Jan 15, 2023

Netflix Wins Second Consecutive Critics' Choice Award for Best Animated Feature for “Pinocchio”

[This year's award went to “Pinocchio,” directed by Guillermo del Toro. It was also the third consecutive year that a direct-distributed film won the award.

Last year, Disney's “Encanto” was the darling of many film awards, but it did not take first place in the critics' awards, which went to Sony Pictures Animation's “Mitchell vs. the Machines,” for which Netflix won distribution rights. 2020, another streaming film. Disney-Pixar's “Soul,” which won the Critics Award after skipping its theatrical release due to the pandemic.

Guillermo del Toro won Best Animated Feature at the @CriticsChoice Awards, reminding everyone that animation is not a genre for kids. pic.twitter.com/cKewAHSI1K

- cartoonbrew. com - Animation News (@cartoonbrew) January 16, 2023

The Critics Choice Awards have traditionally been in the feature animation category. It favors Disney, which may not be surprising, but it is also open to other studios' features when choosing its favorite animated film. In addition to “Mitchell,” Sony's “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” won in 2019 and Warner Bros.' “The Lego Movie” won in 2015. Conversely, the Academy Awards have only awarded non-Disney films twice in the past 15 years.

Pinocchio was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award against four other animated films: Marcel in a Shoeless Shell, Puss in Boots, The Last Wish: Turning Red, Wendell & Wild

Last Tuesday, the film was released in the U.S. and Canada.

Pinocchio's win follows last Tuesday's Golden Globe win, making it the frontrunner to win the Academy Award on March 12, but the Academy must overcome its long-standing bias against Walt Disney Company-produced films.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson from a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale, based on the story of the same name by Carlo Collodi. It is a double-dare you in association with The Jim Henson Company, Inc! and the Netflix presentation of the Shadow Machine production.

Key talents on the film include Frank Passingham (cinematographer), Guy Davis and Kurt Enderle (production design), Ken Schletzman and Holly Klein (editing), Alexandre Desplat (music); Ian McKinnon, Peter Sanders and Georgina Haynes (character production supervisors); Brian Leif Hansen (animation supervisor); Robert Desoux (art director); Jeffrey Shaper (VFX supervisor); Scott Martin Gersin (sound design and supervision), John Taylor, Frank A. Montano (re-recording mixing).

Other animation winners at Critics' Choice were HBO Max's Harley Quinn (animated series) and Avatar: The Way of Water (visual effects).

Other animated series nominees were Blue, Bob's Burgers, Primal, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Undone. In the visual effects category, nominees were “Batman,” “Black Panther,” “Wakanda Forever,” and “Everywhere: Wakanda Forever,” “Everything Everywhere at Once,” “RRR,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.”