This year you had a bunch of 3 star movies competing with each other. Every year you get a handful of those, usually against 1 or 2 outstanding films.

I mean let's look at them:

Ponyo - I'm the biggest Miyazaki fan out there, but this was plain disappointing
Coraline - quirky ok film
Princess and Frog -meh -> doesn't really stick in your mind as one of the reats
Up - after being lauded as Pixar's best it really fell waaaay short. Pixar top 10, not top 5.
Fox - haven't seen, but nevertheless looks more quirky than a great (presumed).

At the end of the day I will watch any of the films I listed above again and again on DVD. I don't think I even want to watch any film from this year again. From my point of view that makes it a bad year for animation.