Skiddoosh! It's a shocker at the Annies as Kung Fu Panda lays the smack down on Wall-E

Kung Fu Panda dominated the Annies, surprising all who expected Wall-E in a similar position. Here's the list of winners:

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES
Best Animated Feature
Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Best Animated Short Subject
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – Aardman Animations Ltd.

Best Animated Television Commercial
United Airlines “Heart” – Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II - ShadowMachine

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Nickelodeon

Best Animated Video Game
Kung Fu Panda – Activision

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES
Animated Effects
Li-Ming Lawrence Lee Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production
James Baxter Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Television Production or Short Form
Pierre Perifel Secrets of the Furious Five – DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Nico Marlet Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Nico Marlet Secrets of the Furious Five – DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production
John Stevenson & Mark Osborne Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Joaquim Dos Santos – Avatar: The Last Airbender “Sozin’s Comet Pt. 3” – Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated Feature Production
Hans Zimmer & John Powell – Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell – Secrets of the Furious Five – DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Tang Heng -- Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Tang Heng -- Secrets of the Furious Five – DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Jen Yuh Nelson – Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Chris Williams -- Glago’s Guest – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Dustin Hoffman – Voice of Shifu – Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Ahmed Best – Voice of Jar Jar Binks – Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II - ShadowMachine

Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Jon Aibel & Glenn Berger – Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form
Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells, Breckin Meyer – Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II – ShadowMachine

JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay recipients - Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation
June Foray award - Bill Turner for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation
Certificate of Merit award - Amir Avni, Mike Fontanelli, Kathy Turner, Alex Vassilev

Annie Awards tonight...

...I'll have the results tomorrow.

BTW I forgot to mention that the Best Animated Feature Oscar nominees are Wall-E, Bolt and Kung Fu Panda; "Down To Earth," the end-credits song from Wall-E, is one of three nominees for best song, sharing the nomination with two songs from Slumdog Millionaire; and that the Best Animated Short Oscar category again has almost nothing in common with the same category in the Annies.

Annie Awards Best Animated Short nominees 2009
Glago's Guest - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Hot Dog - Bill Plympton Studio
Presto - Pixar Animation Studios
Sebastian's Voodoo - Joaquin Baldwin
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death - Aardman Animations Ltd.

Academy Awards Best Animated Short nominees 2009
La Maison en Petits Cubes A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
Lavatory - Lovestory A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi (Talantis Films), A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
Presto (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

OK, Presto's there on both lists. But that's it. As it turned out last year, if Peter & The Wolf was up for the Annies I might have voted for it...it was pretty damn cool and deserved to win the Oscar it did. People are raving about Oktapodi but I haven't seen it yet. Why is there this disconnect between what the Academy votes on and what the Annies vote on with regard to animated shorts? It seems like there is more of a focus on the work of established studios on the Annies list, and more indies, oddly enough, on the Academy's shortlist. If that's the case, the Annies nomination process needs to change.

This should have been on the Oscar shortlist...

Instead, Nina Paley is still struggling to rescue Sita Sings The Blues from being held hostage by music publishers. This 11 minute clip should tell you how strong this is.

Watch this and tell me I'm wrong. I dare you.

Wall-E, Bashir strike Globes Gold...

Wall-E has rolled out in front of the competition for the Best Animated Picture Oscar by winning the Golden Globe for the same category. Waltz With Bashir also waltzed home to Israel with the Golden Globe for best foreign language film...sort of an ironic gift considering current events. [sigh]

Voting for the Annies starts tomorrow, and I have a general idea where my vote is going. I'll let y'all know how that goes. It will prolly be a multi-day affair for me if they allow me to put a bookmark in my ballot like they did last time.