When we talk about animated movies, the first name off our lips is Pixar.
Pixar this, Pixar that, coming out with a powerful animated movie generally once a year for the past 15 years, give or take.
In fact, since the awards' inception in 2001, Pixar has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and has won six for Best Animated Film (Finding Nemo in 2003, The Incredibles in 2004, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E in 2008, Up in 2009 and Toy Story 3 in 2010).
But, lo and behold, we have a year where the nominees don't have to contend with the Pixar incumbent (Cars 2, their 2011 film, hit "average" right on the buzzer.)
And so, for the first time since 2005, all those distant seconds and thirds have to fight it out for the coveted Oscar.
And here's the thing, in Pixar's huge, domineering shadow, the other animated production companies are less well known.
There's DreamWorks, famous for Shrek (2001), but nowadays making headway with popular films like Kung Fu Panda (2008), How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Madagascar (2005).
Blue Sky Studios hit it big with Ice Age back in 2002, but can really only claim Rio (2011) and Robots (2005) as their other properties.
Disney came out of their decade-long slump with Tangled in 2010, and a hodgepodge of bigger film studios such as Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, etc. produce animated works every once in a while when they really like the project.
But now that we're actually taking the time to look, Pixar doesn't seem so great and daunting.
In fact, maybe Pixar is just the best among greats, rather than the stand-out we all seem to think it is.
Lately, Disney hasn't made as much of an impact on the animated scene.
Their heyday in the early ‘90s has since been supplanted by Pixar's rise to fame and power and other studios (namely DreamWorks) that proved they could make just as defining movies. And since they acquired Pixar as a company, they've certainly been under less pressure to pitch out childhood defining films.
But, at least in their most recent years, they have.
Bolt (2008), Tangled and even The Princess and the Frog (2009) all received better reviews from critics and saw a better turnout than films like Brother Bear (2003) or Home on the Range (2004).
Their two upcoming films Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen have taken on tremendous manpower and fame in order to up their ante again.
But still, Disney exists firmly in the distant third category when it comes to animation studios.
And then there's Blue Sky Studios. Hitting it big in 2002 with Ice Age, Blue Sky has stuck to a tried and true bi-annual schedule, releasing movies every two years like clockwork. But it seems like they've been hit with the sequelitis like no other.
This summer marks the fourth Ice Age feature, while all their other franchises (of which there are three) remain untapped, despite the critical and financial success therein.
Whether we'll see a Robots 2, another animated Seuss or another attempt at Rio, is up in the air, while lower and lower quality Ice Age movies keep coming out in the end.
But now that Pixar has taken the year off, we begin to see the true underdog: DreamWorks.
Formed around the same time and debuting their first movie (Antz in 1998) alongside Pixar's own bug-themed tale (A Bug's Life, also in 1998), Dreamworks has actually produced more movies, especially early in its inception.
While Pixar had a total of four films under its belt by 2003, DreamWorks had seven.
In fact, DreamWorks is the only reason I'm writing this article.
Chicken Run, their 2000 prison break movie, was so popular and acclaimed that it received a nomination for Best Picture, the first animated film to do so.
The next year, the Academy rolled out the Best Animated Feature as its new category.
Since then, DreamWorks has won two (Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit (2005) and Shrek) while getting another seven nominated.
And now that they have new franchises to follow the studio-founding Shrek films, DreamWorks is poised to actually take a big chunk out of Pixar's fame, especially since Pixar gave them this year.
Ask anyone. What animated films dominated this year? There were three: Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango, all nominated for Best Animated Feature and all critical darlings. Two of these are DreamWorks and both of them are sequels (Puss in Boots technically being a spin-off.)
In the end, DreamWorks may come out ahead in the next decade.
Toy Story 3 marked the end of Pixar's first and favorite franchise, and Cars 2 demonstrated a certain inability to handle a sequel. And with their switch into a franchise base (having announced Monsters University as their 2013 film), they may be on the way down from their incredible 10-year high.
In the end, if DreamWorks can pull an Oscar out, they might catch Pixar by surprise, empowering the studio to invest and develop even further. And though they linger in Pixar's massive shadow now, maybe we're coming to see the birth of a new empire.
