2012 Annie Award Nominations for Best Music

One of this year's first list of award nominees are the Annies.  Over the years, the Annies were one of the few organizations that didn't appear to automatically hand the latest Pixar feature every award possible, which, among other things, made their annual awards interesting to follow.  This year, I find them interesting to follow because a glaring omission.  Below you will find the nominees for music for television and music for feature film, but what you will not find is a nomination for Danny Elfman's score for FRANKENWEENIE in the latter.  An outrage...yes.  So what do you think of this year's nominees and who do you predict will win each?

 
Music in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

• Adam Berry ‘Penquins of Madagascar: Private and the Winky Factory’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios
• Alf Clausen ‘The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXIII’ – Gracie Films in Association with 20th  Century Fox TV
• Frederik Wiedmann ‘Green Lantern The Animated Series: Into the Abyss’  - F. Wiedmann, Composer
• Guy Moon ‘T.U.F.F. Puppy: Really Big Mission’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios
• John Paesano ‘Dragons: Riders of Berk: How to Pick Your Dragon’ –DreamWorks Animation
• Michael Rubin ‘Bubble Guppies: Bubble Puppy’s Fin-tastic Fairytale!’ – Nickelodeon Animation Studios

Music in an Animated Feature Production

• Alexandre Desplat ‘Rise of the Guardians’ – DreamWorks Animation
• Bruce Retief ‘Adventures in Zambezia’ – Saltzman Communications
• Henry Jackman ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ – Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Joel McNeely, Brendan Milburn, Valerie Vigoda ‘Secret of the Wings’ – DisneyToon Studios
• John Powell, Adam Schlesinger, Ester Dean ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ – Blue Sky Studios
• John Powell, Cinco Paul ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ – Illumination Entertainment
• Mark Mothersbaugh ‘Hotel Transylvania’ – Sony Pictures Animation
• Patrick Doyle, Mark Andrews, Alex Mandel ‘Brave’ – Pixar Animation Studios

Read the full list of nominees

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

38th Annual Annie Award for Best Music in a Feature Nominees

The Annie Awards have become one of my favorite annual awards.  I'm sure it's because each year at least one animated film falls into my top 5 of the year.  Now, I'm into all of the award categories, but, of course, I pay particular attention to the "best music" categories.   This years nominees are:

Music in a Television Production

• J. Walter Hawkes "The Wonder Pets!" - Nickelodeon Production & Little Airplane Productions
• Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer and John Powell "Kung Fu Panda Holiday" - DreamWorks Animation
• Tim Long, Alf Clausen, Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement "The Simpsons: Elementary School Musical" - Gracie Films
• Shawn Patterson "Robot Chicken's DP Christmas Special" – ShadowMachine
• Jeremy Wakefield, Sage Guyton, Nick Carr, Tuck Tucker "SpongeBob SquarePants" – Nickelodeon

Music in a Feature Production

• Sylvain Chomet “The Illusionist” – Django Films
•  David Hirschfelder “Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” – Warner Bros. Pictures
• John Powell “How To Train Your Dragon” – DreamWorks Animation
• Harry Gregson Williams “Shrek Forever After” – DreamWorks Animation
• Pharrell Williams, Heitor Pereira “Despicable Me” – Illumination Entertainment

I definitely think Megamind and or Tangled (not sure it qualified) deserves a nomination over The Illusionist...and over Legend of the Guardians.   What say you?

You can see all of the nominees here

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Takes Home AIAS Award for Oustanding Achievment in Original Composition

Yesterday The 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was held. While LITTLE BIG PLANET dominated by taking home 8 total awards, one that got away was for its music. This year's winner for Outstanding Achievement in Original Composition goes to METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS by HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS, NOBUKA TODA and company! Congrats!

You can view all the winners here.

BAFTA Video Game Score Nominees

I love the fact that the BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS also honors video games. This year Infinity Ward's CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE dominates with some 15 nominations. I guess it must have been a pretty good game. Maybe I should pick it up. (Just jokes ... I lost many hours last year to that game.)

One nomination Call of Duty did NOT get is for BEST ORIGINAL SCORE. That honor goes to the following titles:

“Assassin’s Creed” - Jesper Kyd
Jade Raymond, Patrice Desilets, Claude Langlais
Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Entertainment

“Dead Space” - Jason Graves
Development Team
Electronic Arts/Electronic Arts

“Fable II” - Russell Shaw (theme by Danny Elfman)
Development Team
Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios

“Fallout 3” - Inon Zur
Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo, Istvan Pely
Bethesda Game Studio/Bethesda Softworks Europe

“LittleBigPlanet” - Daniel Pemberton
Kenneth Young, Mark Healey, Leo Cubbin
Media Molecule & XDev Studio Europe/Sony Computer Entertainment

“Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” - Harry Gregson-Williams
Kojima Productions/Konami Digital Entertainment


If the list seems a little weird, that's because nominees can go back as far as October 2007. I'm excited to see Daniel Pemberton's work for LITTLEBIGPLANET finally get some recognition. So what do you think of theses noms? Do you think other associations, like The Oscars, should start of game-division as BAFTA has?

You can check out the full list of nominees here

Zimmer and Powell Take Home Annie for Kung Fu Panda

For months I have taken shot after shot from the Wall-E faithful, because I preferred KUNG FU PANDA. Well...so does the International Animation Society, as they handed out some 15 Annie Awards to the film last night! Besting the record set by Pixar's RATATOUILLE only last year with its nine awards.

Now, to be clear, I enjoyed WALL-E a great deal...and on many levels. It is a beautiful picture and THOMAS NEWMAN's score functions very well within. And, to be honest, I thought WALL-E would win more than KUNG FU PANDA (please, don't even bring up BOLT). When it comes to the Oscars though...I still expect a different turn out.

As much as I love Pixar films (although Ratatouille seemed to get a bit more praise than I thought it was due), it is great to see another Animation studio get in there and show that they can make a quality feature. Some of Dreamworks other animated features have left A LOT to be desired, so I'm very pleased to see them produce something this good and even more pleased to see them get rewarded for their efforts.

The fifteen awards included the Annie for Music in an Animated Feature film, so congrats to HANS ZIMMER and JOHN POWELL are due. Zimmer and Powell also won another award, along with HENRY JACKMAN for their work on the related short, THE SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE.

You can see the Panda's total domination here.

Best Music Annie Award Nominations

The 35th Annie Awards Nomination list has just been announced. The Annie Awards seek to honor the best in animation for the year - ranging from feature films, to shorts, to video games. Included in the extensive list are two "best music" categories. And the nominess are:

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Olivier Bernet – “Persepolis” – Sony Pictures Classics
Danny Elfman, Rufus Wainwright & Rob Thomas – “Meet The Robinsons” – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Michael Giacchino – “Ratatouille” – Pixar Animation Studios
Rupert Gregson-Williams – “Bee Movie” – DreamWorks Animation
Amy Powers, Russ DeSalvo & Jeff Danna – “Disney Princess Enchanted Tales” – DisneyToon Studios/Walt Disney Video/Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Music in an Animated Television Production

Alf Clausen & Michael Price – The Simpsons “Yokel Chords” – Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox
Evan Lurie, Robert Scull & Steven Bernstein – The Backyardigans “International Super Spy” – Nickelodeon
Drew Neumann & Gregory Hinde – Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure – Cartoon Network Studios
Shaw Patterson – El Tigre “Yellow Pantera” – Nickelodeon
James L. Venable & Jennifer Kes Remington – Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends “The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato Power” – Cartoon Network Studios

Congrats and good luck to all the nominees!

View the entire list of nominees