Has a non-human ever won an Oscar?
Imagine you spend your whole life desperate to become an Oscar-winning actor, only for someone who doesn’t even exist to walk away with the title.
Since the 1929 inception of the Academy Awards, a select few have been able to arm themselves with a golden statuette, ready to display it on their mantel as a ‘better than you’ symbol of their impressive talents. While some filmmakers and actors have even been lucky enough to win multiple times, like Katharine Hepburn, who holds the record for the most acting awards at four, others have failed to receive due recognition despite years of slogging it as the best in the business.
For decades, the Academy Awards have been pegged as the highest honour to ascribe, which celebrate the best of cinema with a lavish annual ceremony. But when it boils down to it, it’s just one big popularity contest that the rest of us normal folks have to watch from our homes as celebrities put on their fanciest clothes and parade down the red carpet on TV.
Think about all of the incredible performances that have never even got a look-in from the Academy, and the movies that are cast aside every year in favour of nominations for flashy Oscar-baiting titles. It all boils down to majoritarian fame, which can sort of even extend to a non-human.
Has a non-human ever won an Oscar?
Before you start wondering if an animal has ever won an Oscar, I’ll stop you right there to say that a real-life animal has never been nominated for an Academy Award. While you might argue that Toto, Marley, Old Yeller, or Babe should have been Oscar-nominated, imagine being beaten to the post by a dirty little pig?
Rather, the one time that people have considered a non-human Oscar win was in 1932 when Mickey Mouse was granted a golden statuette. Well, Walt Disney was, but this was for the creation of the cartoon character, so many fans class this as Mickey’s Oscar. You know what Disney fans are like.
While Mickey Mouse didn’t exactly compete against human actors, Disney’s honorary Oscar came solely from creating him, which is as close to a non-human Oscar win as we’ll probably ever get. If anyone is worthy of it, though, it’s Mickey, who changed cinema forever. With his appearances in early short films from Disney, people were charmed by this little creation, who would come to occupy an enduring place in people’s hearts.
The character was created in 1928, and he really was quite prolific, to be fair. Not only was he in a bunch of pioneering animated shorts, but he also did his fair share of feature films while spawning television shows and countless pieces of merchandise.
A symbol of childhood wonder, Mickey is frankly an icon, and you can recognise those ears anywhere. Even if you’re not a Disney fan, you can appreciate the magic of Mickey Mouse, whose birth was enough to have him celebrated by Hollywood’s most illustrious establishment.
