KUNG FU PANDA sweeps WALL-E at the ANNIE Awards...

Hey folks, Harry here... Wow. Ya know, when WALL-E didn't pull down a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars (along with DARK KNIGHT's snub) I wasn't shocked. I am frankly a bit shocked about how things went at tonight's ANNIEs, the animation industry's own personal Oscars. Dreamworks' KUNG FU PANDA sweeped WALL*E for 13 wins. Beating WALL*E in every category. Now I've already received 5 emails, 2 Myspace messages and 3 Facebook messages about this - and they all have a theory that DREAMWORKS ANIMATION is a larger sponsor of the event, thus they BOUGHT the awards. Frankly, I don't know if this is true at all, but frankly I don't buy the conspiracy. I love WALL*E. It is easily one of the very best films made this year - no matter the category. However, I do think I have a sense of what happened here. You see, while I loved the subtlety of the animation of the robotic Wall-E and Eve, and the other robots. The economic use of motion to give a gateway to the character's soul was exquisite. That said, WALL*E was not as traditionally expressive as the animation in KUNG FU PANDA, in which the characters were built for more obvious expression. That isn't to denegrate the work in KUNG FU PANDA. That film was exceptional. Both of these films are excellent animated movies. But it seems to the voting body of the folks that decide the ANNIEs... well, KUNG FU PANDA was the superior ANIMATED effort. Whereas to a lot of us, WALL*E is the better out-right film. I know a lot of people that preferred KUNG FU PANDA as the more fun and entertaining film. Frankly, these sorts of awards contests can always go in oddly weird directions. This time they chose the exceptional, more traditional animated film. That's not a crime, that's just how the voting body came down this time out. At least that's how I see it. For the full results, check out Variety's Story Here