Hollywood Foreign Press Association Submitted Lion King As An Animated Movie Not Disney

The full nominations for the Golden Globe awards were revealed earlier this week with more than one instance that raised eyebrows across the internet. Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington was the only cast member or creative person involved to receive a nomination for the series' final season (Thrones had previously been nominated for Best TV Drama in five of its seven previous seasons). The awards also drew criticism due to nominating only male directors in the "Best Director – Motion Picture" category despite the critical success of female directed movies like Booksmart, Little Women, and Hustlers (all of which were nominated in other categories). Another curious choice was made in the nomination process as well, but this one may have gone unnoticed by some and came as a surprise to the studio.

It's no surprise that the "Best Motion Picture - Animated" category would be loaded with features from The Walt Disney Company, and they're represented this year by Frozen II, Toy Story 4, and, in the surprise of the year, the remake of The Lion King. When this billion dollar remake was released there was a lot of semantic talk about what the film "was." Was it a live-action remake? Was it an animated movie with realistic animation? According to the Hollywood Foreign Press, who nominate and vote on the Golden Globes, The Lion King is animated.

This goes directly against what Disney's talking points about the film since its release and makes its inclusion perhaps confusing, and also hilarious. The rabbit hole does deeper though as The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood reports that Disney did not submit The Lion King to be considered for that category, the HFPA decided that on their own. The voting body for the awards also nominated the film for Best Original Song for the new composition "Spirit."

It does make sense why the film would be included in this category specifically for The Golden Globes (probably the only place where it will be nominated under such a banner) when you dig into it. CNBC points out the HFPA rules dictate films need to be at least 75% animated to quality for the category and to be considered animated the film's images "must be created or manipulated by an animator through hand drawing, stop motion, pixilation, animation software or a similar technique."

The real irony in nominating The Lion King for Best Animated Feature would be if it won. Should the film take home the prize, it WON'T share the same award as the 1995 original The Lion King, which took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (the animation specific category wasn't created until 2006).

Do you agree with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for nominating The Lion King in this category? Sound off in the comments below and tune in for the 77th Golden Globe Awards on January 5, 2020.