Finding Nemo scoops 9 Animation Awards

Steve Christou · 02-08-2004, 02:10 PM

I didn't even know there was an 'Annie' award until I saw this, hmmm I think it's a lock for the Best Animated Film Oscar, you can bet the house on it.

GLENDALE, Calif. - "The fish story "Finding Nemo" took top honors at the animation industry's 31st annual Annie Awards, earning nine awards, including best theatrical feature, best directing and best voice acting.

"Finding Nemo" beat out Disney's "Brother Bear," Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," the Japanese anime film "Millennium Actress" and the French film "The Triplets of Belleville" on Saturday."Nemo" also captured the best music and best writing prizes.

Among the other winners: the Fox Network's "The Simpsons, which won for best animated television production, and "The Animatrix," a home video companion to the "Matrix" movies produced by Warner Bros.

"Nemo" was the highest grossing film in 2003, reaping $340 million at the domestic box office and more than $800 million worldwide to date."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...imation_awards

http://www.annieawards.org/

Edwin-S · 02-08-2004, 03:10 PM

Predictable. It seems that even animation industry insiders are satisfied with the comfortable rut that feature animation is presently in. Finding Nemo fulfilled all the requirements for a typical formulaic family orientated animated feature; therefore, it won.

I should qualify this remark; otherwise, someone is going to say, "then why didn't Brother Bear win?" Insiders prefer formula as long as it is well written formula. In that regard, Finding Nemo qualifies.

Morgan Jolley · 02-08-2004, 05:32 PM

Formulaic, yes, but that's only on paper. In the final production, the movie is brilliant in every way. Sure, it has a main character who lost something important and sets out to find it with a silly sidekick, but it's written so well, animated so beautifully, and altogether just so enjoyable.

Edwin-S · 02-08-2004, 06:22 PM

Sure, it has a main character who lost something important and sets out to find it with a silly sidekick, but it's written so well, animated so beautifully, and altogether just so enjoyable.

Yes it is; however, it is still formulaic. It sits in that very comfortable rut that feature animation in North America is relegated to. It does nothing to advance animation storytelling. Unlike the early Disney flicks, Finding Nemo is just more of the same old, same old. The quest, the funny sidekick (very well done, mind you), the "aw shucks, isn't that cute" emotional manipulation, the standard animated "fake death" scene, the happy conclusion to the quest.

This is the same formulaic storytelling that Disney has employed for quite some time now. Disney feature animation gets lambasted for being "uncreative" when they make animated movies with these same techniques. Pixar makes a computerized version of a Disney formula flick and the praise just rolls in.

My comments may make it look like I didn't like Finding Nemo which would be far from the truth. As an emotionally manipulative, Disney formula movie it is excellent. As a piece of original animated storytelling that moves the boundaries of what animated storytelling, it fails. If animation professionals want to hand out "Annies" and "Oscars" for rote storytelling, all power to them.

The technical quality of the animation in Millenium Actress was not nearly up to the level of Finding Nemo, but at least the film tried to use animation to tell a completely different type of story. IMO, that is the type of film that should be receiving awards.

Steve Christou · 02-08-2004, 06:42 PM

Hmmm I'm pretty sure Monsters, Inc was up against Shrek at the Oscars, while at the Annie's they were nominated in different years, strange.
Here are the Best Animated Movie winners and nominees since 2000...

2002
"Ice Age" 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios
"Lilo and Stitch" Walt Disney Pictures
"Miyazaki's Spirited Away" Studio Ghibli
"Monsters, Inc." Pixar Animation Studios
"Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" DreamWork

2001
"Blood: The Last Vampire" - SPE Visual Works, Sony Computer Entertainment, IG Plus, IPA
"The Emperor's New Groove" - Walt Disney Feature Animation
"Osmosis Jones" - Warner Bros. Animation
"Shrek" - PDI/DreamWorks

2000
"Fantasia 2000" Walt Disney Pictures
"Toy Story 2" Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios
" The Road to El Dorado" Dreamworks SKG
"Chicken Run" Pathe, Aardman & Dreamworks SKG
"Titan A.E." 20th Century Fox Animation

And Blood the Last Vampire was only 45mins long, hardly feature length, surely there were other longer and better anime's that year that could have qualified.
Rintaro's superb Metropolis should have been nominated,but not sure exactly what year it was released, 2001 or 2000?

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Edwin-S · 02-08-2004, 08:03 PM

ImdB is showing Metropolis as a 2001 release. Nominating BLOOD: The Last Vampire does seem strange. The film was more of a Video Animation, than a feature film. They must have done a limited release theatrically just to get the nomination.

Did Dreamworks put Millenium Actress up for nomination? If they didn't, I guess it was because they figured it would be steamrolled by Finding Nemo anyway.

Jason Seaver · 02-08-2004, 08:26 PM

Quote:

As a piece of original animated storytelling that moves the boundaries of what animated storytelling, it fails. If animation professionals want to hand out "Annies" and "Oscars" for rote storytelling, all power to them.

The technical quality of the animation in Millenium Actress was not nearly up to the level of Finding Nemo, but at least the film tried to use animation to tell a completely different type of story. IMO, that is the type of film that should be receiving awards.

The award is for "best animated feature", though, not "most innovative". As much as I adore Millenium Actress and Triplets of Belleville, and think that they are, in many ways, more interesting ideas than Finding Nemo, the finished product isn't necessarily as good.

Should there be some kind of recognition for productions which push the medium forward? Absolutely. But that's not how the awards in question are defined, and the judges/voters should vote on the given criteria, not their own personal definition of what the award should be.

Quote:

Did Dreamworks put Millenium Actress up for nomination? If they didn't, I guess it was because they figured it would be steamrolled by Finding Nemo anyway.

They did; in fact, they withheld Sinbad from consideration, presumably to give Actress a better shot. Of course, it was probably a little late for that, considering that they'd basically done nothing to promote its theatrical release.

Edwin-S · 02-08-2004, 08:38 PM

Of course, it was probably a little late for that, considering that they'd basically done nothing to promote its theatrical release.

Tell me about it. I didn't even know the film was released in theatres. Not that it would have mattered, since the theatrical release was so limited as to be practically non-existent. I only found out about when it hit DVD. If these studios are not going to do anything to promote these types of films theatrically, then why bother acquiring the rights? Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain, because at least I was able to get a copy of the film on disc.

Speaking of Sinbad. I finally saw the film a little while ago. The film seemed to be about on par with El Dorado. It was another film that was a little harshly panned. I thought the siren sequence in the film was actually quite well done. It was probably the best sequence in the film.....at least to me. Some of the CGI was't too well integrated though.

Morgan Jolley · 02-08-2004, 09:25 PM

I work at a movie theater and I walked in on the Siren scene in Sinbad. That's all I've seen of it and it did look really good.

Jason Seaver · 02-08-2004, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Not that it would have mattered, since the theatrical release was so limited as to be practically non-existent. I only found out about when it hit DVD. If these studios are not going to do anything to promote these types of films theatrically, then why bother acquiring the rights?

Hey, it got to Cambridge.

Animation does disproportionately well on video, though, because both parents or animation enthusiasts (depending on the picture) will pick things up almost without much question; back when every studio was trying to get in on animation, I read that MGM (for example) basically considered the theatrical release a part of the video's advertising campaign.

Still, DreamWorks really did nothing for MA. I saw no trailers, no one-sheets, and the one poster I did see was at a comic shop and didn't mention the theatrical release.