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The New York Film Critics Circle recently opted out of honoring a best animated feature (and unless I'm mistaken it was an afterthought win for Rango at the NBR since it wasn't in the first wave of articles). Will awards bodies lose their keys to this category since realizing Cars 2 was a lemon? If you stop to think about it for more than two seconds it's decidedly ungenerous at best and horribly offensive at worst. It sheds an unflattering light on the initiable embrace of the animated ghetto categories, suggesting they were only created to honor Pixar to begin with. Which is... rather shameful if you ask me. If the only reason you created a category was to honor Pixar, you shouldn't have created a category. Nobody gives out prizes for "Best Paramount Pictures Release of the Year", you know? Nobody gives out prizes for "Best Weinstein Co. Release of The Year" ["The Academy does!" cried the anonymous heckler. *rimshot*]
What? Rango wasn't good enough for a badge of honor?
So, even if this wasn't the single greatest year for animated film, if you're going to honor the medium, honor the medium. If you change your rules every year who will respect you? (That's a general warning to wishy washy committees, The Golden Satellites, and to the Oscar board of directors themselves who are weirdly starting to act like all their imitators these past few years by second guessing themselves constantly).
But, since the Annie Awards have been honoring animated work for 38 years -- long before Oscar or the critics groups ever thought to honor it -- they'll continute to do just that. They've selected ten "Best Picture" nominees for their 39th annual awards. And even if they felt the need to include Cars 2 to get there, at least they didn't cancel their ceremony when they realized it wasn't revving anyone's engines. I promise to brake break with the car puns no. So sorry!
Annie Awards Best Animated Feature Nominees
A Cat in Paris - Folimage
The Adventures of Tintin - Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
Arrugas (Wrinkles) - Perro Verde Films, SL
Arthur Christmas - Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animation
Cars 2 - Pixar
Chico & Rita - Chico & Rita Distribution Limited
Kung Fu Panda 2 - Dreamworks Animation
Puss in Boost - Dreamworks Animation
Rango - Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present a Blind Wink/GK Films Production
Rio - Blue Sky Studios
And even if he isn't nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, Gary Oldman could still win an Annie Award. He's up for best voice acting as "Lord Shen" from Kung Fu Panda 2.
Find this... 'panda'... and bring him to me. FIND this 'Panda'. And bring him to me. FIND THIS PANDA AND BRING HIM TO ME!!!"
A complete list of their nominations is after the jump if you'd like to dig deeper. (I was sad that this year they didn't include the info as to which animated characters the individual animators are being honored for designing or animating. If I recall correctly they used to specify which characters, just as in the voice acting honors.)
Best Animated Feature
• A Cat in Paris – Folimage
• Arrugas (Wrinkles) - Perro Verde Films, S.L.
• Arthur Christmas – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
• Cars 2 – Pixar Animation Studios
• Chico & Rita – Chico & Rita Distribution Limited
• Kung Fu Panda 2 – DreamWorks Animation
• Puss In Boots – DreamWorks Animation
• Rango – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
• Rio – Blue Sky Studios
• Tintin – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production
• Adventure Time: Thank You – Cartoon Network Studios
• Batman: Year One – Warner Bros. Animation
• Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas – Blue Sky Studios
• Kung Fu Panda – Secrets of the Masters – DreamWorks Animation
• Ashley Jensen as Bryony “Arthur Christmas” – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
• Bill Nighy as Grandsanta “Arthur Christmas” – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
• Gary Oldman as Shen “Kung Fu Panda 2” – DreamWorks Animation
• James Hong as Mr. Ping “Kung Fu Panda 2” DreamWorks Animation
• Jemaine Clement as Nigel “Rio” – Blue Sky Studios
• Jim Cummings as Featherstone “Gnomeo and Juliet” – Touchstone Pictures
• Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Alexander Dumpty “Puss In Boots” – DreamWorks Animation
Writing in a Television Production
• Blake Lemons, William Reiss, C.H. Greenblatt, Derek Evanick, Diana Lafyatis, Neil Graf “Disney Fish Hooks – Fish School Musical” – Disney Television Animation
• Carolyn Omine “The Simpsons -Treehouse of Horror XXII” – Gracie Films
• Dani MIchaeli, Sean Charmatz, Nate Cash, Luke Brookshier, Paul Tibbitt “SpongeBob SquarePants - Patrick’s Staycation” – Nickelodeon
• Josh Weinstein “Futurama - All The President’s Heads” – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television
• Kevin Sullivan, Will Schifrin, Ray DeLaurentis “TUFF Puppy Thunder Dog” – Nickelodeon
• Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis “Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 – The Creditor” – Williams Street Studios, Adult Swim
• Ray DeLaurentis, Will Schifrin “Fairly OddParents “Invasion of the Dads” – Nickelodeon
• Steve Wermers-Skelton, Kevin Deters “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Writing in a Feature Production
• Andy Riley, Kevin Cecil, Mark Burton, Kathy Greenburg, Emily Cook, Rob Sprackling, John R. Smith, Kelly Asbury, Steve Hamilton “Gnomeo & Juliet” – Touchstone Pictures
• Brian Kesinger, Kendelle Hoyer, Don Dougherty, Clio Chang, Don Hall, Stephen Anderson “Winnie The Pooh” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
• John Logan, Gore Verbinski and James Byrkit “Rango” – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Productions
• Sarah Smith, Peter Baynham “Arthur Christmas” – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
• Steve Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cronish “Tintin”– Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
Editing in Television Production
• Garret Elkins “Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole Season 2” – Starburn Industries, Inc.
• Hugo Morales “Kung Fu Panda” Nickelodeon
• Jason W.A. Tucker “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” – Lucasfilm Animation, Ltd.
• Paul D. Calder “Futurama” – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television
• Ted Machold, Jeff Adams, Doug Tiano, Bob Tomlin “Penguins of Madagascar” – Nickelodeon and Technicolor
Editing in a Feature Production
• Clare Knight, A.C.E. “Kung Fu Panda 2” – DreamWorks Animation
• Craig Wood, A.C.E. “Rango” – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Productions
• Eric Dapkewicz “Puss In Boots” – DreamWorks Animation
• Michael Kahn “Tintin”– Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
• Stephen Schaffer, A.C.E. “Cars 2” – Pixar Animation Studios
JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay Award —Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring, Ronald Searle
I'm at a toss-up between Rango and Kung-Fu Panda 2. They're both so great at the genre they're mocking and embracing at the same time. I guess I can give the edge to Rango for being an original film versus a sequel, but that's acting like Kung Fu Panda 2 isn't leagues removed from the original.
And might I add that I love the amount of attention Mary Shelley's Frankenhole received? Sci-fi/horror/fantasy stop motion animation with paper puppets and literary/historical figures pleases me. I will throw out that I am jealous that the Annie nominators saw Season 2 before me. It's not premiering officially until next year. Boo.
Video Games: What are Gears 3 and Uncharted 3 doing here? Not that they don't have their fans, just that the hyper-realist aestethic approach shouldn't really get any special attention from the Annies. Here's a few suggestions for more appropriate games to call attention to:
Little Big Planet 2 Mario Sports Mix Marvel vs. Capcom 3 de Blob 2 Okamiden Portal 2 Alice: Madness Returns Bastion Disgaea 4 Orcs Must Die! Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Any two of the above would have been better to cite.
The NYFCC is the only so far didn't honor Best Animation this year, and I don't think it's because of the critical flop of Cars 2. The NYFCC is also the only award body (so far as I noticed) that recognized many animated art-films OTHER than Pixar. Here the list of their past winners: 2000 - Chicken Run 2001 - Waking Life 2002 - Spirited Away 2003 - The Triplets of Belleville 2004 - The Incredibles 2005 - Howl's Moving Castle 2006 - Happy Feet 2007 - Pepsepolis 2008 - Wall-E 2009 - Fantastic Mr Fox 2010 - The Illusionist
which is a great list if you ask me. I'm quite sad that they decided not to give the award this year.
Reader Comments (7)
NBR awarded "Rango" for Best Animated film. It's on their web page.
http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/
RANGO all the way!!!
Definitely Tintin!
I'm at a toss-up between Rango and Kung-Fu Panda 2. They're both so great at the genre they're mocking and embracing at the same time. I guess I can give the edge to Rango for being an original film versus a sequel, but that's acting like Kung Fu Panda 2 isn't leagues removed from the original.
And might I add that I love the amount of attention Mary Shelley's Frankenhole received? Sci-fi/horror/fantasy stop motion animation with paper puppets and literary/historical figures pleases me. I will throw out that I am jealous that the Annie nominators saw Season 2 before me. It's not premiering officially until next year. Boo.
Van -- thanks. Weird that it wasn't initially announced.
Video Games: What are Gears 3 and Uncharted 3 doing here? Not that they don't have their fans, just that the hyper-realist aestethic approach shouldn't really get any special attention from the Annies.
Here's a few suggestions for more appropriate games to call attention to:
Little Big Planet 2
Mario Sports Mix
Marvel vs. Capcom 3
de Blob 2
Okamiden
Portal 2
Alice: Madness Returns
Bastion
Disgaea 4
Orcs Must Die!
Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Any two of the above would have been better to cite.
The NYFCC is the only so far didn't honor Best Animation this year, and I don't think it's because of the critical flop of Cars 2. The NYFCC is also the only award body (so far as I noticed) that recognized many animated art-films OTHER than Pixar. Here the list of their past winners:
2000 - Chicken Run
2001 - Waking Life
2002 - Spirited Away
2003 - The Triplets of Belleville
2004 - The Incredibles
2005 - Howl's Moving Castle
2006 - Happy Feet
2007 - Pepsepolis
2008 - Wall-E
2009 - Fantastic Mr Fox
2010 - The Illusionist
which is a great list if you ask me. I'm quite sad that they decided not to give the award this year.