Oscars 2019: The history of dog movies at the Academy Awards

Best Animated Short Film

The records for cartoons throughout history, despite wonderful histories like Michael Barrier’s 700-plus work Hollywood Cartoons, is rather sketchy. As a result, there is probably more doggy content in Best Animated Short Film than what’s listed here.

“The Pointer,” one of the earliest shorts to feature Mickey Mouse’s dog Pluto, was nominated in 1939; Mickey and Pluto go on a hunting trip. “Blitz Wolf” is WWII propaganda from 1942, a parody of the Three Little Pigs with Hitler as the Big Bad Wolf. In 1944 as part of Goofy’s attempt to learn various sports, “How to Play Football” was nominated. “Pluto’s Blue Note” was nominated in 1947,

Body-swapping “Crazy Mixed Up Pup” was nominated in 1954, Hanna-Barbera’s Droopy the Basset Hound starred in 1957’s “One Droopy Knight,” a 1979 short called “It’s So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House” was nominated, in 2007 there was a Russian folk tale called “Peter and the Wolf,” and in 2012 there was “Adam and Dog,” a retelling of Adam and Eve from their dog’s pawspective.

Best Animated Feature Film

Best Animated Feature Film is essentially the Best Picture as far as we’re concerned. It’s fairly new, spurred into existence by Pixar and DreamWorks for the most part. The first dog movie to win was the British Claymation Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005.

Bolt, starring John Travolta as a dog convinced he’s a superhero and Miley Cyrus as his owner, was nominated in 2008,

Up rightfully won in 2009, beating a field that included Fantastic Mr Fox, which was similar to Marguerite Henry‘s fox book Cinnabar. 

Toy Story 3 rightfully won in 2010, defeating a field that also included the underrated How to Train Your Dragon, which features puppylike actions by the baby dragon Toothless.

Tim Burton’s interpretation of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein was 2012’s Dachshund-centered Frankenweenie, which earned a nomination.

Frozen won in 2013, where Kristoff’s reindeer Sven essentially functions as a very large dog throughout the film.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was nominated in 2014, and Shaun the Sheep Movie was nominated in 2015.

Zootopia, which stars a con-artist fox, won in 2016, and the next year Coco won, which features a Mexican Hairless Dog named Dante as comic relief. Coco beat the much-better-than-expected Ferdinand, where a dog named Jose is one of Ferdinand’s friends.

The quirky Wes Anderson film Isle of Dogs was nominated in 2018.

What did you think of this year’s Oscars, if you watched? Did your favorites win? Let us know on the Dog O’Day Facebook and Twitter pages.