Disney and Pixar Withdraw in Protest of Annie Awards
There’s a bit of controversy swirling this week over the Annie Awards, Hollywood’s biggest annual celebration of the animated arts, after Disney has decided to withdraw from both the awards ceremony and the organization as a whole. Although Pixar almost always takes home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature every year, back in 2008 they were not too happy when Kung Fu Panda swept Wall-E in virtually every category at the Annies. Since then they’ve apparently been working with the ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation) board to revamp their membership criteria, but haven’t been able to come to an agreement. Looks like the winners of the Annie Awards from here on in will be simply be labeled “the best animated film that Pixar didn’t produce.”
The main issue that Disney had with the whole process is that ASIFA membership is open to anyone (people can pay to be a card-carrying member), as opposed to most other awards where the group making the decisions must be voted in by their peers. Apparently DreamWorks automatically gives every employee an ASIFA membership when they join the company, which Disney claims may be tilting the field in their favour.
I guess I can see why they might be a little bit miffed, but hey, why not just buy their own employees memberships as well? This year’s Annie Awards would probably have turned into a showdown between How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3, and clearly they were concerned that Dragon would win out. But here’s the thing… what if it actually deserves to win? What do you think, are Disney being sore losers about this whole thing or do they have reason to be upset? Will the Annies lose all credibility without Pixar’s involvement?
Comments (14)
So basically they lost one year and are being big, sooky crybabies over it. I love Disney and Pixar but they are huge soar loosers.
Posted by Slushie Man on August 26th, 2010The exclusion of Disney in the Annies doesn’t make them irrelevant because animation doesn’t begin or end with Disney or Pixar.
Posted by swarez on August 26th, 2010Plus nobody out there in the real world gives a shit about this award. It’s pretty irrelevant to Joe Public to begin with.
Well the obvious ‘war of attrition’ in buying memberships is so ludicrously stupid that I’d opt out too. I agree with Swarez in that this award is completely irrelevant anyways, so why bother.
I think that it is a showdown between TS3 and Dragon, I enjoyed them equally, but I think TS3 is just slightly better and a tad more ambitious (albeit Dragon has lot of heart) Neither Dragon or TS3 are as good as THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX though, a film that was ignored by both the Annies and The Oscars…
Posted by Kurt on August 26th, 2010I have never heard of an Annie award before
Posted by Niklas on August 26th, 2010In further news, Pixar is taking their ball and going home.
Posted by Icarus Arts on August 26th, 2010Agreed Kurt. Mr. Fox is by far a superior representation of animation. The other question is why only high profile North American CGI films are being profiled.
Posted by djangoscud on August 26th, 2010I’m so sick of pussies… Skadoosh, mutha-suckas!
Posted by Gil on August 26th, 2010Like Swarez said, The Annies are irrelevant to the general public, not necessarily irrelevant overall. It’s an industry award, so who gives a fuck what the general public thinks?
Posted by Wintle on August 26th, 2010FANTASTIC MR FOX sucks. Typical American pretentious film student wankery swarmy bastardisation of a great British story. No wonder Kurt loves it.
Posted by TheAllKnowingGod on August 26th, 2010No need to pick on Kurt. Jay, Greg and I all had Fantastic Mr. Fox on our top ten lists last year too.
Posted by Sean on August 26th, 2010I’m pretty sure their is always a reason to pick on Kurt. Like how he still refuses to watch Kung Fu Panda.
Posted by Matt Gamble on August 26th, 2010Kung Fu Panda is pretty good. Come on Kurt, watch that sucker already.
Posted by swarez on August 27th, 2010at this point it is far more fun NOT to watch Kung Fu panda. I’ll get to speed-racer first.
Looking forward to see if the illusionist trumps both toystory3 and how to train your dragon
Posted by Kurt on August 27th, 2010Can’t say as that I really cared for Mr. Fox a whole lot. But then I don’t care for Anderson’s movies in general. Still, as an animated movie, I felt it was well done. Not nearly as good as TS3 or Dragon. In fact, not as good as Wallace and Grommit. It all comes down to personal opinions though.
This whole thing makes me think of USA basketball. Lose one close game over the years and you need the rules changed.
Posted by Slix on August 28th, 2010Leave a Reply