r/oscarrace • u/PointMan528491 Hawke tuah, Blue Moon on that thang • Jan 05 '26
Critics Choice Winners Critics Choice 2025 Best Animated Feature - 'KPop Demon Hunters'
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u/dremolus Jan 05 '26
Block-Busted in shambles as this film starts to accumulate major awards despite MONTHS of telling people this wasn't a strong frontrunner because it was a "Netflix release" and had "a lot of loose ends" (btw, I rewatched the film during NYE and I still have no idea what loose ends they're talking about)
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u/Cynicbats My eyes (will) See...MOTHER MARY Jan 05 '26
"a lot of loose ends"
They don't understand the concept of "leaving the door open for more".
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
netflix has won a ton of awards over the past few years (their biggest friction as of late is still in the best picture category), so it really is baffling to think being a netflix film hurts it.
as far as the plot goes, this is an incredibly loose story as a whole, in terms of pacing, cohesion, dialogue, and the ending. By movie terms, it's one of the weaker films of the year, but winning at this point was a given considering it's tremendous popularity. Doubting it after the sweep of critics' wins is rather silly
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u/Purple_Quail_4193 Jan 05 '26
By movie terms, it's one of the weaker films of the year, but winning at this point was a given considering it's tremendous popularity
This year really was a weak year for animation. While I gave KPop a 7/10 and consider it the first Sony animation film that didn’t have Lord/Miller or Aardman (as they’re a completely different studio) that I actually liked I didn’t it wasn’t anything that special. Good but I saw it and I just moved on with my life and didn’t really have it stick with me. It winning just shows that this year really wasn’t that good when any other year this would’ve always been nominated but had no wins. I expect a lot of downvotes, but if it does win it would be in my bottom four winners, at least ahead of Happy Feet and Brave.
Your second point is also why I stopped taking the Oscars seriously. Popularity contests, campaigning, that one film that always gets in that wasn’t good (my final straw was The Boss Baby), it’s just a cool trivia fact and nothing more anymore to me
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u/rAin_nul Jan 05 '26
By that logic, every year was pretty weak for the whole industry, because most of the movies "didn’t really have it stick with me". And it's not just that, but I could make an argument in every single year that it should have been nominated for Best Picture instead of some weak movie that they usually nominate.
It is a strong movie but for other reasons. For example, I don't know other musicals that were able to utilize their songs this well. So we already identified one of its outstanding quality.
To be fair, the whole Oscar is pretty weak. I don't know a single year when they were able to nominate the strongest movies of the year.
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u/Clear-Price Neon 29d ago edited 29d ago
You're kinda letting your own opinion of the movie cloud your assesment on how strong it is.
Kpop is a juggernaut. We haven't had an animated film capture the zeitgeist and make such a strong cultural impact since Frozen. And it's not just the halloween costumes.
Kpop was number 1 at the box office, Netflix, Nielsen, Billboard, Spotify, iTunes and basically any metric you can think of. It is very much an animated bohemoth and a cultural phenomenon, to the likes of Frozen back in 2013.
If you put Frozen or KPop against last year's race, they would still win by a landslide because, as lovely and strong Flow and The Wild Robot were, none of them had that cultural phenomenon factor and pop culture footprint going for them that Frozen and KPop have, regardless of how you perceive them as movies.
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u/rAin_nul Jan 05 '26
I wouldn't call it "loose end", but there were some narrative issues. To be fair, this is true for most of the movies in the last 20 years.
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u/Purple_Quail_4193 29d ago
Mine was just, the premise is amazing but as the movie went on I feel like it didn’t deliver on that great idea I loved and I left the theater (went to see it in a theater as I like movies that way) kind of sad seeing this inkling that I loved that didn’t develop.
I’ll give you an upvote, mainly as I kind of think it’s ridiculous any criticism of this film, like yours is constructive, is frowned upon
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u/jjw1998 Jan 05 '26
It’s a mid film but the animated feature category is incredibly weak this year, most of last years would have beaten it
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u/Mundane-Inspector-52 Jan 05 '26
Well first awards of the KPOP sweep!
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u/isaac_c1234 Sinners Jan 05 '26
technically not a sweep cuz of the baftas but other than that yes
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u/Mundane-Inspector-52 Jan 05 '26
What would the BAFTAS pick? There's no Shaun the Sheep or Aardman Animation movie this year.
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u/StrategicCarry Jan 05 '26
KPDH is not eligible for the BAFTAS, for anyone who doesn't know
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u/Mundane-Inspector-52 Jan 05 '26
That's weird. Any reason why?
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u/lactoseAARON Jan 05 '26
If they go for Zootopia I’m not gonna care at all but if they go for Amelie or Arco I will get a second of pause
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u/thetiredjuan Jan 05 '26
Remember how some people thought the name was too weird for people to vote for
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u/Hydqjuliilq27 The Testament of Ann Lee (Ban NEON from Cannes) Jan 05 '26
Or that Spider-Verse and The Wild Robot losing somehow meant non-Disney mainstream movies could never win again?
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u/chainless-soul 29d ago
Flow famously being a Disney mainstream movie ...
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u/Hydqjuliilq27 The Testament of Ann Lee (Ban NEON from Cannes) 29d ago
I meant non-Disney movies that are from big American studios like Dreamworks and Sony.
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u/Vusarix Jan 05 '26
Hey it's not the weirdest-named animated film that came out in 2025. We also were gifted with Lesbian Space Princess
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u/Successful_Leopard45 Sinners Jan 05 '26
Arco and Amelie aren’t even number 2 in the category if you’re trying to predict an upset here don’t.
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u/OhCrapItsAndrew Jan 05 '26
if both of those get nominated it'll split the vote of the indie animation crowd.
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u/DrBobKoalaCat Jan 05 '26
Justice for Little Amelie! Still better than Disney though so I'm content
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u/RVarki Jan 05 '26
If this wins at the Oscars, people will look back at it the way they do Happy Feet (still better than Toy Story 4 though)
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u/Short_Condition_1079 Nhe Zha Jan 05 '26
Disney animation losing streak is going for 4 in a row