While it’s certainly far from the sexiest show in awards season, the Annie Awards, which honors the very best in television and feature animation, were held last night in Hollywood, and it could offer a glimpse at who could take home the Best Animated Feature Oscar in a couple of weeks. And if we’re going by what the Annies have to say, it’s going to be Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph." It positively wrecked the awards last night, winning Best Feature, Directing, Music, Voice Acting, and Writing. What’s more – the animated short that was attached to “Wreck-It Ralph” theatrically, the cutting-edge “Paperman,” won for Best Short. Right now, in some dark part of Hollywood, Jeffrey Katzenberg is fuming.
What makes Disney’s double-fisted victory so substantial is their strained relationship with the Annie Awards over the years, which seems to — with this huge night — have finally been repaired. Things got ugly when Disney and Pixar out-and-out boycotted the awards in 2011 after failing to resolve what Disney (justifiably) saw as unfair practices committed by Jeffrey Katzenberg and his DreamWorks Animation crew to sway votes in the studio’s direction. Disney somewhat begrudgingly returned last year, but were armed a tepid slate, and Gore Verbinski’s delightfully bizarre animated western “Rango” took top honors. This is the first Disney Best Feature win since 1998, for their sorrowfully underrated cross-dressing princess movie “Mulan.”
DreamWorks Animation took home lesser awards for Animated Effects and Storyboarding for “Rise of the Guardians,” while Laika’s beloved stop-motion triumph “ParaNorman” (which many in the animation community assumed would be last night’s big winner) was awarded prizes for Character Animation and Character Design in an Animated Feature. Pixar, usually an Annie Awards powerhouse, won a pair of awards- – “Brave” got Production Design in an Animated Feature, proving that those kilts didn’t just design themselves, as well as an award for Editorial in an Animated Feature.
Since the Annie Awards also acknowledge animated work in live action features, the team from Rhythm & Hues Studio, responsible for the amazing tiger, Richard Parker, in Ang Lee’s dreamy “Life of Pi,” won for Character Animation in a Live Action Production, while Industrial Light & Magic (now, thanks to Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, a proud new member of the Mouse House) took home the honors of Animated Effects in a Live Action Production for their similarly eye-popping work in “The Avengers.” Both are nominated for the Visual Effects Oscar.
We were also thrilled that Kristen Schaal won for Best Voice Acting in an Animated TV Production for “Gravity Falls,” which we consider to be the very best animated series on television. (Seriously – seek it out; it comes back with new episodes on February 14th. What are you going to be on, a romantic date or something? Scoff.) Wearing an appropriately (amazingly) cartoon-y graphic print dress, she took to the stage and thanked her husband, who “gets to, nay, has to listen to this voice everyday.” It’s worth noting that Disney also dominated on the television front – in addition to Schaal’s win for Voice Acting, “TRON: Uprising” was awarded Best Production Design and Best Character Design in an Animated TV Production. Best writing, however, went to an episode of “South Park,” making Trey Parker’s awards shelf even more cluttered.
But the clear winner of the night was “Wreck-It Ralph.” Disney Feature Animation has struggled in recent years with an identity crisis of where they fit in, both in the corporate model for Disney and in the marketplace, with half-hearted attempts at fractured fairy tales (with “Chicken Little”) and realistic family drama (“Dinosaur”). When Disney purchased Pixar and absorbed their creative top tier into Disney Feature Animation, things took a turn for the better, with solid efforts in the traditionally animated fairy tale “The Princess and the Frog” (still way underrated), the brilliant but barely seen “Winnie the Pooh” and 3D princess story “Tangled.” Standing in the shadow of Pixar has always been difficult, but this year, with the positively wonderful “Wreck-It Ralph,” which was both incredibly modern and sweetly nostalgic, a kind of videogame riff on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” they broke out. Walt Disney Feature Animation is a powerhouse once more. And everything we’ve been hearing about this winter’s Snow Queen tale “Frozen” seems to suggest that, this time next year, they’ll be taking a few more trips up to the podium to collect their awards… (“Paperman” also enthusiastically supports the kind of experimentation that Disney Feature Animation will need in order to survive the cluttered marketplace.)
It’ll interesting to see if “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Paperman” can take it home at the Oscars in just a couple of weeks. Full winners below.
PRODUCTION CATEGORIES
Best Animated Feature
Wreck-It Ralph — Disney
Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem – Illumination Entertainment
Best Animated Short Subject
Paperman (Disney)
Best General Audience Animated TV Production For Preschool Children
Bubble Guppies ‘A Tooth on the Looth’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Best Animated Television Production For Children
Dragons: Riders of Berk ‘How to Pick Your Dragon’ – DreamWorks Animation
Best General Audience Animated Television Production
Robot Chicken ‘DC Comics Special’ – Stoopid Buddy Studios
Animated Video Game
Journey – Sony Computer Entertainment America
Best Student Film
Head Over Heels – Timothy Reckart
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES
Animated Effects in an Animated Production
Andy Hayes, Carl Hooper, David Lipton – Rise of the Guardians – DreamWorks Animation
Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Jerome Platteaux, John Sigurdson, Ryan Hopkins, Raul Essig, Mark Chataway ‘The Avengers’ – Industrial Light & Magic
Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Dan Driscoll ‘SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Character Animation in a Feature Production
Travis Knight “ParaNorman’ – Focus Features
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Erik de Boer, Matt Shumway, Brian Wells, Vinayak Pawar, Michael Holzl ‘Life of Pi – Tiger’ – Rhythm & Hues Studio
Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Robert Valley ‘Disney Tron: Uprising: The Renegade, Part I’ – Disney TV Animation
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Heidi Smith ‘ParaNorman’ – Focus Features
Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
John Eng ‘Dragons: Riders of Berk: Animal House’ – DreamWorks Animation
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Rich Moore ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Music in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
John Paesano ‘Dragons: Riders of Berk: How to Pick Your Dragon’ – DreamWorks Animation
Music in an Animated Feature Production
Henry Jackman, Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen, Jamie Houston, Yasushi Akimoto ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Alberto Mielgo ‘Tron: Uprising: The Stranger’ – Disney TV Animation
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Steve Pilcher ‘Brave’ – Pixar Animation Studios
Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Doug Lovelace ‘Dragons: Riders of Berk: Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man’ – DreamWorks Animation
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Johanne Matte ‘Rise of the Guardians’ – DreamWorks Animation
Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines ‘Gravity Falls: Tourist Trapped’ – Disney TV Animation
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Alan Tudyk as King Candy ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Trey Parker – ‘South Park: Jewpacabra’ – Central Productions
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Phil Johnston, Jennifer Lee – Wreck-It Ralph – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Editorial in an Animated Television Production
Hugo Morales, Adam Arnold, Davrik Waeden, Otto Ferraye ‘Kung Fu Panda – Enter the Dragon’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
Nicholas A. Smith, ACE, Robert Graham Jones, ACE, David Suther ‘Brave’ – Pixar Animation Studios
JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay Award – Oscar Grillo, Terry Gilliam, Mark Henn
June Foray Award – Howard Green
Ub Iwerks Award – Toon Boom Animation Pipeline
