Disney’s “Zootopia” tops Annie Awards with six wins

PanARMENIAN.Net - Disney’s “Zootopia” is on a roll, following up its Golden Globes victory by topping the 44th Annual Annie Awards with six wins, including best animated feature, Variety said.

As a studio, Disney racked up 10 awards total on the animation industry’s big night, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood on Saturday, February 4 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

“Zootopia” directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore as well as writers Jared Bush and Phil Johnston took trophies, as did Cory Loftis for character design, Dean Wellins for storyboarding, and Jason Bateman, the voice of fox Nick Wilde, who shared the voice acting in a feature win with “Moana” star Auli’i Cravalho.

In addition to Cravalho’s win, Disney’s “Moana” took home an Annie for animated effects in a feature (Marlon West, Erin V. Ramos, Blair Pierpont, Ian J. Coony, and John M. Kosnik).

Disney rounded out its night with wins for its TV series “Disney Mickey Mouse” (Illya Owens for editorial in a TV/broadcast production) and for character animation in a live-action production for “The Jungle Book” (Andrew R. Jones, Peta Bayley, Gabriele Zucchelli, and Benjamin Jones).

Laika’s stop-motion “Kubo and the Two Strings” picked up three wins. Jan Maas nabbed an award for character animation in a feature, Christopher Murrie for editorial, and Nelson Lowry, Trevor Dalmer, August Hall, and Ean McNamara for production design.

“The Red Turtle,” a co-production by Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch directed by Michael Dudok de Wit, took the prize for best animated feature, independent, and Pixar’s “Piper,” directed by Alan Barillaro, won for short.

In the TV/broadcast categories, “Bob’s Burgers” from Bento Box won best production for general audiences, while Bix Pix Entertainment’s “Adventure Time” and “Tumble Leaf” won children’s production and pre-school children’s production, respectively.

Picking up three TV/broadcast awards each were Google Spotlight Stories’ “Pearl” and “DreamWorks Trollhunters.”

Patrick Osborne, who won an Oscar for the Disney short “Feast,” took home the directing prize for the 360-degree short film “Pearl,” while Scot Stafford, Alexis Harte, and JJ Wiesler won for music and Tuna Bora for production design.

“DreamWorks Trollhunters,” created by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, picked up Annies for Mike Chaffe (character animation); Victor Maldonado, Alfredo Torres, and Jules Rigolle (character design); and Hyunjoo Song (storyboarding).

Carlos Alazraqui’s vocal work as Ponce de Leon in DreamWorks Animation’s “The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show” gave DWA its fourth Annie of the night, the second-highest total overall.

Juried awards were also presented. Animator Dale Baer, animation champion Caroline Leaf, and anime director Mamoru Oshii were presented with the Winsor McCay Award for their contribution to the art of animation. Google Spotlight’s Virtual Reality Platform received the Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement. Documentary “Life, Animated” was honored with a Special Achievement Award. The June Foray Award for benevolence in the animation community went to to Bill & Sue Kroyer. Certificates of merit were given to ASIFA-Hollywood volunteer coordinator Leslie Ezeh and ASIFA-Hollywood office manager Gary Perkovac.