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: Starting the year off right, pt.2

It was mid-January and All You Need is Kill was showing at the theater right down the street from my place. For those who don't know, this anime is based upon the light novel "All You Need Is Kill" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka--the light novel that also inspired the Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow.

In the anime, we're following the story of a soldier in the United Defense Force as she is trapped in an endless loop during an alien invasion. The lead character, Rita Vrataski, is part of a research unit investigating these alien plants in a region of Japan where the plants have established a beachhead. I won't spoiler the rest of the film, but if you've see the Tom Cruise movie, well, for the most part, the comparison really ends with the time loop concept. But like Edge of Tomorrow, All You Need is Kill centers itself around a very engaging series of events with characters who are easy to resonate with.

The visuals and animation are at the level of quality that you would expect from a Studio 4°C production. The character designs are reminiscent of their earlier films Genius Party and Tekkonkinkreet. It has decent character development and the story is very tight--something that is not easy to pull off with time loop stories. But Studio 4°C's production team does the job well as this film never feels stale even as we continually move through the story's "one-day" cycles.

All You Need is Kill joins a very small list of productions that tackle this concept and gets it right -- the aforementioned Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow, Bill Murray's hilarious film Groundhog Day, the critically judged but skillfully executed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 "Endless Eight" episodes, and "Window of Opportunity" found in Stargate SG-1 season 4, episode 6--and it's a very welcome addition.

As both Warner Bros Pictures and GKIDS appear to be involved in the distribution for this film here in the States, I'm hoping that it means they'll be releasing a DVD or Blu-Ray for All You Need is Kill later this year. It would be a very welcome addition to my collection.

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Animated Events: 2026 Academy Award Nominated Feature and Short Films

And the Academy Award nominations for 2026 are out.

In the category of animated feature film we have:

ARCO
Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman

ELIO
Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina and Mary Alice Drumm

KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong

LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN
Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago and Henri Magalon

ZOOTOPIA 2
Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Yvett Merino

And in the category of animated short film:

BUTTERFLY
Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens

FOREVERGREEN
Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears

THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

RETIREMENT PLAN
John Kelly and Andrew Freedman

THE THREE SISTERS
Konstantin Bronzit

The full list of nominees can be viewed on their website. I've only seen two of the shorts (and one of the features) thus far. Can't wait until the shorts program comes to town so I can see the rest of them.

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