn't hurt either. Flushed Away is also fun and funny, but lacks the box office punch. The x factor also hinges on whether Academy members will embrace Aardman two years in a row, especially when they aren't working in their native form of stop motion.

So who else has the ability to put a wrinkle in DreamWorks' Oscar hopes this year? Well the folks at Warner Bros. sure have the strongest case. And I'm not talking about The Ant Bully. I mean didn't that film come out in 1998, anyway? If there is any other film that's a lock for a nomination outside of Cars, it's Happy Feet. The photoreal penguins have danced to the top of the box office two weeks in a row and have been gaining solid word from the critics and audiences. This is really the one film Cars has to look in its rearview mirror for come awards night.

Are too many Academy members thinking -- heaven forbid -- the best "animated" film of the year was performance capture? © 2006 Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. and GH One Llc. All rights reserved.

If those are four of the top contenders, whose legitimately in the running for the fifth and final slot? Sony has two pictures in the running as well. Ironically, its first foray into complete CG -- Open Season -- actually looks like a long shot at the moment. Sony's hopes most likely lie in Monster House, which is pretty close to a lock, but does still have some points against it. The well-scripted film creeped audiences out, but not in the same way that Sony's The Polar Express did last year and that's a good thing. But will the whole performance capture issue still be a sore spot with more hard-line animation members? Its okay box office won't help it either. However, it's a surprisingly good movie. And, in that fact, many of the folks crying for Polar Express' demise have changed their tune.

So who's left to play spoiler? The original Ice Age was nominated in 2003 -- the only other year with five nominations. Fox and Blue Sky's sequel -- Ice Age: The Meltdown -- seems to be leaving Academy voters with the same question as the studios' Robots did last Oscar season -- did that come out this year? Fox will have to ramp up an advertising push to get The Meltdown back in the minds of Academy members. Its advantages are that it recently arrived on DVD and its $195 million box office performance not only makes it the second highest grossing animated film of the year behind Cars ($244 million), but the sixth highest grossing film of the year period.

If last year was the year for non-CG films, this year looks like CG will most likely capture all five nods. As for spoilers with the remaining CG contenders there isn't very much of a threat. Paramount's Barnyard lost it with utters on male cows, IDT Ent.'s Everyone's Hero was never up to bat and Disney's The Wild lost the chance last year when it was released as was Madagascar. Therefore, the only other CG film to have the slightest chance to slip into the top five is The Weinstein Co.'s Arthur and the Invisibles from live-action director Luc Besson. However, whether enough people will see it in time and whether it's good enough are still questions unanswered until it starts screening later in the year. Moreover, no film with live-action elements has ever been nominated before.