"Coraline" haunts 2009 'Annie' Awards

By our guest blogger, Colin George

It’s that time again! The nominations for the 2009 ‘Annie’ awards were recently announced. No, it’s not an awards show for the likes of "Best Supporting Orphan," but rather a celebration of the year’s finest achievements in animation. Silly name aside, 2009 was host to an unusually diverse and accomplished array of animated features, which makes the running more exciting than the usual Pixar blowout.

Surprisingly, the film that picked up the most nominations was Henry Selick’s “Coraline,” which was released in early February, proving that at least some judging panels do have longer than a six-month memory span. Most notably of its 10 nominations, the film picked up nods for Best Feature, Best Character Design, and Best Voice Acting.

Among the other best feature nominations were Pixar’s “Up,” which could very well take off with the top prize, though probably doesn’t deserve it over Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” or Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl adaptation, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Rounding out the category was “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and “The Secret of Kells,” which I can’t imagine I’m alone in having never heard of.

I was disappointed to see Hayao Miyazaki’s film, “Ponyo” not honored (though the man himself is nominated in the Best Director category), especially when bland fare like “Coraline” and “Cloudy,” received mention.

Outside of the Miyazaki snub, the list seems to be thoughtfully compiled, and in a year packed with so many great animated films, Pixar shouldn't be clearing off that mantle space just yet. The full list of Annie Award nominees can be found here.

Source.