Kung Fu Panda 2 tops Annie Award nominations
The Annie Awards, which have been wracked by controversy in recent years, attempted to right the ship on Monday with a slate of nominations that included, well, everybody.
With an expanded field in nearly every category, including 10 nominees for Best Animated Feature, the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, was all-inclusive in its nominations, with 13 different animated films receiving nominations and no one film running away from the field the way How to Train Your Dragon did last year.
Typically, a DreamWorks Animation production led the pack, with the 12 nominations for Kung Fu Panda 2 being three more than the nine received by that company's Puss in Boots and Paramount's Rango.
But Disney and Pixar were well-represented as well, after a year in which they withdrew from ASIFA-Hollywood over concerns about the judging process. Pixar's Cars 2 received seven nominations and Disney's Winnie the Pooh received eight, though it was shut out of the top category, Best Animated Feature, despite that category's 10 nominees.
Competing for the top award will be DWA's King Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, Cars 2, Rango, Blue Sky Studios' Rio, Sony and Aardman Animation's Arthur Christmas and Amblin's Steven Spielberg production The Adventures of Tintin.
Also in the running: the smaller European films A Cat in Paris, Arrugas (Wrinkles) and Chico & Rita, all of which are also in the running for the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars.
George Miller's Happy Feet 2, which opened in November to disappointing box-office returns and largely negative reviews, did not receive any nominations.
ASIFA reorganized under new leadership earlier this year, resulting in Disney and Pixar returning to the organization.
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