2006 Annie Award Nominations

Best Animated Feature

Bolt – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 – Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
Wall•E – Pixar Animation Studios
Waltz With Bashir – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

Batman: Gotham Knight – Warner Bros. Animation
Christmas Is Here Again – Easy To Dream Entertainment
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Justice League: The New Frontier – Warner Bros. Animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning – DisneyToon Studios

Best Animated Short Subject

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.

Best Animated Television Commercial

Giant Monster – Curious Pictures
Long Legs Mr. Hyde – Curious Pictures
Rotofugi: The Collectors – Screen Novelties
Sarah – Z Animation
United Airlines “Heart” – Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production

King of the Hill – 20th Century Fox TV
Moral Orel – ShadowMachine
Phineas and Ferb – Disney Television Animation
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II - ShadowMachine
The Simpsons – Gracie Films/Fox TV

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

A Miser Brothers Christmas – Warner Bros. Animation
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Nickelodeon
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon Network Studios
The Mighty B! – Nickelodeon
Underfist: Halloween Bash – Cartoon Network Studios

Best Animated Video Game

Dead Space – Electronic Arts
Kung Fu Panda – Activision
Wall•E – Heavy Iron Studios, a division of THQ, Inc.

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Animated Effects

Alen Lai “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
Li-Ming Lawrence Lee “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Fangwei Lee “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” – DreamWorks Animation
Kevin Lee “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Enrique Vila “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in a Feature Production

James Baxter “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Jeff Gabor “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
Philippe Le Brun “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Victor Navone “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios
Dan Wagner “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Television Production or Short Form

Sandro Cleuzo “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation
Joshua A. Jennings “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” - ShadowMachine
Pierre Perifel “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Valerie Hadida “Igor” – Exodus Film Group
Sang Jun Lee “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
Nico Marlet “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Bryan Arnett – Mighty B! “Bat Mitzah Crashers” – Nickelodeon
Ben Balistreri - Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Mondo Coco” – Cartoon Network Studios
Sean Galloway “The Spectacular Spider-Man” – Sony Pictures Television
Jorge Gutierrez – El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera “The Good, The Bad, The Tigre” – Nickelodeon
Nico Marlet “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures
Ari Folman “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
Tatia Rosenthal “$9.99” – Sherman Pictures/ Lama Films
John Stevenson & Mark Osborne “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Andrew Stanton “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Bob Anderson - The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror XIX” – Gracie Films/Fox TV
Joaquim Dos Santos – Avatar: The Last Airbender “Sozin’s Comet Pt. 3” – Nickelodeon
Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti - Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon Network Studios
Chris McKay – Moral Orel “Passing” – ShadowMachine
Alan Smart - SpongeBob SquarePants “Penny Foolish” – Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Kevin Manthei – “Batman: Gotham Knight” – Warner Bros. Animation
John Powell – “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
Max Richter – “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
William Ross – “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures
Hans Zimmer & John Powell – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Carl Finch & Brave Combo - Click and Clack’s “As the Wrench Turns” – CTTV Productions
Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell – “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation
Kevin Kiner – “Star Wars The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence” – Lucasfilm Animation Ltd.
Guy Moon – Back at the Barnyard “Cowman: The Uddered Avenger” – Nickelodeon/Omation
Guy Michelmore – “Growing Up Creepie: Rockabye Freakie” – Taffy Entertainment LLC

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Ralph Eggleston “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios
Paul Felix “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Tang Heng “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Evgeni Tomov “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures
Raymond Zibach “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Andy Harkness “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Tang Heng “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation
Seonna Hong – The Mighty B! “Bee Patients” – Nickelodeon
Dan Krall – Chowder “The Heavy Sleeper” – Cartoon Network Studios
Raymond Zibach “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Alessandro Carloni – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Ronnie Del Carmen – “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios
Joe Mateo “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Jen Yuh Nelson – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Rob Stevenhagen – “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Butch Hartman – Fairly OddParents “Mission: Responsible” – Nickelodeon
Andy Kelly – Ni Hao, Kai-Lan “Twirly Whirly Flyers” – Nickelodeon Productions/Nelvana
Andy Schuler – “Secret of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation
Eddie Trigueros “The Mighty B! “Name Shame”– Nickelodeon
Chris Williams “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Ben Burtt – Voice of Wall•E – “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios
Dustin Hoffman – Voice of Shifu – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
James Hong – Voice of Mr. Ping – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Ian McShane – Voice of Tai Lung – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Mark Walton – Voice of Rhino – “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Ahmed Best – Voice of Jar Jar Binks – “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” - ShadowMachine
Seth MacFarlane – Voice of Peter Griffin – Family Guy “I Dream of Jesus” – Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door Productions
Dwight Schultz – Voice of Mung Daal – Chowder “Apprentice Games” – Cartoon Network Studios

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Jon Aibel & Glenn Berger – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
Etan Cohen and Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath – “Madagascar:Escape 2 Africa” – DreamWorks Animation
Ari Folman – “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio – “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios

Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Joel H. Cohen – The Simpsons “The Debarted” – Gracie Films/Fox TV
Scott Kreamer – El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera “Mustache Love” – Nickelodeon
Paul McEvoy and Todd Berger – “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation
Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells – “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” – ShadowMachine
Chris Williams – “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

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 Avini, Mike Fontanelli, Kathy Turner, Alex Vassilev

The writing snub doesn't bother me. All the good parts were silent and anytime someone talked, it was absolute shite. I mean I know writing is more than just the dialog, including directing what's happening in the silent parts, but eh.

Though I too think the screenplay is undeserving of major award attention (Especially when compared to other Pixar works), I still think it's silly to try making dialogue the only point of the screenplay. Stanton still created a fascinating, captivating character in WALL-E, and was able to spin wonderful situations for the fist 40 minutes with him and EVE. In live-action a lot of that could be credited to actors and direction, but here it was really almost entirely the screenplay.

Still, the same screenplay ultimately shoots itself in the foot by under-utilizing WALL in the second half of the film, giving way too much time to the underdeveloped human characters and making way for a snoozy climax, making for a very uneven script.

But I can still say it was quite brilliant in parts, if not in enough.

Since it's the animation awards, I attribute the snub to one factor - - jealousy.

After winning anyway, will it be a backlash?

And the Wall-E backlash begins.

I have no doubts that in ten years time, after all the ridiculous pre-release hype has long since died off, Wall-E will be viewed as minor Pixar at the very best.

Actually I suggest people go read the WALL-E screenplay.

Best writing of the year. Animated or otherwise.

keep in mind, though, that you are crazy.