Zootopia was the big winner tonight at this year’s Annie Awards with six wins including a Best Animated Feature victory that seems to position the Disney pic for Oscar glory later this month.
Coming into the 44th Annies with a leading 11 nominations, the film also won for Directing (Bryon Howard and Rich Moore) and a tie for star Jason Bateman with Auli’i Cravalho in fellow Disney release Moana for best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature. Adding to the Golden Globe win Zootopia scored last month and the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Animated Feature it won late last year, the pic about a rabbit cop and con man fox has more than $1 billion at the global box office since its spring 2016 release.
The big winner at the Annies has also taken Oscar gold in 10 of 15 years since the Best Animated Feature category was introduced at the Academy Awards. Last year, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out pulled off the double play, but in 2015 DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 won at the Annies, only to suffer an upset as Disney’s Big Hero 6 went onto win the Academy Award.
Tonight’s black-tie gathering saw onstage appearances from a very animated Kobe Bryant, Jenna Elfman, Moana’s Cravalho and a video visit by the Will Arnett-voiced Lego Batman himself. As well, because awards are the business we’re in tonight, Annies also saw Fox and Bento Box Entertainment’s Bob Burgers take the top General Audience Animated TV show award after being nominated for the past four years. Cartoon Network’s inventive Adventure Time earned the Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production for Children, which it hadn’t won since 2014. Amazon Studios’ Tumble Leaf tonight got the Preschool Children’s top TV series award for the fourth consecutive year.
As you factor Zootopia into your Oscar pool, check out the full list of winners at the 44th Annie Awards below:
Best Animated Feature
ZOOTOPIA
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Byron Howard, Rich Moore
ZOOTOPIA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Patrick Osborne
PEARL
Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
Best Animated Feature-Independent
THE RED TURTLE
Studio Ghibli – Wild Bunch – Why Not Productions
Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production
BOB’S BURGERS
Episode: Glued, Where’s My Bob?
Bento Box Entertainment
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children
ADVENTURE TIME
Episode: Bad Jubies
Bix Pix Entertainment Cartoon Network Frederator Studios
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children
TUMBLE LEAF
Episode: Mighty Mud Movers / Having a Ball
Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Jared Bush, Phil Johnston
ZOOTOPIA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Lizzie Molyneux, Wendy Molyneux
BOB’S BURGERS
Episode: The Hormone-iums
Bento Box Entertainment
Disney’s double win for Moana’s Carvalho and Zooptopia’s Bateman reminds that Bob Iger was not at the show tonight. You’d think he could show up for the Annies – with Moana, Zootopia and fellow nominee Finding Dory combining to pull in more than $2.5 billion in global box office in the past year for the House of Mouse. BTW, Finding Dory, the top-grossing ‘toon of 2016, was shut out tonight.
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
(tie)
Auli’i Cravalho as Moana
MOANA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
and
Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde
ZOOTOPIA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Carlos Alazaraqui as Ponce de León
THE MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN SHOW
Episode: Ponce de León
DreamWorks Animation Television
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial
LOTERIA, “NIGHT SHIFT”
Passion Pictures Ltd
Best Animated Special Production
PEAR CIDER AND CIGARETTES
Massive Swerve Studios and Passion Pictures Animation
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Nelson Lowry, Trevor Dalmer, August Hall, Ean McNamara
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Laika
Pearl production design winner Tuna Bora gets a play-off after dropping her Annie trophy, having a nice recovery and, as a first-generation immigrant “from a predominantly Muslim country,” hails inclusion in the animation community. It’s clear that President Trump doesn’t have many if any fans here tonight.
Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Tuna Bora
PEARL
Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
Jan Maas
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Laika
Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Mike Chaffe
DREAMWORKS TROLLHUNTERS
Episode: Becoming, Part 1
DreamWorks Animation Television
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Andrew R. Jones, Peta Bayley, Gabriele Zucchelli, Benjamin Jones
THE JUNGLE BOOK
Walt Disney Pictures
Character Animation in a Video Game
Jeremy Yates, Almudena Soria, Eric Baldwin, Paul Davies, Tom Bland
UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END
Naughty Dog
Word games with presenter Kobe Bryant is getting laughs, but the real score is how good his onstage delivery is.
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Cory Loftis
ZOOTOPIA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Victor Maldonado, Alfredo Torres, Jules Rigolle
DREAMWORKS TROLLHUNTERS
Episode: Win, Lose or Draal
DreamWorks Animation Television
Music in an Animated Feature Production
Hans Zimmer, Richard Harvey, Camille
THE LITTLE PRINCE
Netflix and On Animation Studios
Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Scot Stafford, Alexis Harte, JJ Wiesler
PEARL
Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Georg Kaltenbrunner, Michael Marcuzzi, Thomas Bevan, Andrew Graham, Jihyun Yoon
DOCTOR STRANGE – MIRROR DIMENSION
Marvel Studios
Animated Effects in an Animated Feature Production
Marlon West, Erin V. Ramos, Blair Pierpont, Ian J. Coony, John M. Kosnik
MOANA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Best Animated Short Subject
PIPER
Pixar Animation Studios
Best Student Film
CITIPATI
Director: Andreas Feix
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
Christopher Murrie
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Illya Owens
DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE
Episode: Sock Burglar
Disney Television Animation
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Dean Wellins
ZOOTOPIA
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
Hyunjoo Song
DREAMWORKS TROLLHUNTERS
Episode: Win, Lose or Draal
DreamWorks Animation Television
Winsor McCay Awards
Dale Baer
Caroline Leaf
Mamoru Oshii.
Ub Iwerks Award
Google Spotlight’s Virtual Reality Platform
June Foray Award
Bill & Sue Kroyer
Special Achievement Award
Life, Animated