Annie Awards: ‘Frozen’ Wins Big Including Best Feature; Miyazaki Gets Best Writing; Spielberg Honored; ‘Futurama’ & ‘Sofia’ Top TV; ‘Get A Horse!’ Best Short

Disney’s Frozen was on fire tonight at the 41st Annie Awards and now is generating real heat for the upcoming Academy Awards. Having made $864.4M worldwide at the box office since its late-November release, the 3D fantasy musical snagged 5 Annies tonight. Frozen won Best Animated Feature, Best Directing for Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Best Music, Production Design and a Voice Acting win for Josh Gad. who also was a presenter. Whether this will translate into Oscar gold remains to be seen. Last year’s big Annie winner, Wreck-It Ralph, which Lee co-wrote, ended up losing the Best Animated Feature Oscar to Pixar’s Brave. However, the 2012 Annie Feature winner Rango did win at the Oscars that year.

“We haven’t even started talking about a sequel yet,” Frozen co-director Jennifer Lee told me before the ceremony started. “We’ve talked about the Broadway musical but not a sequel. No one’s even mentioned it,” said Lee, who just flew in today from a promotional visit to Tokyo.

With 30 awards handed out and hosted by Patrick Warburton, this year’s Annies from UCLA’s Royce Hall also saw animation trailblazer Hayao Miyazaki take home the Writing in an Animated Feature award for The Wind Rises and Disney’s Mickey Mouse throwback pic Get A Horse! — which played before screenings of Frozen — take the Best Animated Short prize. Steven Spielberg, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo and Star Wars and Jurassic Park effects whiz Phil Tippett were honored with the Annies’ prestigious Winsor McCay for their contribution to the art form. DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods garnered three awards, for Best Animated Effects in an Animated Production, Character Design and Character Animation. The Chris Meledandri-headed Illumination and Universal’s Despicable Me 2 took the Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial award.

A recap of Deadline’s live blog of tonight’s show follows the winners list below.

Related:
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The Halloween special Toy Story of Terror! and Disney Mickey Mouse each won three awards. Best General Audience Animated TV Production and best Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production went to Futurama, while Disney’s Sofia The First picked up the category’s Preschool Children award. Industrial Light & Magic’s Pacific Rim team won the Animated Effects in a Live Action Production for their work on Warner Bros and Legendary’s apocalyptic blockbuster.

After a slightly late start, host Warburton kicked off the show by making a joke that he has “no experience as a host” but that the Annies are his favorite awards show. He later said of Royce Hall, “What a terrific venue to have the Annies — or, if you’re Seth MacFarlane, a birthday party.” He added that maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned it because “not everybody here was invited.” Later he said, “We lost Brian the dog on Family Guy this year. That was tragic news for fans of the show. … Tragic news for me would be if I found out Rogaine caused brain cancer.” He added that, “So Seth MacFarlane killed a dog. To me that makes him no better than Michael Vick.” The joke got a big laugh.

Congrats to all who took home an Annie tonight, check out the full list of winners below:

Best Animated Feature:
Frozen, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production:
Chipotle Scarecrow, Chipotle Creative Department, Moonbot Studios

Best Animated Short Subject:
Get A Horse!,Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial:
Despicable Me 2, Cinemark
- Universal Pictures

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children:
Disney Sofia the First
- Disney Television Animation

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children’s Audience:
Adventure Time, Cartoon Network Studios

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Futurama,20th Century Fox Television

Best Animated Video Game:
The Last of Us, Naughty Dog

Best Student Film
Wedding Cake, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Viola Baier, Iris Frisch

Animated Effects in an Animated Production:
Jeff Budsberg, Andre Le Blanc, Louis Flores, Jason Mayer, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

Animated Effects in a Live Action Production:
Michael Balog, Ryan Hopkins, Patrick Conran, Florian Witzel, Pacific Rim, Industrial Light & Magic

Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production:
Kureha Yokoo, Toy Story of Terror!,Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production:
Jakob Jensen, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Live Action Production:
Jeff Capogreco, Jedrzej Wojtowicz, Kevin Estey, Alessandro Bonora, Gino Acevedo, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Gollum,Weta Digital

Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Paul Rudish, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Carter Goodrich, Takao Noguchi, Shane Prigmore, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Angus MacLane, Toy Story of Terror!, Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in an Animated Feature Production:
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Frozen,Walt Disney Animation Studios

Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Christopher Willis, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

Music in an Animated Feature Production:
Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Christophe Beck, Frozen,Walt Disney Animation Studios

Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Angela Sung, William Niu, Christine Bian, Emily Tetri, Frederic Stewart, The Legend of Korra, Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Michael Giaimo, Lisa Keene, David Womersley, Frozen,Walt Disney Animation Studios

Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Daniel Chong, Toy Story of Terror!, Pixar Animation Studios

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production:
Dean Kelly, Monsters University, Pixar Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Tom Kenny as the voice of Ice King, Adventure Time, Cartoon Network Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production:
Josh Gad as the voice of Olaf, Frozen, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Lewis Morton, Futurama, 20th Century Fox Television

Writing in an Animated Feature Production:
Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises,Studio Ghibli/Touchstone Pictures/The Walt Disney Studios

Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Illya Owens, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production:
Greg Snyder, Gregory Amundson, Steve Bloom, Monsters University, Pixar Animation Studios

Winsor McCay Award:
Katsuhiro Otomo, Steven Spielberg, Phil Tippett

June Foray Award:
Alice Davis

Ub Iwerks Award
Dragonframe

Special Achievement Award
Creative Talent Network (CTN) Animation eXpo

Certificate of Merit
I Know That Voice

————————————————————–

Here’s how it looked in near-real time, including the winners as they were announced:

Best Student Film:
Wedding Cake, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Viola Baier, Iris Frisch

Cloris Leachman, who was presenting the award with SpongeBob voice Tom Kenny, reminded the winners to be careful on their way to the stage because — in her Frau Blucher voice from Young Frankenstein — “The stairs can be treacherous.” Then when Viola Baier came up to accept her award, screaming “Oh my God” all the way, she lost both of her shoes.

Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Daniel Chong, Toy Story of Terror!, Pixar Animation Studios

Can’t have an Annie Awards without a Toy Story win, right?

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production:
Dean Kelly, Monsters University, Pixar Animation Studios

There’s are big Despicable Me 2 and The Croods contingents here at Royce Hall. A big cheer whenever either is mentioned as a nominee.

Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Illya Owens, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

It’s gonna be a long night, folks. Things are moving sloooooowly. Meanwhile, the mouse gets his first shout-out as Illya Owens says, “I wouldn’t be on this stage if is wasn’t for Mickey. Thanks, Mickey!”

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production:
Greg Snyder, Gregory Amundson, Steve Bloom, Monsters University, Pixar Animation Studios

Five categories announced and already three wins for Pixar Animation Studios.

Best Animated Video Game:
The Last of Us, Naughty Dog

“We don’t have very much time, so hurry up,” Leachman told the winners. She continues to say the Annies should be called the Cecilies so it doesn’t sound so much like Emmys. She’s not wrong.Warburton returned and said, “We’re only 15 minutes in and Cloris Leachman already kissed the French college girl. We got girl-on-girl action.”

Now he’s back to MacFarlane jokes, even though the crowd seems to groan more than laugh. It’s not the host’s best night thus far.

Annie Awards founder June Foray gets the first standing ovation of the night and a big cheer. Of course, she also is the voice of Lucifer from Cinderella, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Cindy Lou Who and many others. She just introduced the winner of the next category, which is named for her.

June Foray Award:
Alice Davis

Davis, a costume designer who worked often with Walt Disney, also gets a standing-O and comes onstage with a “Wow!” She talks about the importance of scholarships. “Thank you all for giving me such a wonderful life and making you all smile.”

ASIFA-Hollywood president Frank Gladstone is onstage, and he notes that today is the 100th anniversary of McCay’s short film Gertie the Dinosaur.

Warburton says, “Welcome back to the Annie Awards — or as it’s not known the Cloris Leachman Award. Right you are, Patrick.

Ub Iwerks Award
Dragonframe

Special Achievement Award
Creative Talent Network (CTN) Animation eXpo

Certificate of Merit
I Know That Voice

“I think we’re doing OK,” Warburton said. “The fire backstage didn’t spread.” Then he went on to carry on a conversation via the big screen with Kronk, the character he voiced in The Emperor’s New Groove. Moving on …

Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Paul Rudish, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

Second nod for Disney Mickey Mouse tonight.

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Carter Goodrich, Takao Noguchi, Shane Prigmore, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

The Croods crowd is on its feet for the film’s first win of the night.

Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Christopher Willis, Disney Mickey Mouse, Disney Television Animation

Make it three.

Music in an Animated Feature Production:
Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Christophe Beck, Frozen,Walt Disney Animation Studios

First award for Disney’s Frozen tonight.

Animated Effects in an Animated Production:
Jeff Budsberg, Andre Le Blanc, Louis Flores, Jason Mayer, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

The Croods will see your win, Frozen, and raise you a second.

Animated Effects in a Live Action Production:
Michael Balog, Ryan Hopkins, Patrick Conran, Florian Witzel, Pacific Rim, Industrial Light & Magic

Onstage shout-out and praise for “our fearless leader” Guillermo del Toro — and the winners’ wives, of course.

Best Animated Short Subject:
Get A Horse!, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Get A Horse! director Lauren MacMullan — who worked on last year’s Annie champ Wreck-It Ralph — thanks Frozen for “all the eyeballs” Her Disney short ran in theaters before that film.

Winsor McCay Award:
Phil Tippett

A strong standing ovation for Tippett, whose career has spans the original Star Wars trilogy to Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, the original RoboCop, The Twilight Saga and the upcoming Jurassic World. He started his speech by warning that he just “had dinner and got some bad hummus. So if I projectile vomit up here, it’s not a special effect.”

The effects legend let the cat out of the bag that Steven Spielberg — his director on Jurassic Park — won’t be there to accept his Winsor McCay Award. Then he went into a long story about a fake vomiting prank Spielberg pulled in a movie theater as a kid during a screening of Jason and the Argonauts. “Didn’t want to step on a Steven Spielberg story,” he said.

His speech may be long and rambling, but man did he just shut the music down when they tried to get him offstage. “Turn it off,” Tippett barked. “I’m just gonna can talk over it.” And he did. Then the music stopped. He went on for several more minutes.

Winsor McCay Award:
Katsuhiro Otomo
A montage of the Japanese manga artist’s films backed by Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You” is quite moving. The standing ovation when the rarely seem filmmaker walks onstage was even more emotional in a room where he commands such obvious respect. The Akira creator accepts his award though an interpreter, saying he’s nervous in front of a crowd. With humility and humor, Otomo adds that he rarely watches his own work but tonight’s honor will make him do so when he gets back to Japan.

Winsor McCay Award:
Steven Spielberg

Trailer voice-over king Nick Tate introduced Spielberg’s animation legacy. Quite the delivery, of course.
Spielberg accepts his award via video, saying he’s a lifelong fan of Winsor McCay. He talks about his love of the medium and gave a shout-out to his DreamWorks co-founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. It was short and sweet.

Then Warburton came back and cracked about Tippett’s speech. He says Tippett looks like “Phil Robertson and Glen Campbell had a love child. Of course, that’ll never happen.”

Josh Gad and Bart Simpson voice actor Nancy Cartwright are presenting the next award. Gad tweaks the absent Spielberg for being “too good to come, but not this Jew.” Of course, he then openly begs Spielberg for a gig, which got a bigger laugh. The sound died on the video package, and Frozen star Gad jumped in to read the nominees.

Character Animation in a Live Action Production:
Jeff Capogreco, Jedrzej Wojtowicz, Kevin Estey, Alessandro Bonora, Gino Acevedo, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Gollum,Weta Digital

Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production:
Kureha Yokoo, Toy Story of Terror!, Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production:
Jakob Jensen, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation

Third win tonight for The Croods, and the DWA team here at Royve Hall gets up and gets loud again.
Gad is great as an awards presenter. Somebody give him a shot. Emmys?

Only 14 of the 30 categories to go.

Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Angela Sung, William Niu, Christine Bian, Emily Tetri, Frederic Stewart, The Legend of Korra, Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Gad says of the excited young winners, one of whom threw out a “Go ‘Hawks!” for tomorrow’s Super Bowl while another mentioned that it’s the first experience in the industry for many of the Legend of Korra team: “So exciting. Straight out of elementary school and they win their first Annie Award.”

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Michael Giaimo, Lisa Keene, David Womersley, Frozen, Walt Disney Animation Studios

That’s two for Frozen.

Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production:
Chipotle Scarecrow, Chipotle Creative Department, Moonbot Studios

The In Memoriam segment starts with original Musketeer Annette Funicello and continues with folks including Eileen Moran, Marcia Wallace and Ray Harryhausen and ends with Diane Disney Miller — Walt’s only biological child.

Warburton chokes up as he talks about Walt Disney’s legacy, then cracks wise.

Happy Days mom Marion Ross and her son Jim Meskimen present the next award. He does an impression of Ron Howard.

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial:
Despicable Me 2, Cinemark
- Universal Pictures

Finally a win for the Minions — and the third-highest-grossing animated film in history worldwide.
Meskimen does impressions of how some famous folks including Woody Allen and Robin Williams might do voices for animated characters.

Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Tom Kenny as the voice of Ice King, Adventure Time, Cartoon Network Studios

Kenny whipped down the aisle like a voice king outta hell. Fact is there seems to be a lot of Adventure Time fans in the crowd. He does a bit in character and then thanks “Cloris Leachman for letting me get to second base backstage.”

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production:
Josh Gad as the voice of Olaf, Frozen, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Ross accidentally announces the winner as “Josh Gad.” He shakes it off and later asks his wife “to not have the baby for about an hour. Yes, we’re that pregnant.” Hmmm, another win for a presenter? Naw, Gad is so good in Frozen that even in a category with top-notch talent no would would deny it’s deserved. Man, he thanks everyone, but the Robin Williams tribute goes over well. Now get home to your wife!

Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Lewis Morton, Futurama, 20th Century Fox Television

Morton calls the WGAs a “bad awards show” and the Annies a “good awards show” because he says he’d lost the writing award for the same script earlier at the WGAs.

Writing in an Animated Feature Production:
Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli/Touchstone Pictures/The Walt Disney Studios

Miyazaki wins for best writing, but nobody is coming to the stage to accept. Awkward…

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children:
Disney Sofia the First
- Disney Television Animation

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children’s Audience:
Adventure Time, Cartoon Network Studios

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Futurama, 20th Century Fox Television

Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Angus MacLane, Toy Story of Terror!, Pixar Animation Studios

MacLane promises to keep it short and he does, but somehow manages to thanks everyone from Pixar to the crew’s families. Nice.

Directing in an Animated Feature Production:
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Frozen,Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated Feature:
Frozen, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Lee and Buck barely had time to get offstage before Frozen won again. Lee was up there last year as a writer when Wreck-It Ralph took the top prize.

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