OT: Kung Fu Panda sweeps Annies; WALL-E snubbed

AtomicGreymon wrote on 1/31/2009, 6:33 PM

This years Annies was (IMO) apparently a complete farce. Kung Fu Panda won every feature-related award, and WALL-E (hailed by pretty much every critic as the Best Animated film of the year; and by others as one of the best films of the year; period... awarded Best Picture of the Year by the Los Angeles Films Critics Association) won absolutely nothing... not a single award. And neither did Bolt, when it comes to that.

In looking at the official website of the Annies, it would seem that Dreamworks is a "Gold Sponsor" of the event, while Disney and Pixar are only Silver... I guess it helps when the awards are for sale. In my opinion, there's absolutely no other way a movie like WALL-E could get nothing while the mediocre Kung Fu Panda takes home everything. And as if the awards for the film weren't enough, a special feature on its DVD nabbed another 4 awards, and even its video game got one.

Animated Feature
Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Animated Home Entertainment Production
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs, The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Animated Short Subject
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, Aardman Animations Ltd.

Animated Television Commercial
United Airlines Heart, Duck Studios

Animated Television Production
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II, ShadowMachine

Animated Television Production Produced for Children
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon

Animated Video Game
Kung Fu Panda, Activision

Animated Effects
Li-Ming Lawrence Lee, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production
James Baxter, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Television Production or Short Form
Pierre Perifel, Secrets of the Furious Five, DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Nico Marlet, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Nico Marlet, Secrets of the Furious Five, DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production
John Stevenson & Mark Osborne, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Joaquim Dos Santos, Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sozin's Comet Pt. 3, Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated Feature Production
Hans Zimmer & John Powell, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell, Secrets of the Furious Five, DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Tang Heng, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Tang Heng, Secrets of the Furious Five, DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Jen Yuh Nelson, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Chris Williams, Glagos Guest, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Dustin Hoffman, Voice of Shifu, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Ahmed Best, Voice of Jar Jar Binks, Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II, ShadowMachine

Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger, Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells, Breckin Meyer, Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II, ShadowMachine

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/31/2009, 7:29 PM

I haven't seen kung fu panda, but my son & sister who have said wall-e was better. overall.

fldave wrote on 1/31/2009, 7:41 PM

Both were great. Wall-E was a leap beyond, though.

Story, it told a stunning story. I see it said all the time here... "content". I think Wall-E strikes such a deep social statement that most overlook.

DGates wrote on 1/31/2009, 8:11 PM

Kung Fu Panda was far from mediocre. In fact, if no one told you in advance what studio was behind it, you'd swear it was done by Pixar. That's how good it was.

But you have too many fanboys that have Pixar on a pedestal and everybody else gets ridiculed.

WALL-E was great, so was KFP. So get over it.

GenJerDan wrote on 1/31/2009, 8:12 PM

Or don't overlook, but reject out of hand.

AtomicGreymon wrote on 1/31/2009, 9:06 PM

Kung Fu Panda was far from mediocre. In fact, if no one told you in advance what studio was behind it, you'd swear it was done by Pixar. That's how good it was.

lol, allright; maybe it was average, or slightly better. But ignoring studios, KFP was nothing compared to WALL-E. It certainly didn't deserve to sweep the awards like that.

Even ignoring WALL-E, it was also up against Waltz With Bashir. KFP is a joke compared to either of those contenders.

But you have too many fanboys that have Pixar on a pedestal and everybody else gets ridiculed.

Everything under the sun has fanboys. I'm not one of them, though. I didn't care for Cars, at all... it was only very slightly better than the average CG films being pumped out these days.

In looking up more about the Annies, though, it seems like almost anyone can become a member of the IAFS for a price; and be able to vote for those.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/31/2009, 10:08 PM

But you have too many fanboys that have Pixar on a pedestal and everybody else gets ridiculed.

i'm not a pixar "fanboy", I like good movies. Toy story 1 + 2 - awesome, bugs life = borrrrring (ants was much more entertaining, by dreamworks), monsters inc, nemo = slightly above average (shrek = awesome), cars = good (shrek 2 not as good as first), never saw Ratatouille (wish I did after shrek 3, crap!), wall-e = awesome (never saw panda).

I've always felt dreamworks strengths though were in live-action films, not comp animation.

DGates wrote on 2/1/2009, 12:09 AM

I agree about Cars. It was well done for what it was, but I just didn't get into it that much.

As for KFP, I actually had NO interest in seeing it. It was the good reviews that pulled me to the theaters. It was a pleasant surprise to see another animation studio equal what Pixar is putting out, considering there is so much animation crap out there that doesn't even try that hard.

OdieInAz wrote on 2/2/2009, 5:50 AM

Hmmm..... Hadn't everyone heard? KFP won 11 awards because the film is better. Pixar came out with their usual "10" quality setting. Dreamworks scooped them. They set the quality knob to "11".

So... Dreamworks at 11.... The rest is history.