Comic-Con leaving San Diego?

2012 might be the end of San Diego Comic-Con...perhaps we need to prepare for Anaheim Comic-Con?

Personally I think the only solution that can contain San Diego is Vegas, Baby, Vegas.

OMG awesome-sauce...if this doesn't get the Oscar for best animated short there is no justice...

And how the HELL did they get around all the Intellectual Property issues? Canal+ backed this so it's gotta be legit.

Hilarious freaking short.

Annie Awards presented...

Best Animated Feature
Up - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Home Entertainment Production
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder - The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Best Animated Short Subject
Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5 - ShadowMachine

Best Animated Television Commercial
Spanish Lottery "Deportees" - Acme Filmworks, Inc.

Best Animated Television Production
Prep and Landing - ABC Family/Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated Television Production for Children
The Penguins of Madagascar - Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation

Animated Effects
James Mansfield "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Character Animation in a Television Production
Phillip To "Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space" - DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Eric Goldberg "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Character Design in a Television Production
Bill Schwab "Prep and Landing" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Character Design in a Feature Production
Shane Prigmore "Coraline" - Laika

Directing in a Television Production
Bret Haaland "The Penguins of Madagascar - Launchtime" - Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation

Directing in a Feature Production
Pete Docter "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios

Music in a Television Production
Guy Moon The Fairly OddParents: "Wishology-The Big Beginning" - Nickelodeon

Music in a Feature Production
Bruno Coulais "Coraline" - Laika

Production Design in a Television Production
Andy Harkness "Prep and Landing" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Production Design in a Feature Production
Tadahiro Uesugi "Coraline" - Laika

Storyboarding in a Television Production
Robert Koo "Merry Madagascar" - DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in a Feature Production
Tom Owens "Monsters vs. Aliens" — DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in a Television Production
Tom Kenny - Voice of SpongeBob - "SpongeBob SquarePants - Truth or Square" - Nickelodeon

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jen Cody - Voice of Charlotte - "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Writing in a Television Production
Daniel Chun - "The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XX" - Gracie Films

Writing in a Feature Production
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach - "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - 20th Century Fox

Oscar Nom Nom time...

Animated Feature Film
• Coraline Henry Selick
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson
• The Princess and the Frog John Musker and Ron Clements
• The Secret of Kells Tomm Moore
• Up Pete Docter

Again, Ponyo gets shut out. The Secret of Kells is a surprise, although the small distribution company, Cartoon Saloon, that did a small release of the movie in December pushed it and pushed it hard. Kells is already a winner if it wins or not for the nomination.

My pick is Up, though. I mean Princess and the Frog is a sentimental favorite because it's the return to form of Disney traditional animation and also the first 2D Pixar film. But Up is just masterful, affecting, effective and powerful. Up also was nominated for BEST PICTURE, and it deserves it. This is one freaking POWERFUL movie. The game-changing possibility of Ed Asner being nominated as Best Actor for his voice performance in Up did not materialize, sadly.

Short Film (Animated)
• French Roast Fabrice O. Joubert
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte) Javier Recio Garcia
• Logorama Nicolas Schmerkin
• A Matter of Loaf and Death Nick Park

Another example of the disconnect between Annie Awards and Academy Awards short-subject nominations. If you did a Venn diagram of the nominations for the same category in each horse race, there would be no intersection. It is shocking that Nick Park didn't get nominated by the Annie nominators. Aardman Animation is usually an Annie favorite, and would have easily trounced those in the field for the Short Subject Annie, especially considering the weakness of the field. Pups Of Liberty WTF???

Music (Original Score)
• Avatar James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes Hans Zimmer
• Up Michael Giacchino

Randy Newman's song-oriented score for Princess and the Frog was disqualified about a month ago, so the lack of score nom was not a surprise. Joe Hishaishi's brilliant score for Ponyo, however, was shut out. :P

Music (Original Song)
• “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36 Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
• “Take It All” from Nine Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Love that song "Almost There." But "The Weary Kind" is the favorite. Too bad, Randy Newman deserves some love for his authentic take on the musics of New Orleans.