Awards Watch: The Annies

And a rat shall lead them: the International Animated Film Society revealed today the nominations for their 35th annual Annie Awards, which recognize the art of animation in film, television and other media. Setting the pace for the toons in this year's awards derby is, as expected, Disney/ Pixar's Ratatouille, which netted 13 total nominations. In a surprise showing, Sony's Surf's Up followed with ten nods. Joining those two in the Best Animated Feature category is DreamWorks' Bee Movie, Fox's The Simpsons Movie and the French import Persepolis. In keeping with the Annies' bizarre history of head-scratchers, Shrek the Third's directors were nominated ... and that was it for the ogre (although his recent Christmas special did get two noms itself on the TV side). Also left almost completely out of the running was Beowulf, with one lonely design nomination.

What does this mean for the Oscar race? Well, we already knew the three strongest competitors would be Ratatouille, Persepolis and The Simpsons, but I wouldn't count out the generally well-reviewed Surf's Up, although it didn't exactly light the box office on fire. Bee Movie, even with a Best Feature nod, isn't up for directing or writing, so you can pretty much consider that one a slot-filler. And as for that mythical warrior, it is pretty apparent now what those in the animation industry think of him and all his mo-cap-ness.

Back to the Annies, it's great to see the delightful Pixar short Your Friend the Rat up for an award, as well as the return of Goofy in How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, which will screen with National Treasure: Book of Secrets. And although Ratatouille nabbed three out of the five Voice Acting nominations, none were for Peter O'Toole's tour de force as bitter foodie Anton Ego (no Oscar, now no Annie ... what is the world coming to?). Honorary award winners will include Disney animation giant Glen Keane (responsible for Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, the list goes on) and John Canemaker, animation historian and Oscar-winning short subject director (The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation).

The Annie Awards will be presented February 8. See the comments section below for a quick look at the full list of movie nominations.

Links via AnnieAwards.org.