Animated Thoughts: The 53rd Annual Annie Awards

My yearly thoughts on the Annie Awards...

• Only real issue I have with these student films is finding ways to watch them! There's so much creativity and skill in these films, would really like to have a showcase where we can see all the nominees.
• Best Short Subject... Gah! Other than the Girl who Cried Pearls, I haven't see any of these shorts. We need a shorts program that shows the Annie Award student nominee and professional nominee films, much like Shorts International does with the Academy Award nominated short films!
• Nice to see Aaron win the Annie for 'Snowbear'--and his Winsor McCay award from last year. His online classes have been a great source of instruction over the years.
• Well, at least we got though eleven minutes of the show without politics.
• Love, Death + Robots won Production Design in an Animated Television/Media Production, congrats to Blur Studios and Gigi Cavenago.
• Production Design in an Animated Feature goes to Sony for KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder how many they're going to win tonight?
• Y'know, I swear I've seen "Trek" somewhere before, but I can't place it. Hrm. Off to YouTube! Yup, I've seen this before. No idea where though... Ottawa maybe?
• Bobby Chiu! Glad to see him get an award. Have loved his Schoolism.com workshops.
• Music in an Animated Feature goes to KPop Demon Hunters. Called it. Though figured Zootopia 2 would give them a run for their money.
• Best Character Design TV/Media goes to Love, Death + Robots for '400 Boys'. Awesome! Though this category was really tough to predict. Some really top shelf designs there.
• Best Character Design for an Animated Feature. That was another tough one to predict. Though once I saw KPop and Spongebob on the lineup, figured it be either one of those two. Turns out I was right again. Think we're going to see a sweep of the Annies with KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder if they'll match Arcane's record of awards? Hrm Arcane was nominated for nine, how many was KPop  Demon Hunters nominated for? Ten?
• Heh. Good one Aubry! Wah-com. Now do GIF! ;)
• We love you Brock Sampson!
• Character Animation in a video game... wow! Just wow! The skill that is on the screen. Not sure how the judges could pick the winner in this category.
• Character Animation in TV/Media, not gonna lie, was kinda hoping for Asterix & Obelix...
• Best Character Animation - Feature: KPop Demon Hunters...? Yup. Though this was another tough one to call: Zootopia, Bad Guys, Little Amelie... 
• I make a mental note to check out Spice Frontier and WONDLA...
• Best Animated Effects - Feature... KPop Demon Hunters. Going to have to check out In Your Dreams though.
• Best Editorial - TV/Media... sorry, gotta give this to Invincible or Splinter Cell.
• Best Editorial - Feature... we know it's going to be 'KPop', but wouldn't mind seeing Little Amelie or Olivia & las Nubes win this one.
• Happy to see Michaël Dudok de Wit win the Winsor McCay Award, his film The Monk and the Fish is the last film I show in my Animation History class every year.
• Best Voice Acting - Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters. Closing in on Arcane...
• Not going to lie here, I liked 'KPop', but I was really hoping that Mamoru Hosoda would win the Writing in an Animated Feature Annie for Scarlet.
• Awesome! Another win for Love, Death + Robots! Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Media Production.
• Directing in an Animated Feature Production... was still rooting for Mamoru Hosoda.
• Best Animated Independent Feature goes to Arco. Hrm. Might be worth a look...
• And KPop Demon Hunters sweeps every category it was nominated in ending up with a total of ten Annies.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, the accolades are well deserved. And thank you for ASIFA Hollywood for bringing us the Annie Awards.

Animated Events: the 53rd Annual Annie Awards

Just a reminder: The 53rd Annual Annie Awards will be streaming this Saturday, February 21st on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

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Animated Thoughts: Annies and Accessibility

It's January and ASIFA Hollywood has has released their listing of films nominated for the 51st annual Annie Awards.

With the second season of Arcane still months away and not having seen many of the features or television series, I'm a little out of sorts on who to cheer for. 

At this point, I've seen Suzume but only have a couple of the nominees on my list of  films to watch--those being: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Boy and the Heron, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, Robot Dreams, The Inventor, and White Plastic Sky. I also need to watch Invincible: Atom Eve before the second half of Invincible, season two is released, but that's neither here-nor-there. The rest of the nominated films really don't seem to be capturing my interest. They may be good films for all I know, but when I look at the trailers, I'm just not feeling them.

I have the same problem every season when the new anime is released. I start out with a sizable list of shows that look good from the trailers, but when I get two or three episodes in, the luster fades. Out of the eight shows I've started this season, so far, only Delicious in Dungeon, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, and Solo Leveling are holding my attention (I'm still on the fence with A Sign of Affection). And last season, I started with four and only season two of Goblin Slayer made the cut. On the bright side, it does give me enough time to go back and finish watching Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and Skeleton Knight in Another World. I discovered those a little late in the season, so fortunately all those episodes are out right now. Though I really do need to finish those two series before the Spring as Kaiju No. 8 is due out in April and Loner Life in Another World is due out "sometime" in 2024.

Then, in February/March, the DIA is showing the Academy Award Nominated animated films so I'll be driving down to Detroit to watch those... and my copy of the late Paul Bush's film Babeldom arrived from England... want to rewatch that film sooner rather than later... and the last two Arpeggio of Blue Steel animated features arrived from Japan earlier this month...  ah, so much animation, so little time to fit it all in. A good problem to have now that I think about it.

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Animated Thoughts: The 50th Annual Annie Awards

 

Well, tonight was the 50th anniversary of ASIFA Hollywood's Annie Awards and also my ramblings on the always entertaining awards ceremony.

• Opening the 50th with Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants.
• Hrm, don't recall seeing Ice Merchants. Looks to be worth a look. Fortunately, it's on the New Yorker's YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/mhj74ZjfaQ8).
• Best Special Production: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. I just love the visual style of this film. Can't wait to watch it.
• June Foray Award goes to animation historian Mindy Johnson and is well deserved!
• I'm reminded of the fact that I need to watch Phil Tippett's Mad God.
• Best Character Design in TV/Media goes to Blur Studio's Alberto Mieglo for the Jibaro episode of Love Death + Robots! What an awesome win for an incredible episode of animated film.
• Best Character Animation in TV/Media goes to Tim Watts for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse.
• Another great win for Love, Death + Robots: Animated Effects in an Animated TV/Media Production for the Bad Traveling episode.
• Editing in an Animated TV/Media Production, another win for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. This film is having a really good night!
• Was very touching to see Evelyn Lambart posthumously receive the Winsor McCay award. I really loved seeing the montage of films, photos, and interviews featuring Evelyn. It's always a treat to see her work shown to a larger audience.
• Was even more touching to see how ASIFA Hollywood brought out Lauren Faust to present the Winsor McCay award to her husband Craig McCracken.
• Hrm. So they bring in Bob Iger to present Pete Docter's Winsor McCay award. And when they do the montage for Pete Docter's career, they blank out the video that's being streamed to online audiences "Due to copyright and clearance issues..." Ooookay...
• Another win for Love, Death + Robots: Andrew Kevin Walker won Best Writing/ TV/Media for the Bad Traveling episode.
• They produced a stop-mo segment for when the Tiny Chef Show won Best Animated TV Production for Preschool Children--with the Tiny Chef presenting the congratulatory speech. That was pretty clever.
• Really like how they've added the 'Best Animated TV/Media Production, Limited Series' category. That was a really classy decision--to shine light on some shows that would otherwise be overlooked.
• Not sure if Guillermo del Toro ad-libbed some of his lines but he sure was funny.
• Love, Death + Robots is having a great night as Emily Dean won the award for Storyboarding in an Animated Televison/Media Production for the Very Pulse of the Machine episode.
• I make a mental note to track down exception / エクセプション and watch the Misprint episode.
• Another win for the Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, this time Directing in an Animated television/Media Production. Now I really can't wait to watch this film.
• I bump My Father's Dragon up on the list of features I want to watch.
• A very gracious and humbling yet energetic speech from Guillermo del Toro when he won the Annie for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for Pinocchio.
• Am a little embarrassed that I haven't seen any of the entries in the Best Indie Feature category.
• And Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio wins the Best Animated Feature. I quickly log on Netflix to add it to my queue.

Congratulations to all the winners and the nominees.

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Animated Events: the 50th Annual Annie Awards

Well, the nominees for the 50th annual Annie Awards have been announced by ASIFA Hollywood. The following are the nominees for the three main categories that I'm most interested in:

Best Feature

• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
• The Sea Beast
• Turning Red
• Wendell & Wild

Best Indie Feature

• Charlotte
• Inu-Oh
• Little Nicholas, Happy As Can Be
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
• My Father's Dragon

Best Short Subject

• Amok
• Black Slide
• Ice Merchants
• Love, Dad
• The Flying Sailor

Sadly, due to the lingering travel restrictions preventing me from attending animation festivals, this is the first time in recent memory that I haven't seen any of the nominees. On the bright side, I do have Netflix, so a private screening of Wendell & Wild and My Father's Dragon is in my future.

The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 7 p.m. PST.

Congratulations to all the nominees. I look forward to seeing who wins in February. You can see a full list of the nominees and watch the ceremony streamed online at: https://annieawards.org.

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Annies and Oscars, 2022 edition

It was a good day for animation.

This weekend was the 49th annual Annie Awards, a celebration of animation's highest honors presented by ASIFA Hollywood. And it was also the day that animation luminary Ron Diamond hosted a private screening of the Oscar nominated animated short films -- and members of ASIFA were invited!

Given the restrictions that the DIA's Detroit Film Theater were still imposing on those of us who couldn't safely get the jab or had natural immunity, making my yearly trip to the DFT to spend a day appreciating some art before watching the Academy Award nominated short animated film program, well, it wasn't going to happen.

Fortunately, it was Ron Diamond to the rescue! Ron runs the Animation Show of Shows, a yearly curated program of animated short films that gets shown at arthouse theaters and colleges all across the country. So, this year he had a program dedicated entirely to the Oscar animated shorts. And as a member of ASIFA Central, I was sent a code to their website where Ron opened with a discussion about the awards and the films we'd be watching, followed by the program, and bookended with live interviews with some of the filmmakers. It was a good start to the day!

Later that evening, the Annies were streamed on their website. Everything was pretty much pre-recorded since they wouldn't be live streaming from the Royce Theater again this year. But, it is what it is. At least we were able to enjoy the show online rather than not at all. If you didn't get the chance to watch the show during the first broadcast(?), it can be viewed on the online in its entirety at: Annie Awards - Watch It Live and you can also download this year's program book on the same page.

And, thus, my yearly 'random thoughts I had while watching the show':

• Still loving that zoetrope animation that opens the ceremony!
• Best Short Subject: Night Bus had my vote to win. Saw it at the Ottawa fest... really quirky film that I found myself getting into for both the technical production and the story.
  
• "2021 was a continuation of the ongoing pandemic stress, yet animation continued striving and successfully leading the entertainment industry. More animation is being produced today than ever before and that bodes well for all of us." Very encouraging words from ASIFA Hollywood President Sue Shakespeare.
  
• June Foray Award: Was very pleased to see Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita get some recognition for all their work in the field of animation.
  
• Best Production Design in an Animated TV/Media Production:  Arcane!!!!! A good start for one of the best animated series I've ever seen.
• Best production Design in an Animated Feature Production: Y'know, I was really hoping for Belle.
• I like how the awards are moving at more of a steady clip since we don't have to watch people walk down to the front of the Royce theater and accept their award--and give an extended speech before being played off by music--but the virtual format does seem to lack a little luster and the pomp & circumstance of the live awards ceremony.
• Character Design in an Animated TV/Media Production: Arcane again! So happy to see them pull this award. So rarely do the films I love get recognition, I'm gonna start crying any minute now. :)
• Glenn Vlippu received the Special Achievement award--and is very well deserved.
• Really liked how Dina Sherman was in a different location every time when she announced the next award and its presenters. Seemed a little odd at first, but it really grows on you.
• Character Animation in an Animated Television/Media Production: goes to Arcane!!!!! Wow. Just... wow! Wouldn't it be awesome if Arcane took home every award in all nine categories it was nominated in?
• Hrm. Didn't realize that the Annies started back in '72. Knew June Foray was the driving force behind the awards, but 1972? Hrm. I'm sure I'd heard that before, it just never registered with me.
  
• Animated Effects in an Animated Television/Media Production... Arcane wins again. My jaw is on the floor!
  
• Yeah, I really need to watch the Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf animated feature and the Castlevania series this year... :o
• Animated Effects in an Animated Feature Production... Please oh please let it be Belle... aaaand... nope. :(
• Editing in an Animated TV/Media Production: What If...Ultron Won... My favorite episode from my favorite show in the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- So freaking awesome!!!
• One of the Winsor McKay Awards goes to Lillian Schwartz -- Wow. So many years later, so many advances in computer imagery, and her work still holds up. The mark of a master filmmaker.
  
• Another to Toshio Suzuki. Ah, the Annie Awards, one of the few awards shows where Anime actually gets some of the respect they deserve for their contributions to the art form. Toshio Suzuki. A titan in the industry but, like Isao Takahata before him, spends more time recognizing the people who work for and with him at Studio Ghibli. Man, such a class act.
• And the third to Ruben Akino whose body of work embodies so many of the pivotal films from those years when I was studying to become an animator. Watching those clips, it was like I was sitting in the theater just off campus during college and grad school all over again.
  
• Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Media Production: goes to Ella Purnell - HELL YES!!!!! Let's hear it for Jinx! Arcane is set to sweep the awards after all! Gonna have to watch the whole series again while I still have a little time before the Spring season of Anime is here.
• Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production: was really hoping for a win for John Leguizamo, easily one of the best character actors of our generation. I can't think of a single film of his that I've seen, live action or animated, where he didn't bring his 'A' game and produced a stellar performance.
  
• Writing in an Animated Television/Media Production: Another well deserved award for Arcane!!!
• Writing in an Animated Feature Production: Nope. Still hoping that Belle would get 'some' love during the ceremony. But, there's still the best Indie Feature.
• In Memoriam... always a tough segment to watch. Brenda Banks, Giannalberto Bendazzi, Jacques Drouin, we lost some real heavy hitters this past year and the community is diminished because of it.
  
• Wow!! They got Momoro Hosoda (the director of Belle) to present an awards category. Very cool. Not "Belle wins some awards" cool, but still, a nice consolation.
  
• Best General Audience Animated Television/Media Production: Hell yes!!! Another richly deserved award for Arcane!!!
• Tomm Moore is presenting for the Annies. Very cool. I still have my drawing/watercolor of Pangur Bán that he sent me back when I purchased the PAL version of Brendan and the Secret of Kells and had it shipped in from Ireland (this was before GKIDS picked it up for North American distribution). Think I'll get it framed this year.
  
• Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Media Production: Goes to Arcane! One more award and Arcane sweeps the Annies!!!!
• Directing in an Animated Television/Media Production: AND ARCANE SWEEPS EVERY CATEGORY THAT THEY'RE IN!!! Would've also been cool to see Love Death + Robots or Invincible get some love, but I'm so blown away about all the accolades for Arcane. It's so well deserved. And so refreshing to see it happen.
• So great to see John Leguizamo back at the Annies.
• Best Indie Feature: And no love for Belle. What a disappointment. A somber reminder that my tastes are usually way different than most of the viewing public and that we've got a long way to go before Japanese animation fully receives the recognition that it rightfully deserves. At least the DVD comes out in May. I'll get to watch it again and again in the privacy of my home theater.
  

My 'Pangur Bán' watercolor by
Tomm More of Cartoon Saloon

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Animated Events: the 49th Annual Annie Awards

www.annieawards.org

This year, the 49th Annual Annie Awards will be held on Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 10 p.m. EST. 

 

Hosted by ASIFA Hollywood, the Annies celebrate the yearly achievements of the animation and VFX industry. 

 

My personal favorites are the best animated feature categories, for many reasons but not the least of which is how they bring up fond memories of driving to Ontario the weekend before Thanksgiving to attend the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema--the only animation festival in the world that was dedicated to showing animated feature films and the only place that I could see a lot of the indie features that would get nominated every year.

In the animated feature categories, the nominees are as follows.

Best Feature:

• Encanto
• Luca
• Raya and the Last Dragon
• Sing 2
• The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Best Indie Feature:

• Belle
• Flee
• Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
• Pompo the Cinephil
• The Summit of the Gods

I used to make it a point to watch all the feature film nominees -- the Ottawa Festival and WFAC made it real easy -- however this year, other than 'Mitchells' none of the films in the Best Feature category interest me, so I'll probably watch 'Mitchells' on Netflix before the ceremony. Belle is playing here in Lansing over the next two weeks and I'm purchasing my ticket today. Not sure if I want to see it in IMAX format, but I do plan to watch the subtitled version so I can see the film in as close to the director's original intention as possible.

 

Had the opportunity to watch The Summit of the Gods this past weekend. It was good production with some really solid storytelling and beautiful visuals. I'd recommend it to anyone but be warned that it's a more mature story. Don't watch it expecting a Disney/Pixar musical.

So far though, there aren't any opportunities to see any of the other indie features around Michigan, but as GKIDS is distributing 'Lady Nikuko' and 'Pompo', I have high hopes that they'll be shown around here soon.

 

And I have to give a special shout out to three entries in other categories. These three animated series were some of the best I've seen in years and well deserving of their nominations. Arcane is in my list of the top five best animated series I've ever seen.

Arcane (Riot Games/Fortishe Productions/Netflix) was nominated in the following nine categories:

• Best TV/Media - General Audience - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best FX - TV/Media - Episode: Oil and Water
• Best Character Animation - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created
• Best Character Design - TV/Media - Episode: Some Mysteries Better Left Unsolved
• Best Direction - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created
• Best Production Design - TV/Media - Episode: Happy Progress Day!
• Best Storyboarding - TV/Media - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best Voice Acting - TV/Media - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best Writing - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created

Invincible (Amazon Studios) was nominated for 'Best Storyboarding - TV/Media' for the episode "Where I Really Come From"

 

And Love, Death + Robots (Blur Studio/Netflix) was nominated in the following five categories:

• Best TV/Media - General Audience - Episode: Ice 
• Best Character Animation - TV/Media - Episode: All Through the House
• Best Production Design - TV/Media - Episode: Ice
• Best Storyboarding - TV/Media - Episode: Pop Squad
• Best Editorial - TV/Media - Episode: Pop Squad

Congratulations to all the nominees. I look forward to seeing who wins in February. You can see a full list of the nominees and watch the ceremony streamed online at: https://annieawards.org.

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Animated Thoughts: Annies and Oscars, pt. 1

It was an animated weekend. Friday, after teaching my animation history class, I quickly finished grading most of the daily writing assignments, then tuned in to the 48th Annual Annie Awards -- presented on ASIFA Hollywood's "annieawards.org" website. If you haven't watched the ceremony yet, it's in the YouTube video embedded below. Some random thoughts I had about the ceremony are as follows:

• Really liked the animation that they showed at the beginning with the spinning zoetrope award animated through various styles.
• Hrm... need to see Hertzfeld's latest film sooner rather than later.
• Daisuke Tsutsumi seems like a really decent fellow. Very humble.
• We love you Brock Sampson!
• Nice to see Cartoon Saloon getting some love.
• Shroom's Odyssey by Piccalo Pictures - I put this on my list of films to track down.
• Am really liking the zoetrope bumper animations!
• Awards ceremony seems to be going at a pretty steady clip since people don't have to walk to and from the front of the auditorium.
• Another win for Wolfwalkers. Cartoon Saloon is getting the love tonight!
• Heh. The Frank Gladstone teleconference "cat" filter thing was funny...
• Epic Games' Unreal engine has come a really looooong way! :o
• Hoping against hope that Riot Games wins the award for Best Character Animation - Video Game... they didn't :(
• Nora Twomey is looking healthy. Glad she beat cancer. The industry would be greatly diminished without her.
• Definitely need to watch Transformers: War for Cybertron.
• Y'know, Over the moon looks interesting. Might have to put that one and Croods: A New Age on my list of features to track down.
• Hrm. Pixar's Soul is getting some love tonight.
• Heh. Pixar's Lamp Life looks funny.
• Yeah, still need to see Farmageddon. My list of features to watch continues to grow! I really miss the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema. :(
• Would love to hear all those stories about Willie Ito... Loved the little video trick they did for the presenting of his Windsor McCay Award.
• Bruce W. Smith was pretty funny and sincere. Great acceptance speech for his Windsor McCay Award.
• Okay, not the biggest Critical Role fan, but their intro was clever. Reminds me of the "Play All" gag on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD.
• Wolfwalkers wins again--this time for voice acting. Good night for Cartoon Saloon.
• Okay the Pixar best writing award "because of zoom" intro was hysterical! Soul is getting bumped up on my list of animated features to catch up on once the semester is over.
• Loved the animated portrait shout out to Brenda Banks during the In Memoriam video.
• Oh wow! I had forgotten that Gene Deitch had passed. Man that stings. I remember reading his part-bio/part-lessons for animators e-book on AWN.com many years ago. :(
• Probably the best, most touching 'In Memoriam' segment I've ever seen. with the animated portraits of select artists.
• Tartakovsky's Primal won the award for Best TV/Media - General Audience. Still need to watch Primal but that opening sequence is so freaking brutal!
• Primal wins again... Glad Tartakovsky is getting some love... not sure about the 'shower scene' acceptance speech though.
• Wolfwalkers wins again! Best Direction Feature.
• Best Indie Feature: Wolfwalkers! Cartoon Saloon wins big tonight!
• Best Feature: Soul with a pretty clever acceptance speech by Pixar. I wonder if the award winners were told ahead of time so they could film these acceptance speech videos?

Afterwards, I finished grading the last few papers and shuffled downstairs to watch the latest episode of Invincible. I know that it premieres on Thursday night, but I kind of like watching it on Fridays. Nice treat for getting all my grading done.

Next on my list would be finding time to watch the Academy Award nominated shorts through the program that the DIA set up...

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Animated Events: The 48th Annual Annie Awards

 

Nominations for the 48th annual Annie awards are live on their website and can be viewed at: https://annieawards.org/nominations

In the Best Feature category, Pixar appears to be starting strong with two entries: Onward and Soul. DreamWorks is matching them with two entries as well: The Croods: A New Age and Trolls World Tour. Additionally, Netflix/BRON Animation/Creative Wealth Media is in the running with their feature The Willoughbys.

Since I haven't seen any of the corporate features in the above list, of a little more interest to me is the Best Indie Feature Category with Studiocanal/Aardman Animation's A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Maybe Movies/Norlum's Calamity Jane, Rock'n Roll Mountain/Tip Top's On-Gaku: Our Sound, Science SARU's Ride Your Wave, and finally Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions/GKIDS film Wolfwalkers.

So far, I've seen Ride Your Wave and Wolfwalkers. Personally, I hope to see Farmageddon, Onward, Soul, and the Croods before the Annies, but that is about all the spare time I think I'll have in order to get caught up with feature-length films.

The Annies will be broadcast online on Friday, April 16th, 2021 starting at 7 p.m. and the links to view the ceremony are usually posted on their website: https://annieawards.org. As always, I'll be posting my thoughts about the ceremony in the weeks thereafter.

Best wishes and congratulations to all the nominees.

* * *

Animated Thoughts: New year, New thoughts

After a disappointing and uncertain 2020, I started the year out strong: was brought back to teach Animation History at Central Michigan University and they're looking to bring me back in the Fall to teach again. The two-hour commute is a bit grating, but it's only once per week and I really enjoy the course material. That and I am having fun bonding with the students over our mutual love of animation. If you have the time, I highly recommend Maureen Furniss's book: A New History of Animation.

Conventions are still pretty much on hiatus, though even more seem to be going online this year. Gen Con is doing surveys to gauge public opinion, but a lot of us think that it's likely that Gen Con 2021 will be virtual like last year. It's nice that a lot of these con organizers are doing "something" but online cons are still not the same. I just don't feel the same sense of community from a virtual convention. But, I sheepishly must admit, it is nice to have more money to spend on games and such since you're not paying for travel and hotels.

It looks like ASIFA Hollywood has moved the date for the 2021 Annie Awards. It's now being held on Friday, April 16th and they've gone completely virtual this year. As I normally watch it online--streamed through their website--there's really no change for me this year. I'm just happy to watch the show any way that I can.

And TAIS workshops and courses are in full swing and scheduled out to April. I'm a little crestfallen that I missed out on the Animated Documentary workshop. I was just too busy getting ready for teaching at CMU. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out a little time this year to take a TAIS workshop or course (or two) and make that investment in my skillset and knowledgebase. Gotta keep moving forward no matter what the future looks like.

As the fortune cookie once told me: "May you live in interesting times."

* * *

Animated Thoughts: The 47th Annie Awards

Well, the 47th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone. Time for the yearly "random thoughts" I had during the broadcast:

• Opened by honoring Richard Williams. Nice. Very touching words from his daughters and colleague.
• I immediately put Shadowmachine's Kaiju Confidential on my list of animations to track down and watch.
• "Saving the polar bears" in... Antarctica... Um... whut?
• Please God, let Fox and the Pigeon win Best Student Film!
• YES!!!!! Congrats to Michelle Chua for such a beautiful film. One of my favorites from Ottawa the other year.
• Best Short Subject... Hrm. Haven't seen 'Uncle Thomas' yet. Was hoping that Acid Rain would win -- though I reserve the right to change my opinion once I see the others in that category.
• Hi Jerry! :)
• Oh please, Love, Death, and Robots (The Witness) is nominated for Best Production Design - TV/Media!!! Let an adult-themed animation win...
• Heh, the Clutch Cargo gag was pretty clever. Loved the mini history lesson.
• Love Death And Robots (Sonnie's Edge) wins again! This time in the category of Music TV Media. A great night for adult animation!
• Loved Charles Solomon's part on early CG animation honoring Dr. James Blinn with the Ub Iwerks award. Dr. Blinn sounded like a fascinating man. Wonder if there's a Ted talk or podcast out there with him.
• Oh please, let The Secret War win Best FX TV/Media... that would be just awesome!
• And another win for Love Death and Robots. This has got to be my favorite Annie Award ceremony ever!
• And the award for Editorial TV/Media goes to... Love Death and Robots (Alternate Histories)!
• Henry Selick wins the Winsor McCay award, and is well deserved. Would love to hang out with him at the OIAF picnic and listen to him tell stories about his career.
• Satoshi Kon posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay award. Very well deserved. A life and a career that ended far too soon.
• Y'know, as much as I like Patrick Warburton (we love you Brock Sampson), I'm really enjoying this new format where there are fewer monologues and they 'appear' to have given more time to the award recipients' speeches.
• Hrm... The Hospital by Amazon Studios... looks interesting. Time to take advantage of that Amazon Prime subscription.
• Love, Death & Robots missed out on the Best Storyboarding for T.V./Media award. Would have loved a full sweep but happy that they won at least four of the five categories they were nominated in.
• Kind of wished I'd watched I Lost My Body at Ottawa... honestly glad it won the award. Going to have to re-up my Netflix subscription and track it down.
• Lotta love for Netflix this year!

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. See you next year! :)

*  *  *

Animated Events: 47th Annie Awards

On Saturday, January 25th at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Frozen 2 - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - DreamWorks Animation
• Klaus - Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
• Missing Link - LAIKA, LLC
• Toy Story 4 - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles - Sygnatia, Glow, Submarine, Hampa Animation Studio
• I Lost My Body - Xilam for Netflix
• Okko's Inn - Madhouse
• Promare - TRIGGER, XFLAG
• Weathering With You - Toho Co., LTD. / STORY Inc. / CoMix Wave Films

Best Animated Short Subject

• Acid Rain - Animoon
• DONT KNOW WHAT - Thomas Renoldner
• Je sors acheter des cigarettes - Miyu Productions
• Purpleboy - Bando à Parte, Rainbox Productions, Ambiances… asbl, Luna Blue Film
• Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days - Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 47th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: The 46th Annie Awards

Well, the 46th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• "The Ventura Brothers"... wut!?
• I put Mind Palace by the Filmakademie Badem-Württemberg GmbH on my list of films to track down.
• Weekends won the Best Animated Short Subject award, and deservedly so.
• Always glad to see Gobelins, L'École de L'Image get some recognition.
• Even more glad to see Age of Sail get some recognition. Need to take a closer look at Google Spotlight Stories.
• Wow! Am impressed by what films they're preserving -- especially those Terrytoons films. Wish we could get a screening of those out here for our ASIFA chapter!
• Am pleasantly surprised to see how much mileage studios are getting out of older properties like Rocky & Bullwinkle, Mickey Mouse, and Tom & Jerry.
• "Hi Brooke!" *waves back* :)
• The Blender demo reel was pretty impressive!
• Hrm... I like those ASIFA Hollywood lapel pins...
• Am baffled by how many awards Spider-man is getting. The animation in the trailers looks so choppy it's really distracting. Welp. That tears it. Gonna have to go see the movie for myself.
• Sometimes the jokes go on a little too long. Remember what Bill Plympton taught us: Keep it short, keep it funny!
• Every time they bring up Bill and Sue Kroyer, I have visions of sitting in the Odeon theater and seeing Technological Threat for the first time.
• Huh. So that's what Pinky and the Brain look like.
• Next year, need to download the program before the ceremony.
• "the right voice can make or break a cartoon..." Wow. That one statement needs to be hammered into the consciousness of every director (he said after watching one too many bad English dubs).
• "We love you Brock Sampson!"
• All the films in the Best Independent Feature category look so amazing! Fortunately, I've seen Ce Magnifique Gâteau and will see MFKZ, Ruben Brandt, Collector, and Tito and the Birds at TAAFI this month.
• And Japanese animation gets some well deserved recognition. I can't wait to see Mirai. Once it's released on DVD, I must bump it up on my list of features to watch.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

Animated Events: 46th Annie Awards

 

On Saturday, February 2nd at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Early Man - Aardman Animations
• Incredibles 2 - Pixar Animation Studios
• Isle Of Dogs - Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures
• Ralph Breaks The Internet - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Sony Pictures Animation

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Ce Magnifique Gâteau! - Beast Animation, Vivement Lundi !, Pedri Animation
• MFKZ - Ankama / Studio 4ºC
• Mirai - Studio Chizu
• Ruben Brandt, Collector - Ruben Brandt LLC
• Tito and the Birds - Bits Productions, Split Studio

Best Animated Short Subject

• Grandpa Walrus - Caïmans Productions
• Lost & Found - Wabi Sabi Studios
• SOLAR WALK - Nørlum
• Untravel - Production: Film House Baš Čelik, Serbia Co-production: BFilm, Bratislava / Your Dreams Factory, Bratislava
• Weekends - past lives productions

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 46th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: the Annie Awards

Well, the 45th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone was tonight. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• Loved the vintage drive-in theater intermission animations that they played while waiting for the ceremony to start. A lot of them had this nice UPA feeling to them.
• Should prepare a short 'thank you' script ahead of time, folks. Glenn and Kobe really handled it well though.
• Very happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love!
• Very touching video showcasing memories of June Foray.
• They found a UPA print that was never released? Wow!! When do we get to see it?
• Putting the student films Cradle, Elsewhere, and Once a hero on my list of films to track down.
• Wished that Negative Space had won the Best Animated Short Subject. :/
• Very, very happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love at the Annies.
• Glad to see Studio MDHR Entertainment get recognized with a special achievement award for their use of traditional 2d animation in their game  Cuphead.
• Lots of lovely animation work being produced using TV Paint.
• Studio MDHR got the Character Animation in a Video Game award for Cuphead and it was very well deserved.
• I can't wait to see the Big Bad Fox & Other Tales. I also can't help but think that if the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema was still around, I would've seen it already.
• Very, very, VERY happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love! It's long overdue.
• Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis win the Winsor McCay Award, another well deserved award.
• Wow!!! Rick and Morty won for Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production for that awesome Ricklantis episode. Congrats to Ryan Ridley and Dan Guterman.
• Y'know, every time I see anything from We Bare Bears, it makes me wish I had Cartoon Network on my basic cable package.
• "PICKLE-RICK!!!!"
• Did they just give away the winner of the Best Animated Feature - Independent before showing the clips?
• Y'know, I'm glad to see Nory Twomy get some well-deserved recognition for directing the Breadwinner (the first solo-woman director to win an Annie for Best Animated Feature), but I was still pulling for Loving Vincent. ;)

Congrats to all the winners and nominees.

Animated Events: 45th Annie Awards

This Saturday, February 3rd at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie - DreamWorks Animation
• Cars 3 - Pixar Animation Studios
• Coco - Pixar Animation Studios
• Despicable Me 3 - Illumination
• The Boss Baby - DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• 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 
• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales - Folivari / Panique! / Studiocanal
• The Breadwinner - Cartoon Saloon / Aircraft Pictures / Melusine Productions

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

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 45th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: the Annie Awards

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.
  
  

Animated Events: the 44th Annie Awards

This Saturday, February 4th at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Finding Dory - Pixar Animation Studios
• Kubo and the Two Strings - LAIKA
• Kung Fu Panda 3 - DreamWorks Animation
• Moana - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Zootopia - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Long Way North - Produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Maybe Movies, Norlum Studios, France 3 Cinéma and 2 Minutes
• Miss Hokusai - Production I.G
• My Life As A Zucchini - Rita Productions, Blue Spirit Productions, Gebeka Films, KNM
• The Red Turtle - Studio Ghibli – Wild Bunch – Why Not Productions
• Your Name. - CoMix Wave Films

Best Animated Short Subject

• Blind Vaysha - National Film Board of Canada
• Deer Flower - Studio ZAZAC
• Path Title Sequence - Acme Filmworks
• Pearl - Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
• Piper - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Student Film

• Citipati - Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
• FISHWITCH - Adrienne Dowling
• The Abyss - Liying Huang
• The Wrong End of the Stick - Terri Matthews
• Twiddly Things - Adara Todd

In addition to the Production and Individual Acheivement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 44th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

43rd Annie Awards Wrap-up

Well, the 43rd Annie Awards ceremony was tonight. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• Very sad to see "Kahlil Gibran's the Prophet" get passed over, but at least it got some nominations. 


• Don Hertzfeldt got some well deserved recognition... and he wasn't there to accept the award.


• Isao Takahata wins the Winsor McCay award. Doesn't make it to the ceremony but sends a really classy acceptance speech that devotes serious time acknowledging how animation is a collaborative effort and thanking those who work with him on his films.


• Phil Roman also wins the Winsor McCay award. I really hope ASIFA Hollywood recorded his speech for the archives. A lot of great history there.


• Was nice to see the NFB shorts "If I was God..." by Cordell Barker and Claude Cloutier's "Carface" get nominated.


• Huh. So that's what the voice of Spongebob looks like...


• Felt that "Shaun the Sheep" and "Boy & the World" should have done far, far better than they did.


• "Bob's Burgers" got some serious love tonight.


• Was nice to see some anime features represented, but there needed to be more...


• ASIFA Hollywood added a 'Best Animated Feature ~Independent~' category. Glad to see some of these features get some real recognition--it is long overdue. Hope this doesn't prevent future "independent" features from going toe-to-toe for the 'Best Animated Feature' category. Have seen so many animated features in the past few years that are just as good, if not better, than those that are being produced by the big studios.


• I wonder why people feel the need to add the word 'fuck' into their speeches?

ASIFA Hollywood President Jerry Beck's website "Animation Scoop" has a very nice summary of the awards ceremony along with the complete list of winners. You can view it here.

Congratulations to all the award nominees and winners.

Animated Events: The 43rd annual Annie Awards

It's time to get your animation geek on and honor all the hard work that our colleagues have put into our craft at the Annie Awards.

The forty-third annual Annie Awards will be streamed online this Saturday, February 6th, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. The following is the link to the stream http://annieawards.org/watch-it-live/.

And while you're waiting, you can read all the nominees here: http://annieawards.org/nominees/.

Congratulations to all the nominees!