On January 31, the animation industry recognized its own with the annual Annie Awards. The event recognizes the best of the past year in the world of animation as well as animation curation and history. The beloved Walt Disney Family Museum won this year’s Special Achievement award, presented by Richard Sherman, for “its unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation.” Ron Miller, former President of Walt Disney Productions and President of the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Family Museum, accepted on behalf of his late wife, Diane Disney Miller and the rest of the family and staff:
“When my wife, Diane Disney Miller, founded The Walt Disney Family Museum, she was on a mission—to tell the fascinating and inspiring story of her father, Walt Disney. Through this, she hoped the museum would be a center for inspiration and creativity for present and future generations of animators, artists, and innovators.
Receiving the Special Achievement accolade here at the Annie Awards pays testament to the determination, hard-work, and talent of Diane and our team at The Walt Disney Family Museum. We are incredibly honored and sincerely grateful that the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood and YOU—the art and animation community—has recognized the museum as an establishment that has had a unique and significant impact on your industry.
On behalf of Diane Miller, the rest of the staff, and everyone else connected with this museum starting back about eight years ago, I really thank you. Thank you very much.”
How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the evening’s big winner, bringing home awards for Best Animated Feature, Feature Character Design, Storyboarding and Music. Disney brought home the highest number of Annies, eleven, nine of which went to Disney Television Animation for Gravity Falls, the fantastic Mickey Mouse shorts (Bill Farmer won for “Goofy’s Grandma” in voice acting), and Wander Over Yonder. Disney’s “Feast” won for best short, and Big Hero 6 won for visual FX.
The Ub Iwerks Technical Award went to DreamWorks for their Apollo software, and the June Foray Benevolent Service Award went to one of my heroes, Charles Solomon, who championed early efforts to recognize animation as an art form and taught my generation about artists such as Mary Blair. The Windsor McCay award went to three recipients: Didier Brunner (The Triplets of Belleville, Secret of the Kells), Don Lusk (just about every Disney animated feature from Pinocchio to 101 Dalmatians, pretty much every single animated tv show ever) and Lee Mendelson (The Peanuts specials, Garfield).
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, won Best Animated Special Production for it’s beautifully stylized historical pieces. There were only three commercials nominated, and Aardman Animation beat out Lego Batman and Swan Song for best commercial. The Simpsons took home best General Audience Television Production and the gorgeous The Book of Life won the Annie for Production Design. Legend of Korra won Outstanding Achievement in Storyboarding.
Edge of Tomorrow won for Best Animated Effects in a Live-Action Production, something which I wish the Oscars had as well. Also in Live-Action, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes took home the Annie for Best Character Animation.
In gaming, Assassin’s Creed Unity won Best Character Animation and Valiant Hearts: The Great War was named Best Animated Video Game.
There were some surprises as well: Amazon’s Tumble Leaf won best tv/broadcast production for preschool children, the first by a digital network, and Cartoon Network’s critically-acclaimed Over the Garden Wall went home empty-handed. The Lego Movie won for writing, which was no surprise whatsoever. Also not surprising: Ben Kingsley for his evil performance in The Boxtrolls.
Every year, the Annie Awards celebrate the best in animation, which is good, because it seems that movie and television awards often underplay the importance of animation in the entertainment industry.
Please join us in wishing congratulations to all the nominees and winners in this year’s Annie Awards!