Before Guardians of the Galaxy came along, perhaps the most talked about film of the year for your average movie fan was another Chris Pratt-starring vehicle, The Lego Movie. While the concept for the film may have sounded like yet another crude corporate cash-in concocted by some Wall Street-minded studio execs, the result couldn't be any further from that. In fact, the ingeniously written script by the directing/writing duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller spends much time satirizing corporate conformity and its "Everything Is Awesome" veneer. Even in a year filled with animated classics, The Lego Movie would likely find a place in the Best Animated Feature lineup, but in a relatively lackluster year for animation such as 2014, The Lego Movie is a sure thing. Looking at animated films released so far this year, its biggest competitor would probably be Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon 2, which received good notices from critics but did not make a big impact with audiences. Peering into the future at its competition, the primary opponent will likely be Disney's Big Hero 6, which does look to have some potential, but will not likely appeal to adults with its humor. It's very likely Lego may add an Oscar to the company's history, but an Oscar-nominee is a milestone that is simply a matter of time.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
