And the Winner Is…Kung Fu Panda?

Kung Fu Panda–new Oscar pool favorite? 

This story didn’t get a lot of attention, but I found it interesting–did you know that “Kung Fu Panda” swept the feature film category at the 36th Annie Awards? Indeed it did, and while that sounds fairly innocuous–after all, it is a very entertaining movie that made a lot of money–consider that the “Panda” win meant that “Wall*E” and “Waltz With Bashir” went home empty handed. And again, while everyone liked “Kung Fu Panda,” “Wall*E” made critics weep and thumb through their dictionaries to find new words of praise; it made lots of end-of-year best lists and was named best overall by a few publications. “Waltz With Bashir” was released much later in the year but also received a great deal of recognition and praise.

The Academy Awards just began to give out a best animated feature film award in 2001; since then, the Annie Award winner has matched the Oscar winner in all but one year (the Annies chose “Cars” over “Happy Feet”). So while it’s been a given that “Wall*E” would pick up the Oscar this year, is it possible that “Kung Fu Panda” could kick over the competition and steal the award? I tend to doubt it, but it’s fun to think about anyway and you never know…go for the underdog, Oscar.