'Kung Fu Panda' Sweeps Annie Awards

Not so fast, Wall-E. DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda won Best Animated Feature at Friday night's Annie Awards, which really shouldn't have been a surprise by the time the award was announced. You see, Panda had already earned nine trophies before that. The huge night was bigger than last year's dominant run by Ratatouille, which one nine awards. The actual total for Panda, which shut out Wall-E completely, was 14, if you count the animated video game honors and the wins for the TV production, The Secrets of the Furious Five. But seriously, Wall-E didn't win anything. What does that mean for the Oscars? That it's not a runaway, I guess, because there has to be some crossover between the artists who vote for the Annies and those who vote for the Oscars. I would still expect Wall-E to win, only now it wouldn't be the biggest surprise of the night if it doesn't. Of course, the Annies and the Oscars don't always line up; two years ago, Over the Hedge took home "animation's biggest prize," while Happy Feet won the Oscar, even though it wasn't nominated for an Annie. TV winners included Robot Chicken, Futurama, and The Last Airbender.

Comments

[Cybele Anonymouse]

The Annie awards are voted on by members of ASIFA. You can buy membership for $50. DreamWorks buys each of it's 1200 employees a membership and requires that they vote for the Annies.

DreamWorks also make sure to have as many as possible Chairs on the nomination committee - which explains why three DreamWorks artists were nomintated in the 'best animation' category and only two other studios received mention.

The Annies will no longer reflect the true measure of industry excellence any more. The audience at the Awards ceremony was greatly saddened by the DreamWorks presence and manipulation of the once joyful event.

Pixar showed up to be gracious - they already knew they were shut out.

-An Insider

[Julian Francis]

Cybele Anonymouse,

Thank you for your explanation. I'll believe it because seriously Wall-E didn't win anything! That's blasphemy!