As feared, the 38th Annual Annie Awards, held last night in Los Angeles, was largely a farcical
celebration of "Gold Sponsor" DreamWorks Animation SKG.
Toy Story 3 didn't take home any of the (only three) awards for which it was nominated, the same fate as befell WALL-E two years ago, before Disney and Pixar decided to withdraw support from the Annies due to its corrupt voting rules.
Get this: In all but one of the categories in which a DreamWorks project was nominated, DreamWorks won. Two of the categories had only DreamWorks nominees.
Props to Pixar for not playing along with this shameful charade. The animation community deserves better.
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40 comments:
This is just sad and shameful.
How does the voting process work?
Follow the link on the words "withdrew support".
Oh, wow. That's terrible...
If you ignore all the "INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES" awards (yawn) and focus on the "PRODUCTION CATEGORIES" because, lets face it - that's where the real meat is, are these awards still a joke?
I'm glad to see Day & Night taking best short, and also glad to see HTTYD taking best animated feature. Given the (shamefully) incredibly narrow range of films, shorts, people, and sources in these lists they are probably the standouts within them (Up is increasingly feeling like Pixar's shark jumping moment).
But then, what makes this different to any other award? The Annie Awards may be a joke due to its sponsor(s), but tell me you don't think all other awards have some form of bias, incentivised or otherwise?
If you look back through the history of the award, the only sequel to ever take best animated feature is Toy Story 2. Maybe there's a subtle message here?
"How does the voting process work?"
Anyone who has a membership with ASIFA votes and you can only vote on categories that you're "qualified" to vote on. So if you're an animator then you're going to be voting on animation, character designer on character design, and so on. Then the person that's actually signed up and qualified to vote actually has to take the time to vote. The same people voted last year and DreamWorks didn't even have a film in the best feature category. If DreamWorks bought the awards show that would never happen.
First, someone has to nominate a person's work to place them into a category so if Pixar opted out then I'm going to guess that they didn't forward any of their work for a lot of the categories.
Check out the VES awards as well. Another awards program created and voted on by artists and people that understand what it takes to make an animated film and know what makes a good film.
Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
How to Train Your Dragon
Simon Otto, Craig Ring, Bonnie Arnold
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
How to Train Your Dragon – Toothless
Gabe Hordos, Cassidy Curtis, Mariette Marinus, Brent Watkins
Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
How to Train Your Dragon
Andy Hayes, Laurent Kermel, Jason Mayer, Brett Miller
They're not saying that they didn't like Toy Story 3 or that it was awful. It's possible that they just enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon a little more since it was a fresh film and maybe because it wasn't a sequel.
It's funny that DreamWorks wins 2 out of the many years that this has been running and everyone thinks it's a sham. Check out the victory list over the past 15 years and see where the most wins are. I don't remember DreamWorks Animation complaining about the way voting works.
I think Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon were both great films and am just happy that they were created so I could watch them. :D
In principle I certainly agree. But...everything about How to Train Your Dragon was top notch, and just an all around GREAT movie. The characters were fun, had heart, were well designed, and the story as good as any of Pixar's. In effect, the finally used what Pixar has done for all these years and made an excellent film. They even brought in the cinematographer who was consulted for Wall-e to help design the lighting and camera work.
Still, having Dreamworks as the major sponsors: not cool.
Crap. The Annie Awards don't deserve to be playing anymore if Dreamworks is going to win everything. Dreamworks is great, mind you (I'm excited for Kung Fu Panda 2 this year!), but Pixar is far better! The Annies are now pieces of ****, just like the Oscars. :(
is it the same with nickelodeon? with them buying the votes and such
It's not about how many trophies you bring home - it's about how much copper wire you can steal before leaving the building (sic)
I an important thing to note is the fact that Dreamworks actually buys each of their employees a membership to ASIFA, thus enabling them to vote in the Annie Awards. Pixar/Disney does not. Pixar was actually told by ASIFA that if they wanted a fair vote, they should consider buying their employees memberships as well. You tell me how that is not corrupt.
@ Darrell:Why do you think Oscar is just like the Annie? Oscar is fair, since it doesn't give tons of awards to a certain sponser films. They even give best picture wins to independent films these days. The oscar winners have qualities that make them deserve the trophies. Oscar just wants to be fair for all brilliant films which deserves recognition.
It would be strange to have an animated film to win both and , while there are other good films that deserve to be the best picture of the year. In fact, I don't think the best animated film category is necessary in Oscar, especaily when there are now ten nominees for best picture.
I am not surprised by Annie's mess. Hopefully BAFTA and Oscar will reward Toy Story 3. Funny thing is, most of the people doesn't know what Annies is.
Jane, I never said that the Oscars were just like the Annies, in a sense. I know that they don't pick movies from one company in particular, but I dismissed them as well because, like the Annie Awards, they make wrong choices. For example, if the Oscars had sense, they would have awarded WALL-E or Dark Knight for Best Picture in 2008 rather than Slumdog Millionaire.
You do realize that Pixar didn't even submit their film? Why do you act so surprised? Just b/c it's Pixar doesn't mean it has to win EVERYTHING...share the wealth...it has been a tremendous 5 or 6 years for animation!
Mike-
Are you trying to say that b/c Dreamworks is a sponsor, the Annies can't award ANY awards to Dreamworks?
This site is so incredibly bias...it should be a site about anmation, not just Pixar...do you even watch other animated movies? Yah, a lot are crap (Mega Mind, ie) but there are some really good ones out there..also, this Toy Story, though good, was nowhere near as good as the previous 2 (#2 was best)
I agree, Tangled should have won and they probably hardly gave it a second look (or were ashamed to vote for it?). The animation in that film was phenomenal. The look was gorgeous. And the story had a magical feel.
And now its my turn. I am an animator and to put in simple word... "i really enjoyed and cried while watching ts3 . the characters and the movie were inside me after couple of days too. And that doesnt mean that i dont liked httyd. I enjoyed that movie totally while watching . But still felt that something is missing like the pathos or the message or whatever. . . . . In my personal opinion "A movie is not just to enjoy and move on". Pixar is right.
I'm glad to see that T.U.F.F. Puppy and other TV shows got some good awards. Most of those winning choices were good, and they all deserved nominations.
"Pixar was actually told by ASIFA that if they wanted a fair vote, they should consider buying their employees memberships as well. You tell me how that is not corrupt."
I think what was meant, is that there is nothing wrong with a company buying their employees memberships. In the past Pixar has swept the awards. DreamWorks' might buy their animators memberships, but they certainly can't order them who to vote for.
And the point here is, no one is preventing Pixar from giving their employees memberships as well. DreamWorks' never prevented them from doing that.
And of course Pixar didn't win this year. They didn't even submit their work. The other companies employees nominated them in the major categories, but if you don't play in the game anymore, don't expect you can still win!
Disney/Pixar shut the Annie Awards out - not the other way around. Other than Kung Fu Panda's sweep, they never had. And last year, for feature, they got all of one award. If it was bought, you would have seen Monsters vs. Aliens awarded their Best Animated Feature. That would have been a joke. It wasn't even nominated. Last year's lineup was as follows (where's DreamWorks'?):
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs — Sony Pictures Animation
Coraline — Laika
Fantastic Mr. Fox — 20th Century Fox
The Princess and the Frog — Walt Disney Animation Studios
The Secret of Kells — Cartoon Saloon
Up — Pixar Animation Studios
And FYI, Up won.
The following excerpt is quoted from The Hollywood Reporter. I found it to be an interesting article.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dragon-sweeps-disney-boycotted-annie-96968
"Disney/Pixar didn't submit, screen, campaign for, or attend -- at least as a group -- the Annie Awards. Still, both Pixar's Toy Story 3, which is a best picture Oscar nominee and is also considered the frontrunner to win the Oscar for animated feature, and Disney's Tangled were both nominated for the Annie for best animated feature, earning three and two nominations, respectively.
ASIFA-Hollywood president Antran Manoogian explained that even if studios or individuals from a film do not submit that film, the nominating committees had the latitude to determine their own nominations. He also said that while anyone can join ASIFA, only animation professionals are eligible to vote, per a new rule that went into effect for this year”s awards competition.
Two years ago, questions about the voting were raised when DWA's Kung Fu Panda swept the Annies feature categories, winning ten trophies and shutting out Pixar's Wall-E, which claimed the Oscar for best animated feature. Last year, though, Pixar's Up won the top Annie."
@Anonymous 4,5
The point is not that Dreamworks shouldn't win anything.
The point is that it doesn't matter what movie was most deserving. The fact that HTTYD won so thoroughly shows nothing except that the voting system is seriously flawed.
Just another reason to hate Dreamworks :)
@Darrell Oh, I remember that. I was very surprised to see no Dark Knight or WALL-E in the nomines for best picture. They should have made the decision earlier about having ten nominees per year! I hope TS3 would win not only best animated feature but also sound editing, screenplay or song. PIXAR has been nominated for those categories for years but won very few. Poor Thomas Newman. 6 nominations but no Oscar. Maybe he'll become 2nd Randy Newman of the Oscar.
Anonymous #5: Just so you know, Mike put up a review of HtTYD on TwitLonger a while back. He did say that after seeing it he would try to be a little nicer to Dream Works from now on.
The site is about Pixar, not animation in particular. It was never meant to be such and it is not today. But you're right, this site really does seem biased against all animation besides Pixar sometimes. Kind of unfair.
The Pixar Blog is now officially a joke. Pixar has withdrawn from the Annies, so I don't see why this article needed to be written.
If I recall correctly, it was mentioned in a previous post that you weren't even going to cover the Annies this year, Mike. How about being a man and sticking to your guns? Quit injecting your opinion on everything, and just cover the facts. Day & Night won for best short film; you could have just covered that, gotten a statement from Teddy Newton or Kevin Reher, and kept things civil.
You know what else is a joke? Everyone drinking the Kool-Aid when it comes to Pixar. I can understand your allegiance, Mike, because you've basically been bought, receiving memorabilia and whatnot from them and using this blog as a platform to gloat and show off about it. It's just sad that there are people out there who can't enjoy a Pixar film as well as a DreamWorks, Blue Sky, or Sony film. Pixar pioneered computer animation, but that doesn't mean they deserve to constantly win major awards year after year. Sony, DreamWorks, and all the other animation studios have contributed quite a lot to the medium. There's a reason guys like Guillermo del Toro and Roger Deakins work with DreamWorks.
Let's not forget that Disney was a major sponsor of the Annies for decades before this, and look at how many awards they received over the years. DreamWorks is now a major sponsor, and people are all of a sudden going to gripe about them winning awards? If you believe the system is corrupt now, you have to concede that the system has always been corrupt because major sponsors have always won big at the Annies.
Pixar and Disney got exactly what they wanted and, frankly, deserved. They took their ball and went home. Based on that alone, they didn't deserve to win anything this year. They played along plenty in the "shameful charade" for years before the competition started getting good and, dare I say, better than them. Day & Night won because the voters genuinely felt it was the best animated short this year. Given their recent actions, and how a lot of people feel about them right now, I should think Pixar would be flattered.
As much as I enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon, it would have been nice to see The Illusionist win. One of these days, a traditionally-animated film (not the upcoming Winnie the Pooh movie) is going to sweep the major awards. That's my hope, anyway.
Anonymous 5: Why in the world should this be an animation blog? The thing is freakin' called "the PIXAR blog"!
That's sad. :(
How to Train Your Dragon was AMAZING and deserved to win something, but to have Toy Story 3 win...nothing? Not right.
Having attended the Annies, I agree wholeheartedly - they are now a joke. "Corrupt" is the only word that can be used and it makes me wonder how many votes are purchased?
Thinking back on the 'Kung Fu Panda' sweep, I wonder if anyone actually thinks about any of these individual awards and what they entail? It seems to me people want their favourite movie to win the most awards, regardless of what they are... Just to be nominated in these categories is an honour and while, yes, there will be a winner in each, all the work is exemplary.
DID kung fu panda have better story boarding than Wall-E? What about character design? Production design? Animation, effects, character animation? Voice acting? Going back to analyse each category, I thought 'yeah, KFP did do that pretty well'. Maybe it just means that, on a technical level, it excelled in many of the available categories while Wall-E was more quirky and had its focus elsewhere.
I just think people should actually consider the individual awards themselves, that's what the Annies should be for. HTTYD was an excellent movie on all levels and with Pixar and Disney not in the running with having withdrawn support, of course it's going to clean up. All it's true competition are gone. Which is sad. The year DW has a real contender, it can't actually compete properly.
no surprise
You sound like such a baby. Pixar decided they didn't want to take part in this award presentation anymore and didn't submit anything for nomination. The fact that the animation community nevertheless nominated Toy Story 3 for best picture actually shows a lot of maturity on their part.
I personally think Toy Story 3 was better than the Dragon movie, but it's perfectly reasonable to believe that in an industry that is now overrun by franchises a majority (or plurality, I'm not sure how many votes are needed to win) of voters believed it made more sense to reward a more original film ("more" because even though it's not a sequel, it is based on a book) than the third entry in a series that has been lauded for the past 15 years.
It is really pathetic on Pixar's part that they backed out of these awards because they felt cheated or whatever over WALL•E's loss in 2008.
And it's even more pathetic that you are here saying it's a corrupt award because Pixar lost. Were the Oscars corrupt in 2001 when Shrek beat Monsters, Inc.?
Will the Oscars be corrupt this year when Cars 2 doesn't even get a nomination? Because I will tell you right now it's not gonna. Between Rango, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Kung Fu Panda 2, Arthur Christmas, Studio Ghibli's The Borrower Arrietty, Happy Feet 2, Hop, Rio, and whatever other animated movies find their ways into cinemas this year a sequel to Cars is likely to become Pixar's first movie to not get nomianted for Best Animated Feature since the award was established in 2001.
It would seem to me that those most biased in these coments are those shouting most in defense of Dreamworks / the Annies. Though I would leap to say that Dreamworks has made some awesome films, and pushed CG animation forward, chasing Pixar's heals, I have yet to see a CG film from any other studio that has been in the same league. With a two horse race, neutrality is critical. Can anyone seriously say they've watched trailers for Rio and not been nauseated by the animation quality? Yes, the premise of Cars 2 sounds suspect, but at least it LOOKS good. This may be Dreamworks year to shine with what I am sure will be a lesser film than How To Train Your
Dragon. (BTW Cars, despite it's critical reception was one of my favourite Pixar movies).
Btw Tin Tin is MoCap
Pixar makes very good movies, however TS3 was not the best movie last year. Pixar and Disney pulling out of the Annie's is a bully's tactic and shame on them for being too cheap to contribute to the membership for their employees.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the Toy Story franchise but I was very disappointed with the story in TS3 as it was basically a re-hash of the same story line as in TS2.
Dragons was a fantastic film and deserved to win. Tangled was also a fantastic film - better than TS3 in my personal opinion.
It seems everyone loves to hate Dreamworks - why are they damned if they dont make a great movie and damned if they do?
Dreamworks is not just Jeffery Katzenburg it is a collection of very passionate, talented people who work just as hard as the people in other studios.
Making a film is not simple, and yes some of the story lines in DW films have not hit the mark, but that can be said for most films out there eg; perhaps if the entire Wall-E was as brilliant as the first 20mins it would have won the Annie or been nominated for the Oscar?
Or maybe if the story was more original, Megamind would have been nominated this year; the animation, lighting and effects in that movie were outstanding.
On individual merit HTTYD was a deserved winner and Im disappointed to see such prestigious companies such as Pixar and Disney not celebrating in the success of their competitors which is a tribute to them for raising the bar in the first place.
Mike: you might at least want to take a look at Brad Bird's acceptance speech - in which he announces his departure from the 'world of cartoons'.
It is great!
http://pixarplanet.com/blog/brad-birds-hilarious-acceptance-speech
Yeah, I watched it twice already. It's hilarious.
Anonymous #8, once again I must say that HtTYD was a great movie, but it winning just about everything and TS3 barely getting nominated for anything let alone winning, is an outrage.
I actually haven't damned a Dreamworks movie in a long time. So I'm one of the few who seems to think that they're great as well.
at Anonymous who said there are no better CGI studios out there:
you do realize that there are studios that churn out claymation/2D and you recognized 1 form of animation, right?
Someone mentioned that The Adventures of Tin Tin is motion capture. That does not mean it isn't eligible for the Best Animated Feature Oscar.
The rules specifically state that "motion capture by itself is not an animation technique" but Tin Tin is not just motion capture so I believe it would still be eligible. I believe that rule is there to keep movies like Revenge of the Sith and Avatar from being considered for the Animated Feature Academy Award.
I would guess that a year out, Tin Tin is the early favorite to take the award for 2011.
Yo goppy lay off wtc did you even read the post the reason he's saying it SEEMS rigged is because dream works is sponsoring the award show this year gee whiz and btw some of those movies you listed like rango and rio and happy feet 2 Im not like anti pixar movies I liked httyd but just stop being Mean
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