Stephen Colbert and Liam Neeson star in ‘Candy Crush: The Movie’

It’s only November, but a clear favorite for this year’s best picture Oscar-winner emerged Tuesday night on “The Late Show.”

That’s when Liam Neeson and Stephen Colbert appeared in “Candy Crush: The Movie,” a tear-jerking saga about a father and son torn apart by walls made of brightly colored jellybeans, lollipop and licorice. It was inspired, of course, by the addictive and frighteningly lucrative smartphone app of the same name and starred Neeson as Mr. Toffee, the powerful patriarch of a confectionary dynasty, with Colbert as his estranged son.

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OK, so it’s a sketch on a late-night show and not an actual movie and therefore not eligible for an Academy Award, but “Candy Crush: The Movie” still has all the trappings of successful Oscar bait: a lead actor with an accent, family strife, elaborate period costumes (albeit ones rendered in neon shades) and — spoiler alert — a tragic death scene.

All it needs is Cate Blanchett and some connection to World War II, and “Candy Crush” would be a lock. Watch the clip above, but be sure to have some tissues (and maybe some insulin) handy.

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