Channel Frederator Blog

January 30th, 2009. The Annie Awards. Animation’s big awards night was no disappointment to this happy fangirl.

Host Tom Kenny kicked off the ceremony with a musical spoof “I Want my Annie” featuring the incredible Andy Paley Orchestra (seen monthly at Hollywood’s M Bar in the Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour) and a cameo by fellow Thrilling Adventurer, actor David “Gruber” Allen as the devil.

At the reception after the awards Mr. Kenny gave me major kudos on my vintage dress. So he wins everything on my ballot. But if you want to know how all those other awards went down…

Of the recipients Dreamworks Animation garnered the most awards with 15 total wins, the majority of which were for this year’s animation ass-kickers, television program Secrets of the Furious Five and the feature film Kung Fu Panda. In addition to winning Best Picture, Kung Fu Panda also took Best Animated Video Game, Best Direction for an Animated Feature, Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production, Voice Acting (Dustin Hoffman) Best Animated Effects, and Music in an Animated Feature Film (for a full list of winners visit www.annieawards.org).

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs won Best Home Entertainment Production. David X. Cohen, who accepted the award, said that President Obama had recently appointed him “Animation Czar” and to usher in the new digital age of TV, he had renamed some characters to fit their new wide-screen digital digs, such as “Spongebob Rectangle Pants” and “Strawberry Fat-Cake.”

That’s me n’ Matt Groening. So’s you know.

Shadowmachine swept up the adult Television categories, including Best Animated Television Program for Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II, Best Writing in an Animated TV Program of Short Form, and Best Voice Acting for Ahmed Best reprising his role as Jar Jar Binks. The award was presented by Brad Garrett and Pat Fraley, superior entertainers and voice actors. They were among some great presenters, including Fred Willard, Edie McClurg, and Billy Crystal, who presented the Winsor McCay award to John Lasseter.

Avatar: The Last Airbender snagged a few awards, for Joaquim Dos Santos’ direction and Best Animated Television Production for Children.

Nick Park won Best Animated Short Form for Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, in addition to receiving the Winsor McCay award recognizing his contributions to the art of animation. In his acceptance speech, he said he’d always felt a tremendous amount of guilt for loving his job so much.

Me n’ Nick Park. Yes. I’m in all the pictures. That’s how this journalista rolls.

Although, at the afterparty I really wanted to grab a photo with Mark Osborne, who along with John Stevenson, won Best Direction for Kung Fu Panda. Mark Osborne looks like this:

So imagine how long it took to find a handsome young animation director in a dark suit and glasses at an afterparty that looked a bit like this:

I did find him at the coat-check on the way out, as the party was wrapping up. When I asked for a photo, he seemed absurdly flattered. “This is so weird,” he said,”all this for directing animation.”

The Annie Awards ceremony was recorded this year and will be webcast on www.annieawards.org beginning Tuesday, February 3, 2009.

-Bailee DesRocher