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The Golden Globes, handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have announced that 17 animated features are eligible for consideration this year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced yesterday afternoon that 20 animated features have been submitted for Oscar consideration in the 2014 animated feature category.

With eight months of the year nearly passed, we're beginning to get a clearer sense of who the major contenders will be in the upcoming award season.

Every time you want to stop writing about "Frozen," it breaks another record. This weekend, the Disney smash hit remained in first place at the Japanese box office for an incomprehensible eleventh weekend in a row.

If you didn't hear about last weekend's opening of "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return," don't worry because no one else in America did either. Opening in 2,575 theaters, the film eked out $3.7 million, which is the worst opening ever for an animated feature in saturated release (over 2,500 theaters). The previous animation record holder in this dubious category was the 2011 Weinstein Company release "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil," which grossed $4.1M from 2,505 theaters.

Blue Sky's "Rio 2" failed to unseat "Captain America 2" at the box office last weekend and settled for a second-place opening of $39.3 million.

It’s no secret that I am a very, very big Janelle Monae fan. Her music just makes me want to get up and boogie, and her style is awesome. (I wish I looked that cool in a suit.) This April, she’s making her big screen debut . . . in Rio 2! Did you see the first Rio movie

Q: In Rio 2, were you the voice of a character or are you singing in the movie?

Janelle: I’m doing both. I’m the voice of a character, and I don’t want to tell you which one! I also wrote the opening song for the movie. I’m really excited to have worked with so many amazing actors. I got a chance to work with Jamie Foxx and Anne Hathaway. I got a chance to produce them and get their vocals on the song that I wrote!

Q: Is it easier than performing or acting, or is it harder?

Janelle: No, it’s all the same. When I’m on stage, you know, I have to get in a different mindset. No matter what I’m going through during the day, when I touch down on stage I go into character. So I do the same thing in a movie.

Q: Your music is so creative. How did you develop your own genre?

Janelle: Well, I allow myself to grow and I tell myself that there’s nothing that I can’t do. I love creating music. I love finding out my strengths and working on any weaknesses. And I never want to tell myself that, you know, I can’t do a specific style. I was blessed with a voice. I get bored very easily as well, so I’m always discovering new things and learning. I love learning. I love challenging myself. I love collaborating with different people from different walks of life!

Q: What was your favorite subject when you were in school?

Janelle: It was English. English, definitely! In high school I had an amazing teacher, Mrs. Appleberry, and her style of teaching made me want to come to class every single day. I would go home and just write and write and write. I would write short stories, and actors would perform them and, you know, I took that love of writing and turned it into my first album.

Q: Are you involved in any sort of environmental causes?

Janelle: One of my goals this year is to do more planting. And I mean that literally! I plan on planting more seeds and growing more trees and nurturing more green. But I want to also plant more seeds of hope and positivity throughout the world, whether it is by helping someone else get their career off the ground or starting a nonprofit.

— En-Szu, STACKS Staffer

No new animated movies debuted in the United States this weekend, although Disney's family-oriented "Muppets Most Wanted" opened. The film opened in second place with a disappointing $16.5 million (estimated), far below the $29.2M opening of the franchise reboot "The Muppets" in 2011. That earlier film plummeted at the box office, too, after its opening, suggesting that the Muppets franchise isn't as popular with kids today as it was with earlier generations.