Rango Takes Top Prize at 2012 Annie Awards
As we all know, a year without a strong Pixar movie is a year where other studios have a rare opportunity to get some recognition for their own animated features. Since Cars 2 was not even nominated for an Academy Award this year, we’ve now got DreamWorks and Paramount battling it out against a couple of smaller foreign productions. However, while the Academy Awards are what most of the world uses to judge the best animated film of the year, industry insiders typically look to the Annie Awards instead. In the past, DreamWorks has had their fair share of success at the Annies (How to Train Your Dragon won out over Toy Story 3 last year, while Kung Fu Panda upset Wall-E in 2008), but this year, newcomers Paramount and ILM have taken the title for Rango. Go figure!
It’s probably not a huge surprise that Rango won Best Animated Feature, especially you when you consider that these awards are generally a little more technical and Rango’s tech was pretty damn impressive. However, the question remains: is Rango is now more likely to win the Oscar as well? Not necessarily. Many of the other Annie Awards were spread out to other films, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson took home the directing award for Kung Fu Panda 2. Heck, even The Adventures of Tintin picked up a couple of awards. Check out the full list of winners after the jump.
- Best Animated Feature: “Rango”
- Best Animated Special Production: “Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters”
- Best Animated Short Subject: “Adam and Dog”
- Animated Effects in an Animated Production: “The Adventures of Tintin”
- Animated Effects in a Live Action Production: “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
- Character Animation in a Feature Production: “Rio”
- Character Animation in a Live Action Production: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
- Character Design in a Feature Production: “Rango”
- Directing in a Feature Production: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, “Kung Fu Panda 2”
- Music in a Feature Production: John Williams, “The Adventures of Tintin”
- Production Design in a Feature Production: “Kung Fu Panda 2”
- Storyboarding in a Feature Production: “Winnie the Pooh”
- Voice Acting in a Feature Production: Bill Nighy, “Arthur Christmas”
- Writing in a Feature Production: “Rango”
- Editing in a Feature Production: “Rango”
- Winsor McCay Award: Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring, Robert Searle
- June Foray Award: Art Leonardi
- Special Achievement Award: Depth Analysis
