Animated Flicks Racing for Slots at Oscar

Building up the hype surrounding the anticipation of next year's Academy Awards, sixteen full-length animated pictures have been passed the qualification to compete for being five Best Animated Feature nominees, which will be announced by the officials on January 23, 2007.

Walt Disney Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and 20th Century Fox each managed to make two entries for the competition: Disney with "Cars" and "The Wild", DreamWorks with "Flushed Away" and "Over the Hedge", while Fox with "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "Everyone's Hero."

Meanwhile, other giant companies Warner Bros. Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment also had two movies each submitted in the list, Warner with "The Ant Bully" and its forthcoming "Happy Feet" and Sony with "Open Season" and "Monster House."

Other titles making their way up to this point include Universal Pictures' "Curious George" and Warner Independent Pictures' "A Scanner Darkly" as well as Paramount Pictures' "Barnyard." The rest three slots went to those of foreign productions, namely Luc Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles", Satoshi Kon's "Paprika", and Christian Volckman's "Renaissance."