(Insert stupid Blog name here) - So much for that...

RSS Bot · February 14, 2009

Well, I was going to try to go through the entire month of February without a new blog entry* (just to see if I could), but decided I couldn't let something pass by without griping about it: The Annie Awards.

The what?!

The Annie Awards. The animation industry's annual awards for (supposedly) excellence in animation. Well, actually, it's ASIFA-Hollywood's awards. What is ASIFA-Hollywood? It's the L.A. chapter of the The International Animated Film Society (how they got ASIFA out of that...). Is it like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Nope. Is it like the National Cartoonists Society? Nope. ASIFA lets any schmuck who pays them join. That means, anyone can vote for the Annie awards. Industry members, students, fans, whoever. Vote early, vote often.

But... isn't that a good thing? Isn't the whole problem with industry awards the fact that they never allow the general public to vote and therefore never reflect the public's opinions of what good film/TV/music really is?

That's not the problem here. The problem here, is that there is no process whatsoever for screening applicants. For determining who is voting. Or more to the point - if certain studios are voting in disproportionately higher numbers. Everyone who pays (or is paid for) gets in. Friends, family, lackeys, anyone. This makes it possible for a given studio, let's say - hypothetically - Dreamworks, to rig dramatically influence the outcome of the awards. In fact, Dreamworks Animation makes a point of giving every employee that walks through the door an ASIFA membership.

Why am I even bringing this up?

Because Dreamworks' Kung-Fu Panda swept the awards.

It didn't dominate. It swept. In almost every single category it was nominated in. The only two it lost in were "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form" and "Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form" (keep in mind those categories while you think for a moment about Kung Fu Panda being an animated feature film). They submitted DVD bonus material for consideration. Fine. That's within the rules. But having it win in four out of six TV/short form categories? For DVD bonus material? Okay... we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for a minute, and just assume that all of the rest of the TV/short form nominees just had a bad year. That could happen. And maybe the bonus material was just that awesome. (I haven't seen it.)

But for everything else, it actually did sweep all of its nominations. Ten out of ten for feature film awards, plus "best animated video game". Ten out of ten. Think about that for a moment.

Nothing else, except two TV productions, won anything in any of the categories Dreamworks submitted Kung Fu Panda for.

Now, if Wall-E had been a critical flop or box office disaster, I could possibly, maybe see eight out of ten happening. Maybe. But that wasn't the case. And we're talking 15 out of 17 total awards here, for an awards show that only gives out 24.

That's just patently ridiculous. Really. If Skeletor Jeffery Katzenberg wants to buy up some awards for his films, he should at least not make it so obvious.

Now, does this mean ASIFA is corrupt? No. I'm sure there are many fine things they do as an organization. But if you're going to have industry awards, you'd better make sure that they reflect the attitudes of the entire industry. The Annies have become a complete joke. Highest bidder wins. They need to clean up their act, or any shred of remaining respect these awards may have at one point brought with them will be gone. In my book, it already is. (And for opposing viewpoints, you can slog through these comments if you'd like.)

And for what it's worth - I liked Kung Fu Panda.

* I've sort-of been cheating on the blog thing anyway. So it's just as well.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...;showentry=5799