“Inside Out 2” became Pixar‘s latest hit last week by grossing more money in its opening weekend ($294.2 million) than any other Pixar film to date.

This Pixar sequel follows Riley in her teenage years dealing with new emotions including Anxiety, Embarrassment, and Ennui, while the old gang (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear) try to keep hold of headquarters inside Riley’s head.

That box office success has been accompanied by critical acclaim, with “Inside Out 2” scoring 91% on Rotten Tomatoes while the site’s critical consensus reads: “Spicing things up with the wrinkle of teenage angst, Inside Out 2 clears the head and warms the heart by living up to its predecessor’s emotional intelligence.”

Could this monetary and critical success translate into awards triumphs? Well, only been three animated movies nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Up,” and “Toy Story 3”) but the writing categories – both original and adapted — have sometimes been a source of joy. To date, there have been nine such films that have earned Oscar nominations for writing — two in Best Adapted Screenplay and seven in Best Original Screenplay. Let’s take a look at the former first.

“Shrek” was the first animated feature to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman were nominated for adapting William Steig‘s book of the same name. They contended in 2002 against “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens), “In the Bedroom” (Todd Field), “Ghost World” (Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff), and “A Beautiful Mind” (Akiva Goldsman). It was “A Beautiful Mind” that won the award. However, “Shrek” did win Best Animated Feature that year. This was the first ever Best Animated Feature award given out, too, so history was made.

The other animated movie nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay was “Toy Story 3.” Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich contended in 2011 for adapting the previous films (“Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2”). They were nominated in a strong year, too, as the other nominees were “Winter’s Bone” (Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini), “True Grit” (Joel and Ethan Coen), “127 Hours” (Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy), and “The Social Network” (Aaron Sorkin), which won.”Toy Story 3″ did win Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “We Belong Together.” It was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Sound Editing.

Moving on to Best Original Screenplay now, back in 1996 when “Toy Story” became the first animated movie to be nominated for writing. The writers were Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft. They were nominated alongside “Nixon” (Oliver Stone, Christopher Wilkinson, and Stephen J. Rivele), “Mighty Aphrodite” (Woody Allen), “Braveheart” (Randall Wallace), and, the winner, “The Usual Suspects” (Christopher McQuarrie). “Toy Story” was also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (for “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”) while it was awarded a Special Achievement Award for Lasseter. However, Best Animated Feature didn’t exist as a category back then.

Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds were nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 2004 for “Finding Nemo,” alongside “In America” (Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, and Kirsten Sheridan), “Dirty Pretty Things” (Steven Knight), “The Barbarian Invasions” (Denys Arcand), and, the winner, Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation.” “Finding Nemo” was also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing and it won Best Animated Feature.

“The Incredibles” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay the following year. Brad Bird went up against “Vera Drake” (Mike Leigh), “Hotel Rwanda” (Terry George and Keir Pearson), “The Aviator” (John Logan), and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry, and Pierre Bismuth). “The Incredibles” again did well elsewhere, however, earning a nomination for Best Sound Mixing and winning both Best Sound Editing and Best Animated Feature.

“Ratatouille” earned a Best Original Screenplay bid in 2008 for Bird, Jan Pinkava, and Jim Capobianco. They were nominated alongside “The Savages” (Tamara Jenkins), “Michael Clayton” (Tony Gilroy), “Lars and the Real Girl” (Nancy Oliver), and, the winner, “Juno” (Diablo Cody). “Ratatouille” was also nominated for both sound categories and Best Original Score. It won Best Animated Feature.

“WALL-E” was nominated the following year in 2009 for the script by Stanton, Docter, and Jim Reardon, who went up against “Milk” (Dustin Lance Black), “Frozen River” (Courtney Hunt), “Happy-Go-Lucky” (Mike Leigh), and “In Bruges” (Martin McDonagh). “Milk” won while “WALL-E” took home Best Animated Feature and was also nominated for both sound categories as well as Best Original Score and Best Original Song (for “Down to Earth”). “WALL-E” also made history… it matched the record set by “Beauty and the Beast” for the most Oscar nominations received by an animated movie — six.

“Up” made it three Best Original Screenplay bids in a row for animated movies and Pixar when Peterson, Docter, and Tom McCarthy were nominated in 2010. They found themselves in a tough category that year, with the Coen brothers (“A Serious Man”), Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”), Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), and Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”) all in contention. Boal won. “Up” became the third (and most recent) animated movie nominated for Best Picture while it won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score and was also nominated for Best Sound Editing.

The most recent animated movie nominated for a writing award was “Inside Out,” which earned Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, and Ronnie del Carmen a Best Original Screenplay bid in 2016. “Spotlight” (McCarthy and Josh Singer) won that year while “Bridge of Spies” (Matt Charman and the Coen brothers), “Ex Machina” (Alex Garland), and “Straight Outta Compton” (Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, and Alan Wenkus) were also nominated. “Inside Out” won Best Animated Feature.

So, those are the nine animated flicks nominated for writing awards. Here are a couple of takeaways… Firstly, not one of those films managed to turn their writing nominations into a win. So we are still waiting for our first animated winner in either writing category, despite those listed films being some of the most creative and original stories this century.

Secondly, all of those movies apart from one went on to win at least one other Oscar, with all of them winning Best Animated Feature, at least. The exception was “Toy Story” but the Best Animated Feature category didn’t exist back then. This suggests that if an animated film gets in for a writing category, it is odds on to win Best Animated Feature — keep an eye on that later this year.

And, thirdly, eight out of those nine movies were Pixar products. The only exception was “Shrek,” which was a Dreamworks film. Pixar has the monopoly here so that bodes well for “Inside Out 2.”

Director Kelsey Mann is on writing duties for this sequel alongside Dave Holstein and LeFauve, who was nominated for co-writing the first “Inside Out” installment. Holstein and Mann are looking for their first nominations. If the trio were nominated for writing “Inside Out 2,” it would be for Best Adapted Screenplay as academy rules state that any sequel is adapting the works of prior films. Considering the uproarious success of “Inside Out 2” so far, however, we could be in for the 10th animated film nominated for writing this year.

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