Some random thoughts from the 44th Annie Awards:
- The sloth joke from Zootopia was played out after the first time we saw it in the Zootopia trailer. In the words of another Disney character: Let. It. Go.
- Really happy to see Kubo and the Two Strings get some recognition. Wish it had been in the box office, but glad to see it happen nonetheless. It's well deserved.
- The portrait of class: the director of Life Animated called up the subject of his documentary and three of the animators on the stage to share in the award.
- Good to see Bill and Sue Kroyer get an award for all their hard work and contributions to the field of animation. Technological Threat remains one of my favorite shorts of all time.
- Made a mental note to track down the Abyss, a student film by China's Liying Huang and Wu Zheng and Deer Flower by Studio ZAZAC.
- Funniest moment of the evening: the envelope mishap during the presentation of the Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated Production award.
- The mirror dimension sequence for Dr. Strange won the award for Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production. Very cool! Course, it reminds me that I'm gonna need to buy a bigger television when that DVD is released...
- Zootopia is doing well during the awards ceremony. And congrats to them, it's deserved, but I'm still hoping that Kubo and the Two Strings gets some more love before the night is over.
- I'm not a sports fan, but the Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant bit was pretty amusing.
- And Laika animator Jan Maas wins the award for Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work on Kubo and the Two Strings! :)
- Aaaannd, Kubo snags another award, this time for Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production!
- Am not getting the 'dog' joke that keeps popping up.
- Was worth staying up just to see Caroline Leaf and Mamoru Oshii get the Winsor McCay Award for their career contributions to the art of animation. Lovely speech by Ms. Leaf--glad to see the NFB get a shout-out and well deserved praise. What a great surprise to see that Mamoru Oshii made the trip to California to receive his award.
- James Hong is turning 88 years old this month... wow. He still looks like he's in his fifties! And still has that great sense of humor. :)
- Hm. Nothing puts a damper on the festivities like partisan politics.
- The Adventure Time "Bad Jubies" episode wins an Annie for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children. Congratulations to Kirsten Lepore! Wish she'd won 'Best Director for an Animated TV/Broadcast Production', but nice to see her get some recognition. :)
- The Red Turtle wins the Best Animated Feature - Independent. I can't wait to see this film, though will have to wait until the end of the month to see it at the Main Art Theater in Royal Oak. Time to schedule in a side-trip to the DIA.
