39th Annual Annie Award Nominees - Music Categories

The 39th Annual Annie Award Nominees have just been announced.  Now, being one who loves the genre of animation, this is one award I generally pay close attention to year after year.  This year we have two categories for "best music:"  Music in a Television Production and Music in a Feature Production.  More often than not, The Annie's compile an acceptable list of noms in the music categories, but this year, let me tell you, I'm plenty animated myself at their noms.  Ok...have a peek below to see who they are:


Music in a Television Production

• Adam Berry, Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle “Penguins of Madagascar” – Nickelodeon and Technicolor
• Ben Locket “The Amazing World of Gumball” – Cartoon Network Europe in association with Dandelion Studios, Boulder Media & Studio Soi
• Frederik Wiedmann “Green Lantern The Animated Series” – Warner Bros. Animation
• Grace Potter, Michael Giacchino “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Joel McNeely, Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda “Pixie Hollow Games”– DisneyToon Studios
• Kevin Kliesch “Thundercats” – Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network
• Shawn Patterson, Zeb Wells “Robot Chicken” – ShadowMachine and Stoopid Monkey in association with Adult Swim

Music in a Feature Production

• Henry Jackman “Puss In Boots” – DreamWorks Animation
• John Williams “Tintin” – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
• Mikael Mutti, Siedah Garrett, Carlinhos Brown, Sergio Mendes, John Powell, “Rio” – Blue Sky Studios
• Zooey Deschannel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Henry Jackman, Robert Lopez “Winnie The Pooh” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Neglecting the TV noms for now, I must say that the noms for Feature Production does induce a bit of headscratching.  While I enjoyed WINNIE THE POOH a great deal, I'm surprised to see it get a nod here.  So, must give the ASIFA-Hollywood big-ups for recognizing, BUT, the exclusion of the scores for KUNG FU PANDA 2 and ARTHUR CHRISTMAS is more than a little odd.  Easily two of the best animated-scores of the year, I'm curious to know whether there is some eligibility issue here.

Whatever the reasons are, I find these categories signicantly less compelling now.  What do you think about these noms?

SEE ALL OF THE NOMINEES HERE