STORIES STILL RULE THE DAY

The marketplace -- and the animation Oscar race -- is drowning in knockoffs. The field has been flooded in recent years with talking insect flicks (“Antz,” “A Bug’s Life” and “The Ant Bully”), fish (“Finding Nemo” and “Shark Tale”), monkeys (“Curious George” and the planned 2008 release “Space Chimp”), penguins (“Happy Feet” and the upcoming “Surf’s Up”) and the latest chatty critter craze: rodents. (“Flushed Away” and “Ratatouille,” Pixar’s latest ‘toon, opening in the summer.)

Of the 16 films that qualify for Oscar consideration in that category this year, half are computer animated and star talking animals. The eight Oscar contenders that feature verbalizing beasts include 20th Century Fox’s “Ice Age: The Meltdown”; Disney’s “The Wild”; DreamWorks Animation’s “Flushed Away” and “Over the Hedge”; Paramount Pictures’ “Barnyard”; Sony Pictures’ “Open Season”; and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Ant Bully” and “Happy Feet.”

“Ant Bully” may be the poster child for the current problem. While “beautifully art-directed,” said Bill Kroyer, an animation branch executive board member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the movie’s overly familiar premise of a bully learning his lesson among the victimized hardly drove moviegoers into theaters. “Producers have to come up with something to get audiences interested in the story now,” he says. “The novelty of CG animation alone isn’t going to carry the field anymore.”

When the academy’s short film and feature animation branch’s 324 voting members (overseen by three governors, one of whom is Pixar’s John Lasseter) cast their ballots for five nominees, they are likely to snub animated features that stink of idle opportunism and instead vote for films that explore the boundaries of the medium.

Of no small significance to the branch is Lasseter’s recent shift in focus.

Not only did he sell his Bay Area studio to Disney and step in to guide a new creative era at Walt Disney Feature Animation, he also directed “Cars,” the highest-grossing animated feature this year. Animation pros cite the filmmaker’s deft ability to infuse metal objects with warmth while raising the bar in terms of digital visuals, seen particularly in the film’s diverse landscapes and vistas.

Which is to say it’s not impossible that “Cars” will make roadkill of rest of the herd.