Animation GOLD for Laika
In a surprise win, even by the director’s reaction, Laika have taken the only animation award at the Golden Globes winning in the Best Animated Feature category for Missing Link. The film was nominated alongside Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, How to Train your Dragon 3 and in a surprise twist, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association also nominated the “live action” The Lion King clearly in disagreement with Disney’s previous statements that 2019 remake is not an animated film.
Laika have been nominated for multiple Golden Globes in the past with films such as Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls and Paranorman. Whilst, winning against Disney is uncommon but certainly not unheard of (Sony’s Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse won last year) it is usually given to films that have had a powerful cultural or technical impact on the industry, and whilst Missing Link is a great film, well received by critics, it wouldn’t be unfair to say the film came and left cinemas with little effect, at least in terms of box office, when compared to some of the Disney features.
Missing Link director Chris Butler and producer Arianne Sutner were clearly surprised as they approached the stage with the opening line to their speech being “We’re flabbergasted!” and ending it with “I am genuinely shocked!” there was clearly no way to hide their reaction to this. They thanked the HFPA and the Laika staff in their speech which you can watch below:
Amy Poehler and Taylor Swift present the Best Animated Movie Golden Globe to "Missing Link". #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/0AOXcuSN6G
— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) January 6, 2020
You can read our review of Missing Link HERE and listen to our interview with director Chris Butler on the Skwigly Animation Podcast below
Stay up to date with all things animation award season by following us on Twitter and Facebook.