Annie Nominations Embrace "Coco" and "The Breadwinner"

by Nathaniel R

Coco and The Breadwinner are the top competitors for the Annies (and maybe the Oscars)

The Annie Awards first began handing out prizes in 1992 but weren't quite on a calendar year yet with Beauty and The Beast, a 1991 film, honored in that inaugural year. They've since aligned themselves to the calendar and last year their top prize went to Zootopia, which also took the Oscar. Coco l eads their nominations for 2017 and also presumably leads the Oscar race with The Breadwinner  the widely admired darkhorse at both. Presumably again as we won't know what the Oscar nominations are until January 23rd. 

Both of the leaders are powerfully rooted in cultural specificity (Mexico and Afghanistan respectively) and are, in their own way, tearjerkers, rather than the more traditionally glib action comedies that tend to be the bread and butter of the animated film world... at least in America.

We'd love to raise a glass to the nominations for the streaming series Trollhunters which we're huge fans of but we'd rather throw the contents of that glass inb Annie's face for preferencing Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3 over the insanity of The Lego Batman Movie. If you wanted to honor a sequel, that's really the way you wanna go? The complete list of nominees and a few more comments, cheers, and jeers are after the jump...

Best Animated Feature

• Boss Baby (Dreamworks)
• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (DreamWorks)
• Cars 3 (Pixar)
• Coco (Pixar)
• Despicable Me 3 (Illumination)

The absence of The Lego Batman Movie is annoying given the thinness of the competition. Coco takes this one with ease. 

Best Animated Feature-Independent

• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (Folivari/Panique!/Studiocanal)
• The Breadwinner (Cartoon Saloon/Aircraft Pictures/Melusine Productions)
• In This Corner of the World (Taro Maki, GENCO, Inc. and Masao Maruyama, MAPPA Co., Ltd)
• Loving Vincent (BreakThru Films, Production Company Trademark Films, Co-Production Company)
• Napping Princess (Nippon TV)

Loving Vincent has been a solid hit in arthouse release and The Big Bad Fox and The Breadwinner both look like real contenders for the annual foreign spots in the Oscar lineup. The question is how much room Oscar will make for the non American CG titles. 

Best Animated Special Production

• Imaginary Friend Society “Feeling Sad”
• Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
• Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems
• Revolting Rhymes
• Tangled Before Ever After

Disney has already announced that their pulling Olaf's Frozen Adventure from theaters (in the wake of many complaints about its length -- complaints which surely wouldn't have been lodged in the first place if people had actually loved the short). But those audience complaints about the "short" before Coco apparently didn't reach the nominators ears since they gave it 3 nominations. (sigh)

Best Animated Short Subject

• Dear Basketball (Glen Keane Productions, Kobe Studios, Believe Entertainment Group)
• Hedgehog’s Home (National Film Board of Canada, Bonobostudio)
• Negative Space (IKKI Films/Manuel Cam Studio)
• Scavengers (Titmouse, Inc./Adult Swim)
• Son of Jaguar (Google Spotlight Stories, Reel FX)

Dear Basketball and Negative Space are both on the 10 wide finalist list for Oscar but the rest of these aren't. More on that list tomorrow.

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

• Biscotti. Una storia buona (Hornet)
• June (Broad Reach Pictures/Chromosphere/Lyft)
• League of Legends ‘Legends Never Die’ (Passion Animation Studios)
• Please the Cheese (Psyop)
• Sainsbury’s ‘The Greatest Gift' (Passion Animation Studios) 

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

peg + cat

• Mickey and the Roadster Racers / Episode: Goofy Gas! (Walt Disney Television Animation)
• Octonauts / Episode: Operation Deep Freeze (Vampire Squid Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media company, in association with Brown Bag Films)
• Peg + Cat, The Mariachi Problem / Episode: 220B, The Mariachi Problem (The Fred Rogers Company/100 Chickens Productions)
• The Stinky & Dirty Show / Episode: HaHaHigher / The Waiting Game (Amazon Studios)
• Through the Woods” / Episode: A Snowy Morning (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The Fred Rogers Company, PIP Animation Services)

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children

• Buddy Thunderstruck” / Episode: To Protect and Swerve / Robo Truck of the Future (Stoopid Buddy and American Greetings for Netflix)
• Lost in Oz / Episode: The Pearl of Pingaree (Amazon Studios)
• Niko and the Sword of Light / Episode: From the Cliffs of Catastrophe to the Pools of Destiny (Amazon Studios)
• Tangled: The Series / Episode: Queen for a Day (Walt Disney Television Animation)
• We Bare Bears / Episode: Panda’s Art (Cartoon Network Animation Studios)

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

The ghost of Freddie Mercury on BIG MOUTH

• Big Mouth” / Episode: Am I Gay? (Netflix)
• BoJack Horseman” / Episode: Stupid Piece of Sh*t (Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix)
• Rick and Morty / Episode: 303 -“Pickle Rick” (Williams Street Productions)
• Robot Chicken / Episode: Freshly Baked: The Robot Chicken Santa Claus Pot Cookie Freakout Special: Special Edition (Stoopid Buddy Stoodios)
• Samurai Jack” / Episode: XCIII (Adult Swim)

BIG MOUTH! That 'Am I Gay?' episode is one of the best ones in that delightfully raunchy series about unruly teenage hormones.

Best Student Film

• Cradle (Devon Manney)
• Elsewhere (Junyi Xiao)
• Good Night, Everybuds! (Director: Benedikt Hummel, Sound Design & Mix: Lena Beck, Music: Andreas Pfeiffer, Producer: Stefan Michel)
• Once a hero (Xia Li)
• Poles Apart (Director: Paloma Baeza; Producer: Ser En Low, All Student Crew)

Keep an eye out for Cradle which is the only one of these that's also on the 10 wide Oscar finalist list.

Animated Effects in an Animated Production

• “Avatar Flight of Passage” (VFX Supervisor: Thrain Shadbolt Sr.; Richard Baneham; Compositing Supervisor: Sam Cole; CG Supervisor: Pavani Rao Boddapati; Daniele Tosti)
• Cars 3 (Development & Effects Artist: Amit Baadkar; Effects Lead: Greg Gladstone; Stephen Marshall; Tim Speltz; Effects Supervisor: Jon Reisch)
• Coco (Effects Artist: Shaun Galinak; Jason Johnston; Carl Kaphan; Effects Lead: Dave Hale; Keith Daniel Klohn)
• Despicable Me 3 (Computer Graphics Supervisor: Bruno Chauffard; Frank Baradat; Lighting & Compositing Supervisor: Nicolas Brack; Effects Supervisor: Milo Riccarand)
• Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (Head of Effects: Christopher Hendryx; Effects Animator: Dan Lund; Mike Navarro; Hiroaki Narita; Steven Chitwood)

Avatar Flight of Passage was so amazing. Not sure it's worth the hours and hours of waiting so do it Fast Pass at Disney World. Totally worth it on Fast Pass.

Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• DreamWorks Trolls Holiday (Character Animator: Kevan Shorey (Character: All Characters))
• DreamWorks Trolls Holiday (Lead Animator: Ben Willis (Character: All Characters))
• DreamWorks Trolls Holiday (Character Animator: Onur Yeldan (Character: All Characters))
• Trollhunters” / Episode: 205 – “Homecoming (Character Animator: Bruno Chiou; Yi-Fan Cho (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!); Lead Animator: Kevin Jong; Chun-Jung Chu (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!))
• Tumble Leaf” / Episode: Rutabagels / Okra-Ball (Character Animator: Michael Granberry (Character: Maple, Fig, Stick and Okra); Joe Heinen (Character: Fig, Gourd, Coco, Maple, Pine, Zucchini, Okra, Grubs, Chicks and Beetle Bus); Rachel Larsen (Character: Coco, Pine, Maple, Fig, Stick and Okra); Hilary Lile (Character: Maple, Fig and Okra); Dan MacKenzie (Character: Pine, Fig, Gourd, Rutabaga, Beetles, Coco, Okra and Maple))

Have I ever told you I love love love Trollhunters? Probably. I would have written about it but there are a ton of episodes so way too many to write about.

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Animator: John Chun Chiu Lee (Character: All characters))
• Coco (Animator: Allison Rutland (Character: All characters))
• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (Animator: Marco Nguyen (Character: all characters in scene); Directing Animator: Benjamin Renner (Character: all characters in scene); Supervising Animator: Patrick Imbert (Character: all characters in scene))
• The Boss Baby (Animation Supervisor: Bryce McGovern (Character: various))
• The Boss Baby (Animation Supervisor: Rani Naamani (Character: various))

Strange that the character animation awards dont seem to have any rhyme or reason (see the others in that field of animation as this list continues). Sometimes the same film gets multiple nominations. Sometimes the characters are "all" sometimes "various" and sometimes specific characters are named. Shouldn't the awards be divvied up in this same way? One award for individual characters, one for more general character animation qualities, etcetera?

Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Valerian and the city of a thousand planets

• Game of Thrones” / S7 Ep.6 Beyond The Wall (Animation Supervisor: Paul Story; Animation Lead: Todd Labonte; Creatures Lead: Matthew Muntean; Senior Modeller: Cajun Hylton; Texture Artist: Georgy Arevshatov)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Animation Supervisor: Arslan Elver; Lead Animator: Liam Russell; Alvise Avati; Alessandro Cuicci)
• Kong: Skull Island (Animation Supervisor: Jance Rubinchik; Animation Lead: Adrian Millington; Animator: Alberto Martinez Arce; Kyle Winkelman)
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Senior Facial Modeller: Andrei Coval; Animation Supervisor: Paul Story; Eric Reynolds; Shader TD: Olivier Lesaint; Shader TD: Artur Vill)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (Animation Supervisor: Daniel Barrett; Sidney Kombo Kintombo; Emile Ghorayeb; Lead Motion Editor: Luisma Lavin Peredo; Lead Facial Modeller: Alessandro Bonora)

Character Animation in a Video Game

• Cuphead (Lead Animator: Hanna Abi-Hanna (Characters: The Devil, Grim Matchstick, Beppi The Clown, Werner Werman))
• Cuphead (Lead Animator: Tina Nawrocki (Characters: Baroness Von Bon Bon, Hopus Pocus, Pirouletta, Giant, Tipsy Troupe, Lobster, Porkrind, Dragonfly, The Devil – DEATH))
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Character Animator: Chris Goodall; Jitaik Lim; Kirill Spiridonov (Character: Senua))
• Horizon Zero Dawn (Lead Animator: Richard Oud (Character: All mechanical creatures); Kevin Quaid (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Niek Neervens; Jonathan Colin (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Peer Lemmers (Character: All mechanical creatures))
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Lead Animator: Almundena Soria; Keith Paciello; Paul Augustus Davies (Character: All Characters))

Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Queen Usurna in Trollhunters

• Buddy Thunderstruck / Episode: Buddy Double / Beaver Dam Fast Pizza (Character Designer: Ryan Wiesbrock; Becky van Cleve; Rob Ronning; Nikki Rice Malki; Felicia Bleu Rose (Character: Buddy Thunderstruck, Darnell, Moneybags, Big Tex, Jacko + all other characters))
• Danger & Eggs” / Episode: Tube of Pain / Broccoli (Character Design: Mike Owens (Character: Phillip))
• Samurai Jack” / Episode: XCVI (Character Design: Craig Kellman (Character: Various))
• Tangled: The Series” / Episode: Tangled Before Ever After (Co-Executive Producer: Shane Prigmore (Character: Rapunzel, Eugene, Maximus, Cassandra); Character Designer: Bobby Pontillas (Character: King Frederick, Queen Arianna, Landy Caine, Fidella); Character Designer: Taylor Krahenbuhl (Character: Pub Thugs); Character Designer: Mayumi Nose (Character: Pascal))
• Trollhunters” / Episode: Ep 201 – “Escape from the Darklands” (Character Designer: Jules Rigolle; Alfredo Torres (Character: Goblins, Dictatious, Enrique, Gum Gums, Gunmar, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth); Lead Texture Artist: Linda Chen (Character: Goblins, Dictatious, Enrique, Gum Gums, Gunmar, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth); Art Director: Rustam Hasanov (Character: Gunmar, Goblins and Gumm Gumms); Color Key Artist: Alfonso Blaas (Character: Enrique, Goblins, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth, Gumm Gumms))

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Character Art Director: Daniel Arriaga (Character: All characters); Additional Character Art Direction: Daniela Strijleva (Character: All characters); Character Design/Sculptor: Greg Dykstra (Character: All characters); Character Modeller: Alonso Martinez (Character: All characters); Character Designer: Zaruhi Galstyan (Character: All characters))
• Despicable Me 3 (Character Designer: Eric Guillon (Character: All, Balthazar Bratt, Dru, Gru, Minions, Valerie Da Vinci, Gru’s Mom, Vincenzo, Freedonians))
• Smurfs: The Lost Village (Character Designer: Patrick Mate (Character: Multiple Characters))
• The Boss Baby (Character Designer: Joe Moshier (Character: Various))
• The Breadwinner (Character Design: Reza Riahi (Character: Story World Characters/Rough Design); Character Design: Louise Bagnall (Character: Story World Characters/Clean Character Design); Concept Artist/Character Texture Artist: Alice Dieudonné (Character: Story World Characters/Texture Design))

Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular! (Director: Dave Wasson; Director: Eddie Trigueros; Director: Alonso Ramirez-Ramos)
• Dragons: Race to the Edge” / Episode: Sandbusted (Director: T.J. Sullivan)
• Tangled: The Series” / Episode: Tangled Before Ever After (Director: Tom Caulfield; Director: Stephen Sandoval)
• The Simpsons – Treehouse of Horror XXVIII (Director: Timothy Bailey)
• Trollhunters” / Episode: Ep 211 – “Unbecoming (Director: Andrew Schmidt)

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Director: Lee Unkrich Pixar; Co-Director: Adrian Molina)
• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (Co-Director: Benjamin Renner; Co-Director: Patrick Imbert)
• The Boss Baby (Director: Tom McGrath)
• The Breadwinner (Director: Nora Twomey)
• The LEGO Batman Movie (Director: Chris McKay)

Interesting that this is a combo list of the main top category and its indie counterpart but then Lego Batman is thrown in for fun. Okay.

Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular! Composer: Christopher Willis
• Home Adventures With Tip & Oh” / Episode: Ep 030A – “Chercophonie” Composer: Alex Geringas
• Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures / Episode: Trouble on Tibalt Composer: Michael Kramer
• The Powerpuff Girls” / Episode: Home, Sweet Homesick Composer: Mike Reagan, Lyricist: Bob Boyle
• Tumble Leaf” / Episode: The Nature Of Friendship / The Ship Shop Composer/Lyricist: Lisbeth Scott

Music in an Animated Feature Production

• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Composer: Theodor Shapiro
• Coco (Composer: Michael Giacchino; Composer/Lyricist: Kristin Anderson-Lopez; Composer/Lyricist: Robert Lopez; Composer: Germaine Franco; Lyricist: Adrian Molina)
• Loving Vincent (Composer: Clint Mansell)
• Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (Composer/Lyricist: Elyssa Samsel; Kate Anderson; Composer: Christophe Beck)
• The Breadwinner (Composer: Mychael Danna; Jeff Danna)

Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Big Hero 6 The Series” / Episode: Baymax Returns (Production Design: Ben Plouffe; Mark Taihei; Chris Whittier; Sylvia Filcak; Amy Chen)
• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular! (Production Design: Jenny Gase-Baker; Justin Martin)
• June (Production Design: Jasmin Lai; Théo Guignard; Arthur Chaumay; Tiffany Ford; Sylvia Liu)
• Samurai Jack” / Episode: XCIII (Production Design: Scott Wills)
• The Loud House” / Episode: “Tricked!” (Production Design: Amanda Rynda; Larry Murphy; Edgar Duncan; Hallie Wilson; Jared Morgan)

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

mary and the witches flower

• Coco (Production Design: Harley Jessup; Danielle Feinberg; Bryn Imagire; Nathaniel McLaughlin; Ernesto Nemesio; Tom Cardone; Arden Chan)
• Ferdinand (Production Design: Andrew Hickson; Mike Lee; Jason Sadler)
• Leap! (Production Design: Florent Masurel; Pierre-Antoine Moelo; Julien Meillard; Jean-Jacques Cournoyer)
• Mary and The Witch’s Flower (Production Design: Tomotaka Kubo; Tomoya Imai; Satoko Nakamura)
• The Breadwinner (Production Design: Ciaran Duffy; Julien Regnard; Daby Zainab Faidhi)

Weird that Ferdinand and Leap! and Mary and the Witch's Flower all showed up here and nowhere else. Did the Production Design nominating committee have access to more films than all the other categories or were they just feeling contrarian?

Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: Bee Inspired (Storyboard Artist: Eddie Trigueros)
• Home for the Holidays” / Episode: Ep 900 – “Tip and Oh: Home for the Holidays” (Storyboard Artist: Ben Bury)
• Niko and the Sword of Light” / Episode: From the Phantom Woods to the Mountains of Misery (Storyboard Artist: Kim Arndt; Alexandria Kwan)
• Trollhunters” / Episode: 205 – “Hero with a Thousand Faces (Storyboard Artist: David Woo)
• Trollhunters” / Episode: 213 – “In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King” (Storyboard Artist: Hyunjoo Song)

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Storyboard Artist: Dean Kelly)
• Coco (Storyboard Artist: Madeline Sharafian)
• The Boss Baby (Storyboard Artist: Glenn Harmon)
• The Breadwinner (Storyboard Artist: Julien Regnard)
• The Star (Storyboard Artist: Louie del Carmen)

Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• BoJack Horseman” / Episode: Time’s Arrow (Wendie Malick as Beatrice Horseman)
• Bunsen Is a Beast (Jeremy Rowley as Bunsen)
• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular! (Chris Diamantopoulos as Mickey Mouse)
• SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants)
• The Amazing World of Gumball” / Episode: The Grades (Nicolas Cantu as Gumball)

That Maya Rudolph wasn't nominated here for "Hormone Monstress" in Big Mouth makes this whole category absolutely useless. One of the most inspired voice performances I've ever heard.

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (Nick Kroll as Professor Poopypants)
• Coco (Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel)
• The Breadwinner  (Saara Chaudry as Parvana)
• The Breadwinner (Laara Sadiq as Fattema)
• The LEGO Batman Movie (Zach Galifianakis as Joker)

Really good category here with deserving nominees across the board.

Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Archer” / Episode: Archer Dreamland: Jane Doe (Writer: Adam Reed)
• Disney Mickey Mouse” / Episode: Locked in Love (Writer: Darrick Bachman)
• Milo Murphy’s Law” / Episode: The Island of the Lost Dakotas (Writer: Joshua Pruett)
• Rick and Morty” / Episode: 307 – “The Ricklantis Mixup” (Writer: Ryan Ridley; Dan Guterman)
• Trollhunters” / Episode: 201 – “Escape from the Darklands” (Writer: AC Bradley; Kevin Hageman; Dan Hageman; Aaron Waltke; Chad Quandt)

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Writer: Adrian Molina; Matthew Aldrich)
• Loving Vincent (Writer: Dorota Kobiela; Hugh Welchman; Jacek Dehnel)
• Mary and The Witch’s Flower (Writer: Riko Sakaguchi; Hiromasa Yonebayashi; David Freedman; Lynda Freedman)
• The Breadwinner (Writer: Anita Doron)

Why are their only 4 nominations in this category when all the other categories have 5? Press release mistake? Copy and paste mistake? Internet sharing mistake? Annie mistake?

Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

• Bob’s Burgers” / Episode: Bob, Actually Mark Seymour; Chuck Smith; Eric Davidson
• BoJack Horseman” / Episode: Stupid Piece of Sh*t Jose Martinez
• Dinotrux” / Episode: Ep 053 – “Superchargers” William Rinaldi; Justin Baker
• Pickle and Peanut” / Episode: Bear-I-cade John Royer
• Samurai Jack” / Episode: XCIII, XCIV, XCIX Paul Douglas

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

• Coco (Steve Bloom; Lee Unkrich; Greg Snyder; Tim Fox)
• Ferdinand (Harry Hitner; Tim Nordquist)
• The Breadwinner (Darragh Byrne )
• The LEGO Batman Movie (David Burrows; Matt Villa; John Venzon)
• The Star (Pamela Ziegenhagen)

What do you make of the Annie nominations this year?

Comments

[Thomas]

The screenplay of Loving Vincent is terrible. Why nominate it?

[par]

i was thinking bob's burgers must not have submitted until i hit editorial [whatever that is]; surely it's deserving in series, music, writing and voice acting?? [tina belcher moan]

[Jonathan]

Really missing "The Girl Without Hands" here... was hoping it had a shot at an Oscar nomination.

[Travis C]

I didn’t see CARS 3 on principle, but DESPICABLE ME 3is almost infinitely better than LEGO BATMAN. You don’t reward a movie that throws endless pop culture references at you to try and distract you from the fact that they haven’t actually written anything funny or clever.

[ken s]

Coco is such a dull mediocrity. It would be a travesty if it wins over the ravishing Loving Vincent. And, like Jonathan, I'm disappointed that The Girl without Hands wasn't even nominated.

[ken s]

CORRECTION I meant The Breadwinner, not Coco. Damn "Enter" button.