Feb 26, 2023

Stop Motion Rules as a list analysis of the top winners "Pinocchio" and "Marcel Shoes and Shells" at the 50th Annual Annie Awards.

Just like last year, Netflix once again led the list of winners at the 50th ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards.The award was announced Saturday night at UCLA's Royce Hall in rain-soaked Los Angeles.

Streamers recorded 32 wins in 12 categories. Although it dropped sharply from last year's 20 wins, Netflix has won accolades in key categories, including 5 wins in Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" and 4 wins in "Love, Death + Robot."

It's hardly a surprise that Del Toro's Pinocchio won the top prize for animation features. Netflix Original has dominated this year's awards season circuit and has won nearly every major feature award, including the BAFTA, VES Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critics' Choice, PGA Awards and the Art Directors Guild. Also, it's no surprise that Dean Fleischer Camp's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On won the award for an indie animation feature.The a24 film has won quite a few honors from the organization of critics throughout this award season.

But here's what's surprising. Pinocchio marked the only second time Stop Motion Production has won Annie for the animation feature (the other win was Wallace & Gromit: and since this category was introduced 7 years ago, Stop Motion Production has won the indie animation feature). I did not win the award. So, consider it a very rare occurrence that Annie's recognized the stop Motion feature in their two top feature awards.

Pinocchio also won four other Annie's (character animation, directing, production design, music), and Marcel had two additional victories (voice acting, writing). The only downside in 1 year that has attracted a lot of attention to stop-motion animation is that Netflix's other big stop-motion production, directed by Henry Selick's Wendell & Wild, got lost in shuffle and became almost unrecognisable due to its creative eccentricity. Wendell & Wilde is destined to become a cult classic in animation, so don't worry.

The tech company Apple has produced a fair share of animation since launching the streaming service Apple TV+, but in terms of critical recognition, it is its European project that has won the bulk of acclaim. Last night, Apple won four Annie in the British short film "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse."

The film, directed by Peter Baton and Charlie Mckessey, won Special Production, TV/media Character Animation, TV/media Direction, and TV/Media Editorial categories. The film has been on an upward swing over the past few weeks, including the BAFTA winning over the previous weekend. In addition to that, the fact that it has more than one celebrity producer – J.J. Abrams, Johnny Ive, Woody Harrelson・ and a cast of star・studded celebrity voices, and a Christmas special are celebrating the Academy Awards's most

100th anniversary this year. Despite 11 nominations, including only seven for Red, it was locked out of the Feature Animation Award. In fact, Disney had only 3 Annie during the night, and 2 of them were for avatars: The Water Road. This year's weak haul follows last year's disappointing performance, when the company had only 5 wins.

The last time Disney won was in 2011, when it won the 38th Annual Annie's 2nd. However, there is an asterisk in the minimal Disney presence of the year: Disney Animation Chief Ed Catmull and John Lasseter protested against the organization's voting and vetting procedures.; Annie's lack of success at the company reflects the tepid audience response to the company's recent films like Lightyear and Strange World. Illumination's Minions: The Rise Of Gru, the most financially successful animated feature of 2022, won none of that category.Nickelodeon Animation won only 1 victory in the preschool series The Tiny Chef Show.Warner Bros.Animation and Cartoon Network both went home empty-handed. Here's the thing, though: if you offer lighting the option to win three Annies vs. producing another billion-dollar box office movie, they pick the latter every time It's obviously nice to be recognized by your peers, but at the end of the day, the biggest reward is that the audience loves your work.

The notable exception here is Dreamworks animation, which came up with four wins, including three of the feature-length animation side, and the company has made creative progress over the past few films. The triumph of the feature was the feature character design (Taylor Krahenbuhl For The Bad Guys), the feature storyboard (Anthony Holden for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), and the feature editing (James Ryan, Jacquelyn Karambelas, Natalia Cronembold, Joseph Butler, and Katie Parody for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish). Dreamworks, like Netflix, has proven that it is possible to experiment while pleasing viewers.

In addition to the competitive category at Annie, "Awards were awarded which were reviewed to honor unparalleled achievements and outstanding contributions to animation. The Winsor McCay award for lifetime achievement was awarded to Pete Docter, Evelyn Lambart and Craig McCracken.

The June Foray Award for significant and benevolent or charitable influence on the art and industry of animation was awarded to author and historian Mindy Johnson, while the ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement was awarded to the Visual Effects Reference Platform, first developed by Nick Cannon and Francois Chardavoine. John Omohundro gave us a certificate of merit for volunteering with ASIFA-Hollywood.

The full list of winners of the 50th Annie Awards is below. Netflix, double dare you.The Shadow machine associated with Jim Henson,

Marcel shelled shoes Marcel The Movie LLC

Boy, Mole, Fox and Horse Nonemore Productions, Bad Robot Productions

Ice Merchant Cola Animation, Wild Stream

Save Ralph Arch Model Studio

Tiny Chef Show Episode: "Pancakes" Tiny Chef Productions LLC, Imagine Entertainment

An Abhorrent and Invisible City Episode: "Everest Returns" Dreamworks Animation

Bob's Burger Episode: "Bots like Some Part 1: 8th Grade Runners" The 20th TV, Lunch Box Entertainment

Ogre: The Story of the Thunder God Episode: "The Devil's Moon Rises" Netflix, Tonko House

Soloist Director: Mehrnaz Abdulahinia, Feben Elias Waldehawa, Razak Ithaca, Celeste Jamnec, Lee Liu School: Goberan, l'école de l'image

Love, Death + Robot Episode: "Bad Journey" Production company: Netflix Blur Studio Vfx production company: Blur Studio; Kirby Miller, Igor Zanick, Joseph H. Coleman, Steven Dupuy, Josh Schwartz

Avatar: Water Road Production company: 20th Century Studios, Disney Studios Vfx Production Company: W.t.FX;Johnathan M.Nixon,David Moraton,Nicholas Illingworth,David Caeiro Cebrian,Alex Nowotny

Boy, mole, fox and horse Tim Watts

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Tucker Barry

Avatar: The Water Road Daniel Barrett, Stuart Adcock, Todd Labonte, Douglas Mchale, Stephen Cullingford

Cuphead - Delicious Last Course Chad Moldenhauer, Hannah Abi・Hannah

Love, Death + Robots Episode: "Jibaro" Alberto Mielgo

The Bad Guy Taylor Krahenbuhl

Boy, mole, fox and horse Peter Baton, Charlie Mckessey

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson

Cup Head show. Episode: "Khan Ibir" Ego Plum

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Alexandre Despla, Rovan Katz, Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale

Ogre: The Story of the Thunder God Episode: "The Devil's Moon Rises" Robert Kondo, Rachel Tepe Daniels, Leah Ting, Yohei Hashizume, Tadashi Inada

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Kurt Endar, Guy Davis

Love, Death + Robots Episode: "The very pulse of the machine" Emily Dean

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Anthony Holden

Zootopia+ Episode: "The Godfather of the Bride" Maurice La Marche (Mr. Big)

Marcel Shell in shoes Jenny Slate

Love, Death + Robots Episode: "Bad Journey" Andrew Kevin Walker

Marcel Shell in shoes Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate, Nick Paley, Elizabeth Holm

Boy, Mole, Fox and Horse Daniel Budin

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Dreamworks Animation