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In the innovative Netflix animated film I Lost My Body, a severed hand skitters across the streets of Paris trying to reunite with its missing anatomical companion. Whether that hand winds up grasping an Oscar is up to Academy voters, in a year when a record 32 contenders qualified for the Best Animated Feature race.

I Lost My Body is an original film, but more than likely a sequel will come away with the Oscar: either Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 or How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the third and final film in the Dragon series.

Walt Disney Studios once again finds itself in prime contention, with the fourth installment in the Pixar Toy Story franchise, which saw the addition of a new character, the spork Forky, voiced by Tony Hale, and an expanded role for Bo Peep (Annie Potts). Toy Story 3 (2010) remains the only sequel to win...

“Abominable” is edging out its box office competition, following $5.69 million in Friday’s domestic ticket sales.

If estimates hold, the DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio’s co-production should take home around $20 million come Sunday — the biggest opening for an original animated film this year and only the third original film to open at No. 1 in the North American box office (Universal’s “Us” and “Good Boys” also opened in first place).

Written and directed by Jill Culton, “Abominable” follows Chinese teenage Yi who embarks on a journey to the Himalayas after discovering a lost Yeti named Everest on the roof of her apartment building. Chloe Bennet voices Yi alongside fellow cast members Joseph Izzo, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin and Michelle Wong.

Coming in second place is last weekend’s winner “Downton Abbey,” which continues to hold strong in its sophomore outing with $4.3 million in Friday’s ticket sales.

DreamWorks Animation’s “Abominable” is a fantasy about a city girl and two cousins helping a Yeti travel across China to its Mount Everest home, but creating the film’s look with virtual lighting and production design required as much attention to detail as any live-action feature.

Proprietary software allowed head of lighting Michael Necci and his team to arrange their lights on a virtual soundstage around the final on-screen image. The team was free to make minute adjustments as if they were in the rafters of a real stage, seeing the results in real time. “Looking at what our lights are doing in scenes mimics what happens on a live-action stage,” Necci says, “but we don’t have the limitations of having to position C-stands.”

Written and directed by Jill Culton, with co-director Todd Wilderman, “Abominable” is a co-production with China-based Pearl Studios, formerly Oriental DreamWorks, and opens in theaters Sept.

The first major co-production between DreamWorks and China’s Pearl Studio, Abominable — a warm and fuzzy animated guide book they could have titled How to Train Your Yeti — is good family fun as far it goes. It also could have gone further. The Chinese setting and characters are welcome and beautifully rendered, as is the film’s human protagonist, Yi (scrappily voiced by Chloe Bennett), a teen girl who’s been hit hard by the death of her father. It’s not that her strict mother (Michelle Wong) and dumpling-making...

An injured Yeti with the power to control nature is rescued by a determined teenager and her friends. Abominable is the latest CGI adventure to star the mythical Himalayan creature. On the heels of Smallfoot and Missing Link, Abominable is a much more somber film. There's a sprinkling of humor, but the overall tone treads serious. This is not a happy-go-lucky kid flick with slapstick characters. I appreciate the depth of the story, but did get a little bored with the drama. Stunning animation and a beautiful score rescue Abominable from being a drag.

Abominable is set in the bustling city of Shanghai, China. Chloe Bennet voices Yi, a girl who spends her days feverishly working odd jobs. Her mother (Michelle Wong) and N&#462i Nai (Tsai Chin) wonders why she won't spend any time at home. The family is struggling to cope with the death of Yi's father. Yi...

“Abominable” may feel boilerplate: Plucky loner finds an unexpected friend, a wild journey ensues with the help of a motley crew, and it ends with a buffet of lessons about the power of friendship, family, and self-respect. Also included: one incredibly cute magical yeti, all the better to incite both warm and squishy sentiments and encourage the inevitable purchase of a wide range of branded merchandise.

However, director Jill Culton adds unique touches to the formula including frequently stunning animation and goofy diversions of all stripe, along with at least two worrying soundtrack choices (kids like Coldplay?). The winning, warm nature of this China-set family film can’t be denied, and for all its predictable elements, “Abominable” is still well worth the trip.

Resourceful teen Yi (Chloe Bennett) is deep in the “denial and isolation” stage of her grief over her beloved father’s recent death. Instead of turning to...