Oscar watch: Animation

November 08, 2006 It's been a nutty year for animated features, which has been good for the bears, penguins and rodents populating the films but not such good news for the animation studios whose movies are trying to break away from the pack. From Buena Vista's "The Wild" and Sony's "Open Season" to Paramount's "Barnyard" and Paramount/DreamWorks Animation's "Over the Hedge," hordes of cute, furry animals have set up housekeeping on the silver screen, in movies that share themes (the importance of friends), plots (escapes and hijinks), characters and even gags. [...] the bigger factor, Koch continues, is that we've got some new studios wanting to jump into the game, and they've carefully studied what the successful studios -- like DreamWorks and Pixar (Animation Studios) -- are doing and have tried to follow that model.

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