Disney closing furry grip on Golden Globe

The intrigue-laden Zootopia and visually spectacular Moana (below) offer Disney Animation two very strong shots at this year's Golden Globe for best animation. Picture / AP

Kubo, Sing and Zucchini unlikely to prevent 9th win in 11 years

The smash Sing and the acclaimed Kubo and the Two Strings have their work cut out for them at Monday's 74th Golden Globes Awards ceremony, because here's the thing: Disney rarely surrenders the animation crown.

The Golden Globes began honouring best animated feature film a decade ago, and since then, a Disney Animation or Disney/Pixar movie has taken home the trophy eight times.

Pixar alone has won this category seven times, including last year's Inside Out, and Disney Animation's mega-hit Frozen won for 2013.

The only non-Disney winners have been Nickelodeon Movies/Amblin's The Adventures of Tintin (2011), the Steven Spielberg-directed action adventure that featured cutting-edge motion-capture effects, and 2013's How to Train Your Dragon 2, directed by former Disney talent Dean DeBlois (Mulan, Lilo & Stitch) and produced by DreamWorks Animation, which Spielberg co-founded. (Dragon 2 upset Disney's Big Hero 6, which then went on to win the Oscar.) So how does that all bode for this year?

Well, the most striking aspect is who's not here: Pixar, so often a lock for a nomination, was shut out for 2016, as the Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory failed to get a nod.

Yet Disney Animation has two very strong nominees: Zootopia, which is one of only two animated films to top the US$1 billion ($1.4b) mark this year (the other being Dory), and the visual spectacle that is Moana. Both films received mostly positive reviews.

Moana. Photo / Supplied

So who's got a shot to try to take down Disney?

The Oregon-based Laika scored its third nomination ever with the strikingly beautiful Kubo, and France's Rhone-Alpes Studios (the lone foreign contender here) received a nod for My Life As a Zucchini. Both films are critically acclaimed (with scores of 84 and 85 respectively on Metacritic.com).

One catch here is both Kubo and Zucchini are stop-motion animation, so as gorgeously handcrafted as they may be, a Golden Globe win would be historic. So that leaves Illumination Entertainment's big hit Sing. Although the American Idol-with-animals is proving popular at the box office, reviews overall have been middling at best.

So barring a huge upset, every sign points to Disney winning the animation Globe yet again - with Moana's lush marine beauty trying to take down the engaging, politically-laced story of Zootopia.

Either way, Alan Tudyk - who voiced characters in both those Disney films, as well as in the studio's Rogue One - walks away a winner.

And films featuring Matthew McConaughey's voice acting (both Kubo and Sing) would be empty-handed as they hope next for an Oscar nod.