Best Animated Feature Oscar contenders — the year of the Dark Horse?

Sequels, misfires and stuff that should have gone direct-to-video,

That was 2013 in animated feature films. At least those from Hollywood.

Most years, this corner of the Oscars would be a battle between Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks. But if ever there was a year that Fox (“The Croods”) or a foreign language lower-budget picture could break through, this is it.

Look at this list of submitted contenders. Weak sequels (“Monsters U.,” “Cloud-Meatballs 2”), a passable sequel (“Despicable Me 2”), a Disney musical (“Frozen”) not scored by anybody who will make us forget Alan Menken and Howard Asher, or Randy Newman.

“Epic”? Meh. “Planes”? An embarrassment to the Disney brand.

I think last March’s “The Croods,” which was well-animated and wonderfully voiced, with lots of wit and pathos, has a shot. “Frozen” is the best contender from “the usual suspects” of contenders.

And the foreign animated film field is mostly a string of little ballyhoo’d titles. Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises” is about a fighter plane designer from Japan’s fascist years. Is that going to be Oscar worthy?

Here are the films eligible to be nominated, submitted by their producers. Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 16.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2”
“The Croods”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Epic”
“Ernest and Celestine”
“The Fake”
“Free Birds“
“Frozen”
“Khumba”
“The Legend of Sarila”
“A Letter to Momo”
“Monsters University”
“O Apóstolo”
“Planes”
“Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion”
“Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury”
“The Smurfs 2”
“Turbo”
“The Wind Rises”