"Monsters University," "Despicable Me 2" land Annie Awards noms

PanARMENIAN.Net - The animated awards season race has officially begun with the announcement of the 41st Annie Awards nominations. "Frozen (2013)" and "Monsters University" are atop the list with 10 each, followed by "Despicable Me 2" and "The Croods" with 9 each, AceShowbiz said.

"We had more submissions to chose from this year, running the gamut from big studio features to indie films, television series to Internet shows, games, shorts and student films," ASIFA-Hollywood president Frank Gladstone said, noting the high volumes of animations this year.

"Frozen", presenting the voice talents of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel among others, puts Disney as the leader with 31. DreamWorks with "The Croods" accumulated 19 while Pixar that produced "Monsters University" nabbed 18. The number of bids is the total nominations in film and TV.

Voice acting nominations include Paul Giamatti in "Turbo", Terry Crews in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2", Kristen Wiig, Steve Carell and Pierre Coffin for "Despicable Me 2", Billy Crystal for "Monsters University" and Josh Gad for "Frozen".

Meanwhile in TV categories, FX's "Archer" and 20th Century Fox's "Futurama" are among the best general audience animated TV nominees. Director Steven Spielberg will be one of the career achievement honorees to receive the Winsor McCay Award at the awards ceremony.

The 41st Annie Awards will be held on Saturday, February 1, at UCLA's Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, California.