“Up” Wins Annie Award

No shot at a Best Picture Oscar, but an Annie Award and a chance to shake William Shatner’s hand.

The 37th Annual Annie Awards, given to animated films and television shows, were handed out Saturday night. “Up,” form Pixar, won best animated feature, and picked up another award for its director, Pete Doctor. Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” won three awards. I’d love to tell you what they are, but they aren’t specified in the Annies’s official press release and they’re not on the organization’s web site yet. Guess the Annie after party must have been tremendous. The Hollywood Reporter says “Coraline” also won three awards, but again, those animated animators don’t see to have gotten up yet in order to update their website.  

So what does this mean for “Up,” which seems like a mortal lock for the best animated feature Oscar, and is also in the general best picture pool of ten? Well, last year it was kind of a scandal when “Kung Fu Panda” won the Best Feature Annie instead of “Wall*E,” but then “Wall*E” went on to win the animated Oscar anyway. Obviously we don’t have that problem this year, since “Up” managed to nab the Annie instead of, say, “Ice Age 3.” It’s pretty safe to say that “Up” is going to win the best animated feature Oscar, but doesn’t have a chance to win Best Picture. Though I know people who will say that the first five minutes of “Up” are better than the entire length of most movies.

William Shatner hosted the Annies. How’d that come together? I don’t particularly associate Shatner with animated films. Instead, I’m picturing the person who’s producing the Annies calling around town to different agents and hearing something like, “Well, I can’t get you Samuel L. Jackson, but William Shatner’s available…” “Done!”