Panda performs 5-point palm exploding WALL-E technique
Skidoosh!
I don’t care how much you liked Kung Fu Panda (I liked it a lot more than I expected to), you didn’t see this coming: Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda won all 15 Annie Awards it was nominated for last night (including a couple of videogame awards) leaving Pixar’s WALL-E and Disney’s Bolt to go home with pixel stained cheeks.
Even if you liked the panda better than the robot or the dog, you’re still a little surprised. Admit it.
Is Kung Fu Panda really the better film or are the pros just bored of Pixar’s domination? I loved WALL-E, but Panda is the best thing Dreamworks has done yet. I disagree with the choice, but frankly I think the Dreamworks crew is deserving of a bit of recognition.
Does this mean anything for the Oscars? No. I still think WALL-E will win, but these wins for Panda might mean we can no longer rubber stamp Pixar films in the future.
See all the relevant nominees with the winners highlighted after the jump…
Best Animated Feature
- Bolt
- Kung Fu Panda
- $9.99
- Wall-E
- Waltz With Bashir
Best Animated Short Subject
- Glago’s Guest
- Hot Dog
- Presto
- Sebastian’s Voodoo
- Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Animated Effects
- Alen Lai – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who
- Li-Ming Lawrence Lee – Kung Fu Panda
- Fangwei Lee – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
- Kevin Lee – Bolt
- Enrique Vila – Wall-E
Character Animation in a Feature Production
- James Baxter – Kung Fu Panda
- Jeff Gabor – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
Philippe Le Brun – Kung Fu Panda - Victor Navone – Wall-E
- Dan Wagner – Kung Fu Panda
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Valerie Hadida – Igor
- Sang Jun Lee – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who
- Nico Marlet – Kung Fu Panda
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
- Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen – The Tale Of Despereaux
- Ari Folman – Waltz With Bashir
- Tatia Rosenthal – $9.99
- John Stevenson & Mark Osborne – Kung Fu Panda
- Andrew Stanton – WALL-E
Music in an Animated Feature Production
- Kevin Manthei – Batman: Gotham Knight
- John Powell – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who
- Max Richter – Waltz With Bashir
- William Ross – The Tale Of Despereaux
- Hans Zimmer & John Powell – Kung Fu Panda
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Ralph Eggleston – Wall-E
- Paul Felix – Bolt
- Tang Heng – Kung Fu Panda
- Evgeni Tomov – The Tale Of Despereaux
- Raymond Zibach – Kung Fu Panda
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
- Alessandro Carloni – Kung Fu Panda
- Ronnie Del Carmen – Wall-E
- Joe Mateo – Bolt
- Jen Yuh Nelson – Kung Fu Panda
- Rob Stevenhagen – The Tale Of Despereaux
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
- Ben Burtt – Voice of Wall-E – Wall-E
- Dustin Hoffman – Voice of Shifu – Kung Fu Panda
- James Hong – Voice of Mr. Ping – Kung Fu Panda
- Ian McShane – Voice of Tai Lung – Kung Fu Panda
- Mark Walton – Voice of Rhino – Bolt
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
- Jon Aibel & Glenn Berger – Kung Fu Panda
- Etan Cohen and Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath – Madagascar:Escape 2 Africa“
- Ari Folman – Waltz With Bashir
- Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who
Catch all the awards including the television and videogame winners at the Annie Awards website.
Thanks to Joel for the heads up.
I officially dislike Kung Fu Panda now. Petty and irrational maybe, but c’mon. Seriously?
Kung Fu Panda’s animation was flashier, and I daresay more animated, so maybe that’s all this group cares about. From the special features, I know they put an insane amount of work into the animation. I don’t begrudge them some wins, but EVERY win? Sheesh. You’d think it had a Slumdog in the title somewhere.
And it’s beyond me how WALL-E’s writing didn’t even get nominated.
Professional jealousy much?
LOL Jenny Bee!!!!
Actually I must admit I feel the same way you do at this point, even though my kids and I did appreciate KUNG FU PANDA upon its release, and later yet on the purchased DVD.
Of course I wouldn’t read too much into this solitary win, which won’t be parlayed, and which was seemingly fueled by the need to do something different from everyone else, as Craig suggested as a possibility.
WALL-E will deservedly be headed to the winner’s circle in late February, and it may nab several of its six noms.
You have to wonder if they’re just tired of the Pixar guys, but that’s a little unfair to Panda which I thought was quite good in a family entertainment kinda way.
Generally, I’m inclined to value the awards the come from the pros more than the ones that come from the Academy, but these things aren’t immune from politics or popularity contests etc.
15/15 seems rather extreme — smells like haterade. I could understand such an overwhelming victory if there wasn’t strong competition, but come on.
Having said that, I’ve yet to see “Kung Fu Panda.” Maybe it is the “Citizen Kane” of animation :P
I agree with you, Craig, that it’s good they spread the love and KFP is the best thing Dreamworks Animation has ever done, but considering how bland and formulaic all of their other films have been it’s not really saying much.
KFP was pretty good. It had a lot of technical strengths to crow about but it paled in comparison to what Pixar brought to Wall-E and the storytelling and characterization weren’t even in the same league. When robots who communicate mostly in sound effects and gestures are more expressive than an entire cast of A-list voice talent, something is wrong.
I imagine there’s some pent up annoyance with Pixar’s dominance, but really I think the industry needs to take a good hard look at itself and wonder why Pixar seems to craft diamonds year after year when the rest of the studios seem content with diamonelles?
Weird. Overconfidence? Some kind of Pixar backlash? I can see snubbing Wall-E from an award or two, like writing or production design maybe, and definitely KFP is worthy of Voice Acting, but all the rest seem like clear-cut wins for Wall-E (or maybe Waltz with Bashir).
Huh.
Whaaaaaaaaat?
“When robots who communicate mostly in sound effects and gestures are more expressive than an entire cast of A-list voice talent, something is wrong.”
That was one of the big weakenesses of KFP..they assembled a great cast and mostly squandered it. Dustin Hoffman was pretty good and so was Jack Black, but the rest were fairly vanilla.
Good point – Jackie Chan is a great star, but it’s kind of a waste of money to hire him for his English-language vocal talents.
“The rest were fairly vanilla”
I never thought ice cream could be used in an intellectual context before. Thanks, Craig for teaching me something new :)
Never underestimate the power of ice cream, Andrew :)