Annie Awards

ANIMATED FEATURE: How to Train Your Dragon 2
DIRECTING: Dean DeBlois, How to Train Your Dragon 2
WRITING: The LEGO Movie- Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
VOICE ACTING: Ben Kingsley, The Boxtrolls
MUSIC: How to Train Your Dragon 2- John Powell
PRODUCTION DESIGN: The Boxtrolls
CHARACTER ANIMATION: How to Train Your Dragon 2
CHARACTER ANIMATION (Live Action): Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
CHARACTER DESIGN: The Book of Life

ANIMATED EFFECTS: Big Hero 6
ANIMATED EFFECTS (Live Action): Edge of Tomorrow
EDITORIAL: How to Train Your Dragon 2
STORYBOARDING: How to Train Your Dragon 2
SHORT SUBJECT: Feast

Annie Award Nominations

Despicable Me 2 leads the nominee tally for the 41st Annual Annie Awards; Frozen and Monsters University tied with ten apiece.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
A Letter to Momo
Monsters University
The Wind Rises

BEST DIRECTING
The Croods
Epic
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
Turbo 

BEST VOICE ACTING
Steve Carell, Despicable Me 2
Pierre Coffin, Despicable Me 2
Terry Crews, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Billy Crystal, Monsters University
Josh Gad, Frozen
Paul Giamatti, Turbo
Kirsten Wiig, Despicable Me 2 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT
Despicable Me 2: Puppy
Get a Horse!
Gloria Victoria
My Mom is an Airplane
The Numberlys

Annie Awards

ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It-Ralph
DIRECTING: Rich Moore, Wreck-It-Ralph
WRITING: Wreck-It-Ralph- Phil Johnston & Jennifer Lee
ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT: Paperman
VOICE ACTING: Alan Tudyk, Wreck-It-Ralph
ANIMATED EFFECTS: Rise of the Guardians
ANIMATED EFFECTS (LIVE ACTION FILM): The Avengers
CHARACTER ANIMATION: ParaNorman
CHARACTER DESIGN: ParaNorman
MUSIC: Wreck-It-Ralph
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Brave
STORYBOARDING: Rise of the Guardians
EDITORIAL: Brave

Nothing for Frankenweenie, which is sad!

Annie Award Nominations

The animated-only, sometimes controversial Annies and their nominations for the best of 2012:

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave- Pixar Animation Studios
Frankenweenie- Walt Disney Studios
Hotel Transylvania- Sony Animation Studios
ParaNorman- Focus Features
Rise of the Guardians- DreamWorks Animation Studios
The Pirates! Band of Misfits- Aardman Animations
The Rabbi's Cat- GKIDS
Wreck-It-Ralph- Walt Disney Studios

BEST DIRECTOR
Gennedy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania
Johan Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux, The Rabbi's Cat
Remi Bezancon & Jean-Christopher Lie, Zarafa
Rick Moore, Wreck-It-Ralph
Sam Fell & Chris Butler, ParaNorman 

BEST VOICE ACTING
Jim Cummings (as Budzo), The Adventures of Zambezia
Jude Law (as Pitch), Rise of the Guardians
Kelly MacDonald (as Merida), Brave
Catherine O'Hara (as Weird Girl), Frankenweenie
Adam Sandler (as Dracula), Hotel Transylvania 
Atticus Shaffer (as "E" Gore), Hotel Transylvania
Imelda Staunton (as Queen Victoria), The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Adam Tudyk (as King Candy), Wreck-It-Ralph

BEST WRITING
Brave- Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman & Irene Mecchi
Frankenweenie- John August
From Up on Poppy- Hayao Miyazahi, Keiko Niwa & Karey Kirkpatrick
ParaNorman- Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits- Gideon Defoe
Wreck-It-Ralph- Phil Johnston & Jennifer Lee

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Brad and Gary- Illumination Entertainment
Bydlo- National Board of Canada
Eyes on the Stars- StoryCorps
Goodnight Mr. Foot- Sony Animation Studios
Kali the Little Vampire- National Board of Canada
Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'- Gracie Films
Paperman- Walt Disney Studios
The Simpsons- Billy Plympton Couch Gag- Gracie Films

ANIMATED EFFECTS (ANIMATED FEATURE)
Brave
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
ParaNorman
Rise of the Guardians
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Wreck-It-Ralph 

ANIMATED EFFECTS (LIVE ACTION FEATURE)
The Amazing Spider-Man
Battleship
Cinesite
Marvel's The Avengers

full list here.

Annie Award Winners

The Oscars for animated features, since the Oscars themselves will always have their silly biases.  The Annie's do a bit as well, at least according to some sketchy rules for membership into their academy.  Anyhow, the winners:

ANIMATED FEATURE: How to Train Your Dragon

ANIMATED SHORT: Day & Night (Oscar nominated from Pixar)

DIRECTION: Chris Sanders & Dean Deblois, How to Train Your Dragon

WRITING: William Davies, Chris Sanders & Dean Deblois, How to Train Your Dragon

MUSIC: John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon (Oscar nominated)

STORYBOARDING: How to Train Your Dragon

ANIMATED EFFECTS: How to Train Your Dragon

VOICE ACTING: Jay Barachel, How to Train Your Dragon

CHARACTER ANIMATION: How to Train Your Dragon

CHARACTER DESIGN: How to Train Your Dragon

CHARACTER ANIMATED (Live Action): Alice in Wonderland

And that's a sweep.  Does How to Train Your Dragon have the potential to fend off the giant Toy Story 3 for animated feature at the Oscars?  It is beloved and a fresher story...

Disney vs. the Annie Awards

The Annie Awards are the annual kudo-fest for animated features.  And now there appears to be trouble afoot as the Walt Disney corporation has seemingly bowed out of the organization.  Official statement from Disney-Pixar president Ed Catmull:

“We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board.

Although some initial steps have been taken, the board informed us that no further changes would be made to address our concerns.”

It's been addressed that membership requirements for the Annies are purchased, not voted on by governing peers, and gossip appears to have surfaced that DreamWorks Animation has bought each new employee a membership.  Perhaps it's unsurprising when in 2008 the animated feature category was awarded to DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda, despite the competition of the vastly superior in every way triumph that was WALL-E.  It seemed that voting practices were changed after that year, but apparently not enough for Disney.  It remains to be seen what may come about for this years animated selection, which might potentially be free of Toy Story 3, now the highest grossing animated feature of all time, and what should be seen as a frontrunner, as well as Disney's fall animated film, Tangled.

Annie Awards at a glance:

2009- Up
2008- Kung Fu Panda
2007- Ratatouille
2006- Cars
2005- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
2004- The Incredibles
2003- Finding Nemo
2002- Spirited Away
2001- Shrek
2000- Toy Story 2

Could this potentially just be sour grapes-- the Disney track record has been pretty strong this past decade.

Annie Awards

Best Animated Feature

• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Secret of Kells
• Up

Directing in a Feature Production

• Wes Anderson — Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Pete Docter — Up
• Christopher Miller, Phil Lord — Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Hayao Miyazaki — Ponyo
• Henry Selick — Coraline

Writing in a Feature Production

• Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach – Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy – Up
• Timothy Hyde Harris and David Bowers – Astro Boy
• Christopher Miller and Phil Lord – Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Animated Effects

• Scott Cegielski — Monsters vs. Aliens
• Alexander Feigin — 9
• Eric Froemling — Up
• Tom Kluyskens — Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• James Mansfield — The Princess and the Frog

Character Animation in a Feature Production

• Andreas Deja — The Princess and the Frog
• Eric Goldberg — The Princess and the Frog
• Travis Knight — Coraline
• Daniel Nguyen — Up
• Bruce Smith — The Princess and the Frog

Character Design in a Feature Production

• Daniel Lopez Munoz — Up
• Shane Prigmore — Coraline
• Shannon Tindle — Coraline

Music in a Feature Production

• Bruno Coulais — Coraline
• Michael Giacchino –Up
• Joe Hisaishi — Ponyo
• John Powell — Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Production Design in a Feature Production

• Christopher Appelhans — Coraline
• Ian Gooding — The Princess and the Frog
• Tadahiro Uesugi — Coraline
• Christopher Vacher — 9

Storyboarding in a Feature Production

• Sharon Bridgeman — Astro Boy
• Chris Butler — Coraline
• Ronnie Del Carmen — Up
• Tom Owens — Monsters vs. Aliens
• Peter Sohn — Up

Voice Acting in a Feature Production

• Jen Cody – Voice of Charlotte – The Princess and the Frog
• Dawn French – Voice of Miss Forcible – Coraline
• Hugh Laurie – Voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. – Monsters vs. Aliens
• John Leguizamo – Voice of Sid – Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur
• Jennifer Lewis – Voice of Mama Odie – The Princess and the Frog