‘The Wild Robot’ could make Oscars history for DreamWorks in Best Animated Feature and Best Picture

According to Gold Derby’s current combined predictions, “The Wild Robot” is the frontrunner to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars with 10/3 odds. If it prevails, it would be just the third film from DreamWorks Animation to do so. But the movie may prove to be an even stronger contender than many are expecting.

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Adapted from Peter Brown’s 2016 children’s book of the same name, “The Wild Robot” follows an intelligent robot named Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) who is shipwrecked on an island, bonds with the animals there, and cares for an orphaned baby goose (Kit Connor). The movie currently holds an impressive 98% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has so far made over $270 million at the worldwide box office.

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Since the category of Best Animated Feature was established at the Oscars, only two DreamWorks films have won: 2001’s “Shrek” (which was the inaugural champ) and 2005’s “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” Most of the other winners came from Disney and/or Pixar with six exceptions: 2002’s “Spirited Away” and 2023’s “The Boy and the Heron” (both from Studio Ghibli), 2006’s “Happy Feet” (Warner Brothers), 2011’s “Rango” (Paramount), 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (Sony), and 2022’s “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (Netflix).

If “The Wild Robot” wins, it would mark the first time that Disney has gone three years in a row without a victory. And it would mark director Chris Sanders‘s very first Oscar win. He previously contended three times, for 2002’s “Lilo and Stitch,” which lost to “Spirited Away”; 2010’s “How to Train Your Dragon,” which lost to “Toy Story 3”; and 2013’s “The Croods,” which lost to “Frozen.”

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Currently “The Wild Robot” is also expected to reap bids for Best Score and Best Song (“Kiss the Sky”). The score was composed by Kris Bowers, who has yet to be nominated in music categories, but has actually contended twice for Best Documentary Short Film as a director. “A Concerto is a Conversation” (2020) lost to “Colette,” but “The Last Repair Shop” (2023) resulted in a win earlier this year. “Kiss the Sky,” meanwhile, was performed and co-written by Maren Morris, who would be a first-time Oscar nominee.

Those music bids would make “The Wild Robot” the first animated film since 2021’s “Encanto” to score noms beyond Best Animated Feature. But might it show up elsewhere too? It’s currently in 11th place for Best Adapted Screenplay. If it pulls off a surprise and cracks that lineup, it would be the 10th animated feature ever nominated for writing.

There could also be a spot for it in Best Picture, though that’s a tougher nut to crack. It’s currently in 17th place in our odds, so it’s within striking distance of the top 10, but only three animated films have ever contended for Best Picture: “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), “Up” (2009), and “Toy Story 3” (2010). That said, the last two of those were nominated when Best Picture was expanded to 10, so the door is open for DreamWorks to make history there too.

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