LOGORAMA WINS! LOGORAMA WINS!!!

The animation Oscars went to Up for best feature and Logorama for best short. I am totally stoked!!! Also happy to see Kathryn Bigelow win for best director, the first woman to get that distinction, ever; Christoph Waltz for his incredible performance in Inglourious Basterds.

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

OK, this was definitely Oscar-worthy...

One of my favorite animators of all time was Fred Stuhr. Fred was this jumpy adrenaline junkie of a guy, a former competitive skateboarder, who liked fast cars and fast drugs and fast life. Yet somehow or another his attention was held by the infinitely slow process of doing dimensional animation: manipulating puppets in infinitely small increments, frame by frame by frame. His favorite part of the whole process was building things: the puppets, the sets, the vehicles, the props. He literally lived in his studio, surrounded by a miniature back lot of sets for projects he had finished, and projects yet to be finished.

Somehow or another he would blow through these projects fast. He primarily did music videos...Adam from Tool still claims that he directed those two breakthrough videos, Sober and Prison Sex, but a few of us knew better. Alas, this genius wasn't here to last. Fred died way too young in a car crash, before he got a chance to do anything long-form. I showed him a video of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, the mid-'90s being a time when animated features had to be musicals, and that was a musical that might be in sync with his dark visions. He never made it to that or any other feature. I can't complain about Tim Burton's take on the musical, with Johnny Depp as the perfect live-action choice for the haunted, revenge-obsessed barber. But I wonder what Fred would have done with it had he got the backing and the go-ahead.

But this is not an article about my friend Fred, who met his demise a little more than 10 years ago. It's about another masterful group of dimensional animators, and their creation: Peter and the Wolf, which won for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards this year. The fact that this was passed up for the Annies is beyond me. As much as I enjoyed Your Friend, The Rat and How To Hook Up Your Home Theatre, I think that this is indeed the finest short I have seen of all screened in 2007.

Unlike Fred's gonzo approach to dimensional animation, the artisans at Se-Ma-For Pictures in Poland and British dimensional animator Suzie Templeton took 5 years to complete the short. Most of the film was done the old fashioned way: hands manipulating handmade puppets. However, CGI was used to create effects that were hard to create by hand in stop-motion time, like fog and floating balloons.

I suspect that this will be re-run on PBS Great Performances. Perhaps, maybe, it could be run as a yearly tradition? It's certainly gorgeous enough and strong enough to stand up to re-running.

One other thing before I wrap this post up: Cartoon Geeks favorite Persepolis will be coming back into theatres in April. This time you will have a choice of languages: the original French and a new English dub where original French voice actors Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni will be joined by Iggy Pop, Gena Rowlands, and Sean Penn. It will be initially going into 100 theatres...not a huge release, but 50 times bigger than its initial release in Los Angeles and New York City. Hopefully it will go wider as people get drawn into the little animated movie that could. The DVD will have both versions on it when it is released. When it comes out, people: GO SEE IT. You won't be disappointed.

Oscar winners and a CG note...

Much as I was rooting for Persepolis, and also as much as I liked Surf's Up, was there ever any doubt that Ratatouille, that wonderful story about a rodent gourmet chef, was going to win the best animated feature award? Year of the Rat indeed. Gong hay fa choy.

The animated short statuette went to Peter And The Wolf. Again, tremendous disconnect between Annies and Oscars on this one. Both How To Hook Up Your Home Theatre System and Your Friend, The Rat got robbed of the honor of being nominated, which bit the big one. Maybe I would have liked this crop if I would have gotten a chance to see 'em.

Also, the three songs in the running from Enchanted got cancelled out by a song from the live action movie Once.

So thus ends the frantic award season.

The next Cartoon Geeks podcast should be up in a few days, and we'll be recording another one fairly soon after. Meanwhile, try the fruit and cheese plate, it's excellent.

Annie Awards: The Winners

35th Annual Annie Awards Winners And Nominees
Winners in bold. For more information, see www.annieawards.org.

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature
Ratatouille - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Home Entertainment Production
Futurama "Bender's Big Score" - The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television

Best Animated Short Subject
Your Friend the Rat - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Animated Television Commercial
Power Shares Escape Average - Acme Filmworks

Best Animated Television Production
Creature Comforts America - Aardman Animations

Best Animated Television Production for Children
El Tigre - Nickelodeon

Best Animated Video Game
Ratatouille - THQ, Inc.

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Animated Effects
Deborah Carlson - "Surf's Up" - Sony Pictures Animation

Animation Production Artist
John Clark - "Surf's Up" - Sony Pictures Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Michal Makarewicz - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in a Television Production
Eric Towner - Robot Chicken - ShadowMachine

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Carter Goodrich - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Character Design in an Animated Television Production
Jorge R. Gutierrez - El Tigre "Fistful of Collars" - Nickelodeon

Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Brad Bird "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in an Animated Television Production
Seth Green "Robot Chicken Star Wars" - ShadowMachine

Music in an Animated Feature Production
Michael Giacchino - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Music in an Animated Television Production
Alf Clausen & Michael Price - The Simpsons "Yokel Chords" - Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Harley Jessup - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Ted Mathot - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production
Steve Fonti - Family Guy "No Chris Left Behind" - Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Ian Holm - Voice of Skinner - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production
Winner: Eartha Kitt - Voice of Yzma - The Emperor's New School "Emperor's New Musical" - Walt Disney Television Animation

Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Brad Bird - "Ratatouille" - Pixar Animation Studios

Writing in an Animated Television Production
Ian Maxtone-Graham & Billy Kimball - The Simpsons "24 Minutes" - Gracie Films

Annie Awards wrapup...

The Annie Awards have come and gone. Amazingly, my fellow ASIFA members made the best of it.

The results are here.

Too bad Bill Plympton didn't win for "Don't Download This Song." However, he did come away with a Winsor McCay award for his whole body of work. And much respect for Steve Worth, our second interview "victim," for his receiving the June Foray Award. Basically they give the June Foray award for being a mensch. Which he is.