Alas, only 14 submissions have been made in the Oscars race for animated feature this year, so that means there will only be three nominees in the category again. Sixteen entries are needed to inflate the Oscars' list of contenders to five, and that's only happened once in the previous seven years of this new category's existence — 2002, the year "Spirited Away" beat "Ice Age," "Lilo & Stitch," "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" and "Treasure Planet." 

This year's Academy Award submissions:

"Bolt"
"Delgo"
"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!"
"Dragon Hunters"
"Fly Me to the Moon"
"Igor"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"
"$9.99"
"The Sky Crawlers"
"Sword of the Stranger"
"The Tale of Despereaux"
"WALL-E"
"Waltz With Bashir"

"Bolt," "Delgo," "Dragon Hunters," "$9.99," "The Sky Crawlers," "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Waltz With Bashir" have not yet fulfilled the requirement to run for one week in a Los Angeles theater, but they are scheduled to do so before year's end.

Of course, "WALL-E" is widely considered to be the front-runner, considering its staggering box office take ($485 million worldwide) and rave critical reviews (93 score at Metacritic). But watch out! As the outcome of 2002 demonstrated, sometimes voters get carried away with small art-house gems like "Spirited Away." This year some pundits think they might waltz off with "Bashir."

Before this weekend, many Oscarologists assumed that the three nominees will end up being "WALL-E," "Bashir" and "Kung Fu Panda," and they didn't give "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" much hope of being nominated. But now that it's pulled in more than $100 million worldwide over just a few days, that view must be reconsidered. Once before a sequel did get nominated: "Shrek 2" in 2004.

Photos: Disney, Sony Pictures Classics, DreamWorks