Tony from Monsters University

Early this morning the nominations for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were released with Monsters University being snubbed yet again in the Best Animated Feature Film category. We are at a loss for words thinking about how Monsters University could be excluded from the list of animated films. The films advancing in the Best Animated Feature Film category are: The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestine, Frozen and The Wind Rises.
I'll be honest, when I was watching the nominations my heart rate was noticeable. I assumed once they announced Ernest & Celestine, that Monsters University would of course also receive a nomination, right? Right? The Academy Awards first started the category of Best Animated Feature Film back in 2001 and in the thirteen years since the categories inception, Pixar has only been snubbed one additional time - in 2011 for Cars 2. Here is a summary of Pixar's history with the Academy Awards.

• 2001 - Monsters, Inc. was nominated - Shrek won.
• 2002 - Spirited Away won - Pixar did not have a feature film released in this year.
• 2003 - Finding Nemo won.
• 2004 - The Incredibles won.
• 2005 - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Wear Rabbit won - Pixar did not have a feature film released in this year.
• 2006 - Cars was nominated - Happy Feet won.
• 2007 - Ratatouille won.
• 2008 - Wall-E won.
• 2009 - Up won.
• 2010 - Toy Story 3 won.
• 2011 - Cars 2 was snubbed and was not nominated. Rango won.
• 2012 - Brave won.
• 2013 - Monsters University snubbed.

Last year at the 85th Annual Academy Awards, Pixar was honored as Brave took home Oscar - winning over Disney's Wreck-it-Ralph, who many thought had a lock for the win. I guess this category will continue to confound people with its interesting nomination choices and sometimes odd wins (think Happy Feet winning in 2006). We'll find out who wins the Oscar when the envelope is ripped open and the winner for Best Animated Feature Film is read aloud on at the Dolby Theater (located in Hollywood, California). We were hoping that host, Ellen DeGeneres, who of course voiced Dory from Finding Nemo would be Pixar lucky charm at this year's awards. I guess we'll have to wait until the 2015 Oscars to see if Pixar will be up for another Oscar for their upcoming short Party Central.

Let's not also forget that The Blue Umbrella, as well as Randy Newman's score for Monsters U, was also excluded from receiving any nominations.

Jeff, over at This Day In Pixar, also wrote up a great post about some of the lesser-known awards and how Monsters University only won one (yes, one) award through the 31 potential categories. This is nothing short of a shocking year for Pixar news.