For the first time (in forever) Walt Disney Animation Studios took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The Studios’ worldwide phenomenon Frozen was named Best Animated Feature at the Oscar telecast on March 2. To date the film has earned $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.
The Animated Film category was introduced at the Academy Awards in 2002 and has been dominated by Disney’s Pixar studios. That studio has won seven times in the last 11 years but was not nominated this year.
The insanely popular anthem from Frozen – Let It Go – was awarded the Oscar for Best Original Song. The song, performed by Broadway star Idina Menzel, beat out songs by U2 (Ordinary Love), Pharrell Williams (Happy), and Karen O (The Moon Song).
Let It Go was co-written by Robert Lopez (The Book of Mormon) and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The win now puts Robert’s name on the very exclusive list of “EGOT” winners –those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. He is one of only 12 people to ever win all four awards.
The other films nominated for Best Animated Feature were: The Croods, Despicable Me 2, the Japanese animation The Wind Rises (which is distributed by Walt Disney Studios), and the French-language Ernest & Celestine.
