In the Oscar race, there’s a commotion over stop-motion.

During our coverage of feature and short films, AWN likes to take a look at the Oscar buzz that surrounds the Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Shorts categories. Just by the nature of the category and the pre-nomination time of year, there’s more talk going on about features, but we’re also going to take a look at some of the leading short films that have been making the festival rounds this year.

Ten films have been ruled eligible for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Because there are less than 16 eligible films, the category will contain three nominees. Disney has three eligible films in the running with Chicken Little, Howl’s Moving Castle (via Studio Ghibli) and Valiant (via Vanguard Films). The only other company with more than one contender is DreamWorks with Madagascar and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (via Aardman Animation). Fox’s Robots and Warner Bros.’ Corpse Bride are the only other wide released films to make the list. Triumph Films has entered Steamboy and Pentamedia and the Weinstein Co. will release Gulliver’s Travels and Hoodwinked!, respectively, before the year is out.

This year’s competition seems a little closer than the previous two years when Finding Nemo and The Incredibles seemed like instant shoo-in winners. However, there is still a clear frontrunner in this year’s race. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit will ride critical acclaim into the awards season. Wallace and Gromit also have a track record with Oscar, having appeared in two Oscar winning shorts for Aardman Animation. As one of the best reviewed films of the year (live-action or animation), it’s going to be a hard course for the other contenders to trump the cheeky optimism and overall entertainment quotient that Curse of the Were-Rabbit delivers.

Around the time of release, Corpse Bride looked like a lock for at least a nomination, if not a sure win. But an inventor and his dog and a chicken with father issues have changed the landscape for Tim Burton’s puppet-poluza. The fact that the film is stop-motion may help it or hurt it when nominations come around. The anti-CG crowd may embrace it, but the love for Wallace & Gromit may push “the other stop-motion film” right out of the red carpet. However, another thing the Warner Bros.’ film has going for it is respect. Some will argue about story problems, but almost all will agree that the animation is top-notch. It’s tone, look and technical achievements are its best shots for appearing on the coveted Oscar nod list.

With the two stop-motion features leading the pack, it may be a bloody battle between the CG films for the final spot. CG may rule the box office, but doesn’t rule the Oscars. CG films only lead non-3D films in Oscar nominations eight to six. For argument’s sake, let’s say Curse and Corpse ride their current buzz to nods. Who’s got the best shot at nabbing the last spot?

Looks like Disney and DreamWorks will have another CG battle with Chicken Little and Madagascar vying for the coveted last Oscar slot.

Disney’s Chicken Little and DreamWorks’ Madagascar seem to be the most viable contenders. Disney also has Howl’s and Valiant, but no one’s talking about them. Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s has the past Oscar winner as pedigree, but that won’t overcome low exposure, no major critical cry and the old Oscar political game of “Miyazaki’s already won one so let’s give it to someone else.” Valiant will have to threaten a pigeon-style bombardier campaign against Academy members to have any chance to see its name on the Oscar ballot.

Though the look is great and the box office was solid, Fox/Blue Sky’s Robots really falls into the category of “did that really come out this year.” Steamboy will suffer the same fate as other art house released anime films — it will go unnoticed despite its quality or popularity with its core audience. Weinstein Co.’s indie pick-up Hoodwinked! comes out right before Christmas on Dec. 23. The recently released trailer shows potential for solid laughs and animation work, but it just seems like its late push is too late to pose any real threat. Pentamedia has entered the Oscar race before with its India-produced CG features and its past track record of zero nominations will not change with Gulliver’s Travels.