Three Reasons Brave Will Lose the Academy Award

Let's get something out of the way: Pixar's Brave is a great film. I enjoyed it, as did my family, and Anton Ego (see his review here).

But even though I predict Brave will get nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category, I also predict that it will lose. Why? Here are three reasons.

1. Brave is a great film, but it never quite rises to being an exceptional film. In my assessment Up was Pixar's most recent original masterpiece (Toy Story 3 was fantastic, but it was a sequel).

2. The Competition. I've seen some great animated movies this year. As a gamer I'm biased, but I think Disney's Wreck-It Ralph will take the award for Best Animated Feature. DreamWorks Animation, too, has done a fine job with Rise of the Guardians, which will give Ralph some competition.

 3. The Academy. After the "fall" of Pixar with Cars 2, the fickle Academy no doubt wanted another masterpiece from Pixar as a follow-up. They got a good movie in Brave, but not a masterpiece. After Cars 2, critics and the all-important Academy expected far more to "rebound" Pixar. Note: I also enjoyed Cars 2 and still do not believe it deserves the dismal 38 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pixar is still making some fine films. While I'm personally not that excited about the upcoming Monsters University or The Good Dinosaur, I have high hopes for the untitled Pete Docter film that will explore the mind.

Do you think Brave will get nominated as Best Animated Feature? Do you think it will win? What might beat it?