Rodent comedy "Ratatouille" leads the field for the Annie Awards, with 13 nominations announced Monday.
Besides being nominated for best animated feature, the Pixar Animation-Disney blockbuster picked up three of the five voice-acting nominations for film -- to Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm and Janeane Garofalo.
Ratatouille also received individual nominations for directing, writing, character animation, animated effects (two nominations), production design, storyboarding, character design, character animation and music.
Sony Pictures Animation's Surf's Up follows with 10 feature nominations for feature, animated effects, animation production artists, character animation (two nominations), character design and directing.
Also nominated for best animated feature are Bee Movie (DreamWorks), Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics) and The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox).
The year's most successful animated film, DreamWorks' Shrek the Third, was left out of the Annie nominations for best animated feature. Shrek won the 2001 Annie for best feature, while Shrek 2 (2004) received a nomination.
The remaining two voice-acting nominations went to Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson in The Simpsons Movie) and Patrick Warburton (Bee Movie).
The Annies are presented by the International Animated Film Society. Award winners in 25 film and TV categories will be announced February 8 at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Brad Bird was nominated for best director and best writer for his work on Ratatouille.
Also nominated for best director are Ash Brannon and Chris Buck (Surf's Up), Chris Miller and Raman Hui (Shrek the Third), Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), and David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie).
In TV voice acting, Shrek co-star Eddie Murphy was nominated for his repeat performance as Donkey in the holiday special Shrek the Halls.
For television, Nickelodeon's El Tigre leads the pack with four nominations for Best Animated Television Production for Children, and individual nominations for character animation, character design and music.
The Best Animated Television Production nominees this year are Creative Comforts America (Aardman Animations), Jane and the Dragon (Weta Productions Limited and Nelvana Limited), Kim Possible (Walt Disney Television Animation) and Moral Orel and Robot Chicken Star Wars (both ShadowMachine).
Other nominees:
Best Home Entertainment Production Doctor Strange – MLG Productions Futurama: "Bender's Big Score" – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television
Best Animated Short Subject Everything Will Be OK – Bitter Films How to Hook Up Your Home Theater – Walt Disney Feature Animation Shorty McShorts' Shorts: "Mascot Prep" – Walt Disney Television Animation The Chestnut Tree – Picnic Pictures Your Friend the Rat – Pixar Animation Studios
Best Animated Television Commercial CVS Watering Can – Acme Filmworks Esurance: "Homeowners" – Wild Brain Idaho Lottery: Twister – Acme Filmworks Oregon Lottery: "Alaska" – Laika/house Power Shares Escape Average – Acme Filmworks
Best Animated Television Production for Children Chowder – Cartoon Network Studios El Tigre – Nickelodeon Little Einsteins – Disney Channel Peep and the Big Wide World – Discovery Kids The Backyardigans – Nickelodeon
Best Animated Video Game Avatar: The Last Airbender: "The Burning Earth" – THQ, Inc. Bee Movie Game – Activision Ratatouille – THQ, Inc. Transformers: The Game – Blur Studios
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES
Animated Effects Gary Bruins – Ratatouille Deborah Carlson – Surf's Up Ryan Laney – Spider-Man 3 – Sony Pictures Animation James Mansfield – How to Hook Up Your Home Theater Jon Reisch – Ratatouille
Animation Production Artist John Clark – Surf's Up Michael Isaak – Bee Movie Hyun-Min Lee – The Chestnut Tree Natasha Liberman – Growing Up Creepie: "Creepie & The Candy Factory" – Taffy Entertainment LLC, Telegrael Teoranta, Discovery Communications Inc., SunWoo Entertainment, Peach Blossom Media Jim Worthy – My Gym Partner's A Monkey: "Meet the Spidermonkeys" – Cartoon Network Studios
Character Animation in a Feature Production Dave Hardin – Surf's Up Alan Hawkins – Surf's Up Michal Makarewicz – Ratatouille
Character Animation in a Television Production Elizabeth Harvatine - Moral Orel: "Nature 2" – ShadowMachine Monica Kennedy – El Tigre – Nickelodeon Eric Towner – Robot Chicken – ShadowMachine
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production Sylvain Deboissy – Surf's Up Carter Goodrich – Ratatouille
Character Design in an Animated Television Production Jorge R. Gutierrez – El Tigre: "Fistful of Collars" - Nickelodeon
Directing in an Animated Television Production Seth Green - Robot Chicken: "Star Wars" – ShadowMachine David Hartman - Tigger & Pooh: "Turtles Need for Speed – Walt Disney Television Animation Raymie Muzquiz - Squirrel Boy: "Gumfight at the S'Okay Corral" – Cartoon Network Studios Howy Parkins – The Emperor's New School: "Emperor's New Musical" - Walt Disney Television Animation Gary Trousdale - Shrek The Halls – DreamWorks Animation
Music in an Animated Feature Production Olivier Bernet – Persepolis Danny Elfman, Rufus Wainwright and Rob Thomas – Meet The Robinsons – Walt Disney Feature Animation Michael Giacchino – Ratatouille Rupert Gregson-Williams – Bee Movie Amy Powers, Russ DeSalvo and Jeff Danna – Disney Princess Enchanted Tales – DisneyToon Studios/Walt Disney Video/Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Music in an Animated Television Production Alf Clausen and Michael Price – The Simpsons: "Yokel Chords" – Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox Evan Lurie, Robert Scull and Steven Bernstein – The Backyardigans: "International Super Spy" – Nickelodeon Drew Neumann and Gregory Hinde – Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure – Cartoon Network Studios Shaw Patterson – El Tigre: "Yellow Pantera" – Nickelodeon James L. Venable and Jennifer Kes Remington – Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: "The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato Power" – Cartoon Network Studios
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production Doug Chiang – Beowulf – Paramount Pictures Harley Jessup – Ratatouille Marelo Vignali – Surf's Up
Production Design in an Animated Television Production No nominations
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production Don Hall – Meet The Robinsons Denise Koyama – Surf's Up Ted Mathot – Ratatouille Sean Song – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – IMAGI Animation Studios Nassos Vakalis – Bee Movie
Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production Ben Balistreri – Danny Phantom: "Torrent of Terror" – Nickelodeon Aldin Baroza – The Replacements: "London Calling" – Walt Disney Television Animation Dave Bennett – Tom and Jerry Tales – Warner Bros. Animation Steve Fonti – Family Guy: "No Chris Left Behind" – Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door Productions Roy Meurin – My Friends Tigger and Pooh: "Good Night to Pooh" – Walt Disney Television Animation
Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production Scott Adsit – Voice of Clay Puppington – Moral Orel – ShadowMachine Madison Davenport – Voice of Sophianna – Christmas is Here Again! – Easy To Dream Entertainment Tom Kenny – Voice of SpongeBob – SpongeBob SquarePants: "Spy Buddies" – Nickelodeon Eartha Kitt – Voice of Yzma – The Emperor's New School: "Emperor's New Musical" – Walt Disney Television Animation Eddie Murphy – Voice of Donkey – Shrek The Halls - DreamWorks Animation
Writing in an Animated Feature Production Brad Bird – Ratatouille James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David, Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti – The Simpsons Movie Don Rhymer, Ash Brannon, Chris Buck and Christopher Jenkins – Surf's Up Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud – Persepolis
Writing in an Animated Television Production C.H. Greenblatt and William Reiss – Chowder Burple Nurples – Cartoon Network Studios Gene Grillo – Back at the Barnyard: "Cowman and Ratboy" – Nickelodeon Ian Maxtone-Graham and Billy Kimball – The Simpsons: "24 Minutes" – Gracie Films Christopher Painter – Squirrel Boy: "I Only Have Eye For You" – Cartoon Network Studios Tom Sheppard – My Gym Partner's A Monkey: "The Butt of the Jake" – Cartoon Network Studios
WINSOR MCCAY AWARD WINNERS (career contributions to the art of animation)
John Canemaker - Animation historian, educator, Oscar winning filmmaker. Canemaker's tomes on Winsor McCay and Felix The Cat, his numerous books on Disney history (The Nine Old Men, Mary Blair, etc.) are essential references. Canemaker is Chair of NYU's Animation Program and won an Academy Award for his animated short The Moon And The Son: An Imagined Conversation.
Glen Keane - One of the leading lights in the current generation of Disney character animators, Keane's artistry has been the bedrock of many classic animated features since 1977. Most notably, Keane was lead animator of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, The Beast in Beauty and The Beast, and animated the characters Aladdin, Tarzan, Pocahontas in their respective Disney films. Aside from Disney, he's worked on animated films of Star Trek and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
John Kricfalusi - Notorious animator Kricfalusi created the influential Ren & Stimpy Show in 1991. He restored an individual look to TV animation, pushing the envelope during the "creator-driven" movement of the 1990s. He also pioneered the use of artist-driven Flash animation. His animated films and design style currently influences a new generation of cartoonists, with which he communicates personally to through his blog.
JUNE FORAY (significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation) Jerry Beck
UB IWERKS (technical achievement) Jonathan Gay, Gary Grossman and Robert Tatsumi – the creators of FLASH computer software
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT ANNIE AWARD Edward R. Leonard - promoting the Linux open system for animation in animation studios and gaming software development
CERTIFICATE OF MERIT Marcus Adams Jo Jo Batista Steve Gattuso Jon Reeves Gemma Ross Woodbury University
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Dec 3, 2007, 2:48 PM)
Re: "Ratatouille" claws 13 Annie Award nominations
[In reply to]
*gets out a crystal ball and puts on a purple turban*
I see a dark future for Dreamworks and Sony and the Simpsons, and a bright future for Pixar... I can predict the main character of the winning movie will be a talking animal, possibly a rat... that certain movie is going to win every award it is nominated for... and Homer Simpsons will be saying "D'oh" at it, as well. Yes, I predict the winner will be "Ratatoulle!"
*back to normal*
Seriously, us Looney Tunes have NEVER won a single Annie Award! Unless you count that one I got for my Energizer Bunny commercial in 1995, and I don't. Disney has beaten our nominations in the 1990s, and Pixar has in the 2000s, which is one reason why our classics are being jeopardized by CGI. And it's too bad, too. Not unlike when the Looney Tunes won seven Oscars, except me ("Beep Prepared" lost to some foreign short called "Ersatz"). But at least that wasn't Disney or Pixar that beat me!
