Four songs from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog are among the 63 that have qualified for the Best Original Song Oscar race.
The four songs from the animated feature are: ‘Almost There,’ ‘Down in New Orleans,’ ‘Ma Belle Evangeline’ and ‘Never Knew I Needed.’
Five other animated features had films that qualified for the category:
‘ ‘Other Father Song’ from Coraline
‘ ‘Petey’s Song’ from Fantastic Mr. Fox
‘ ‘Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea’ from Ponyo
‘ ‘Raining Sunshine’ from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
‘ ‘God Bless Us Everyone’ from Disney’s A Christmas Carol
Visual-effects films also were represented with:
‘ ‘I See You’ from Avatar
‘ ‘New Divide’ from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
‘ ‘Possibility’ from The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will screen clips from the films featuring each song in random order for voting members of its music branch at an event in Los Angeles. Members unable to attend the event can request a DVD of the clips and vote by mail.
Following the screening, the members will rate the songs on a scale of 1 to 10, with only songs achieving an average score of 8.25 qualifying. The top-ranked songs will become the nominees for the Oscar. No more than five songs will be nominated and only two songs from any one film can be nominated.
The nominations will be announced Feb. 2, with the winner announced at the Oscar awards ceremony March 7.
