Damien Presents: The Trouble With Stop Motion

By Damien.

Foreword

Before I write this post, I want to make it clear that I love stop motion, and the same goes for the films I'll talk about here. I wouldn't want those movies to be even slightly different, because I love them just the way they are, and they're all perfect in their own way; their imperfections make them even more perfect. I'm aware that last sentence made absolutely zero sense, but that doesn't mean it's any less true.

85th Annual Academy Award Predictions [UPDATED: And Winners]

The biggest night of the year on the film calender is nigh; the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place tomorrow! Hosted by Seth MacFarlane and emanating from the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, this year's Oscars are close, very close. As such, it's time for me to let out my inner awards pundit and offer up A113Animation's predictions on what will be walking home with a golden statue at the end of the night.

Animation is a particularly close call this year; for months I was sure Laika's ParaNorman would take the prize, but the tide has turned, particularly after Disney's Wreck-It Ralph swept the Annies at the start of the month. Though Ralph is the best film of the five, it may well be Pixar's Brave that takes home the award, particularly after its swell of momentum at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and the Academy has always been fond of Pixar. Tim Burton's Frankenweenie had a lot of awards hype around it, but it doesn't seem to be a threat to Disney's other two offerings. It's great to see The Pirates! nominated, especially after getting so little recognition elsewhere, but it seems unlikely Aardman's latest will herald a second Oscar for them.

Short wise, it should be Disney's Paperman. Should be. But, personally, it seems more likely that Minkyu Lee's Adam and Dog will take the prize home, despite its lack of major advertising. Nonetheless, it's another close category. Life of Pi should and almost certainly will take home Best Visual Effects, a bittersweet win after Rhythm & Hues recently filed for bankruptcy.

On the live-action side, Argo seems a lock for Best Picture at this stage, and with the inexplicable omission of its helmer Ben Affleck from Best Director, the safe bet for that one is Spielberg. Most of the acting categories seem pretty sewn up (Daniel Day-Lewis is almost unbeatable at this stage, and a win will make him the only actor to ever win three Best Actor Oscars). Cinematography should be Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi - although Roger Deakins' work on Skyfall may well get the nod - and Best Original Song will definitely be Adele for "Skyfall". It's all really quite exciting!

Films we think should win are in bold, films we think will win are underlined; the winners will be highlighted in gold after the fact. No prediction indicates it's a category that I'm not knowledgeable about/haven't seen any of the nominees for.

UPDATED - Brave Wins at BAFTAs!

Though the broadcast doesn't start until 9, the 66th annual BAFTA film awards are taking place right now, and Pixar's Brave just won the award for Best Animated Film! Seven BAFTAs have been given out for Best Animated Film, and this is Pixar's fifth win in the category - having lost to Happy Feet in 2006, and not bagging a nomination last year.

66th Annual British Academy Film Awards Predictions

Tonight's the biggest night of the year for British film, and quite a prestigious one for film in general. From 9 PM (GMT) on BBC1, the 66th annual British Academy Film Awards will take place - hosted by Stephen Fry - as BAFTA honour the best in film of the last year. As such, it's time for A113Animation to offer up our predictions (if you're interested in our own picks, check out the nominations for the 3rd annual A113Animation Awards).

How it works with our predictions is that the films I think should win are in bold, but the films that I think probably will win are underlined. Check them out, starting with animation, of course, below. If no prediction is offered, it's because it's a category I'm clueless about/haven't seen any of the nominees for, and the nominees are listed purely for informative purposes. The results will be highlighted in gold as and when they occur.

Oscars 2013: Munir's Best Animated Feature Predictions

By Munir Abedrabbo.

With awards season in full swing, it’s always customary to start predicting the winners, and, while most predictions centre around the Best Picture category, the Best Animated Feature category is just as important for animation lovers. 2012 brought a strong slate of animated films and, more importantly, it was a year that was not dominated by CGI features – offering a nice variety of mediums to help audiences appreciate the diversity and beauty of animation. Most awards institutions have nominated more or less the same candidates, with the odd exception here or there (The Pirates! snubbed from the BAFTAs; ParaNorman replaced by Hotel Transylvania at the Golden Globes), but now that we have the five nominees for the Oscars, I think it’s time to evaluate each nominee’s pros, cons and chances of winning the prestigious award.

85th Annual Academy Award Nominations Revealed - And They're Exciting!

People are sure to complain about things (no Sam Mendes for Best Director? No Javier Bardem for Supporting Actor? No Dark Knight Rises at all?!), but there are certainly things to be happy about with today's Academy Award nominations: particularly so in animation!

The big news? The really bloody exciting news? After yesterday's very unexpected BAFTA snub, Aardman's fantastic film, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists scooped a Best Animated Feature nomination! Massive congratulations to Pete Lord, Gideon Defoe, Jeff Newitt and everyone at Aardman for the nomination! BAFTAs-Shmaftas.

BAFTA Nominations Revealed: Brave, Frankenweenie and ParaNorman Compete for Animation Award

The nominations for the 66th British Academy Film Awards were announced by BAFTA today - ahead of the reveal of the Oscar nominations tomorrow - and, naturally, as there always is with award ceremonies, there's a little bit of controversy and distaste with some of the categories.

2013 Producers Guild Award Nominations Revealed (And New For Your Consideration Ads)

The Producers Guild of America have revealed the nominees for the 2013 Producers Guild Awards, honouring the best films of the past year. The nominees for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures are the five films that we've come to expect will be nominated (aside from the Golden Globes' odd inclusion of Hotel Transylvania, and exclusion of awards-favourite ParaNorman). It's sad to see that Aardman's fantastic The Pirates! is being nominated for so few awards, but the five films (and producers) nominated here are all deserving:

Animation Titbits: Croods Motion Poster, 'Art of' Books, Partysaurus Rex and Frankenweenie Short

DreamWorks have rolled out a cool new motion poster (in the vein of fellow Fox stablemate, The Wolverine) for their first release of 2013, The Croods. Based on the existing poster we'd already seen, this cool new motion one shows some of the gorgeous sceneries and animals we can expect to encounter come March next year. It's embedded above, but follow this link if that doesn't work - be sure to toggle the definition up to 1080p. Also, try downloading the DreamWorks Animation Augmented Reality app and scanning the poster with your smart phone or iPod Touch - it's pretty cool.

70th Golden Globes Nominations Revealed

Yep, awards season is definitely upon us. A few days ago we posted a round-up of a collection of critics' choices for Best Animated Film of the year, but, today, we move closer to the "big" awards of the year; first on the agenda, the Golden Globes.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association have announced the picks for the 70th Annual Golden Globes - the nominees that is, the actual Globes will take place on 13th January, 2013. Leading the pack is Spielberg's Lincoln with 7 nominations, with Django Unchained and Argo clocking in at 5 each. In terms of animation though, they're... well, they're somewhat odd choices.

The nominees for the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature film are:

• Brave - Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Pictures
• Frankenweenie - Walt Disney Pictures
• Hotel Transylvania - Sony Pictures Animation; Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures
• Rise of the Guardians - DreamWorks Animation SKG; Paramount Pictures
• Wreck-It Ralph - Walt Disney Animation Studios; Walt Disney Pictures

Firstly, that's three nominations for Disney-owned animated films, meaning the Mouse House stand a 60% chance of taking home the coveted award. Noteworthy, though, is that Hotel Transylvania is nominated, and ParaNorman is not. I liked Hotel T, it was fun, but ParaNorman is clearly the better film (and an awards favourite for that matter). It's too bad to see that Aardman's The Pirates! isn't get much love either, as it's definitely one of the year's finest animated films.

Check out this interesting article from Cartoon Brew, making the case as to why Tim Burton's Frankenweenie will probably win. Congrats to everyone nominated, and commiserations to Laika, Aardman and everyone who didn't quite make the cut - there's always the Oscars!

UPDATED: Awards Roundup: ParaNorman, Frankenweenie, Ralph Take Home Coveted Prizes!

Awards season is well and truly underway. Kathryn Bigelow is surely making enemies out of Ben Affleck, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg, whose award-favourite films were fighting it out before the Hurt Locker director's latest, Zero Dark Thirty, came in and started swooping up all the awards. Because, in the last few days, the National Board of Review, Boston Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association have all announced their annual picks for the year's best films.

Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln seem to be dominating the major share of awards (with Ang Lee's Life of Pi getting some worthy cinematography recognition), but, in terms of animation, there hasn't really been a clear winner.

NBR named Disney's Wreck-It Ralph Best Animated Feature, whereas the Boston Society of Film Critics went for fellow Disney film, Frankenweenie, directed by Tim Burton. New York's critics agreed with Boston's, whereas Washington DC ones opted for Laika's ParaNorman. UPDATED - 11/12/2012, 22:02 (GMT): The Los Angeles Film Critics Association also chose Frankenweenie as their "Best Animation", and the New York Film Critics Online went for 2010's Spanish-made Chico and Rita, which was nominated for the Oscar in February (losing to Rango).

Noteworthy is that there's no love for Pixar's Brave. Also noteworthy is that there's still no clear animated frontrunner, heading into a very tight race as we approach the "main" awards ceremonies early next year.

Congrats to everyone from Disney and Laika on their respective, and hard earned, wins!

Via THR.

Awards Bits: 40th Annual Annie Nominations, and New For Your Consideration Ads

Awards season is soon to be upon us, as such, ASIFA-Hollywood have unveiled the nominations for the 40th Annual Annie Awards. After the Pixar shut-out a couple of years ago, it seems things are back to normal this year, with Pixar/Pixarians getting a total of 10 nominations this year. That said, this year seems to be a very evenly distributed year, with DreamWorks getting a colossal 26 nominations (bear in mind they did release two features and a few TV specials this year).

So It Has Begun: First Round of For Your Consideration Ads

Yes, it is that time of year again. It has its detractors, but I happen to think Awards season is pretty exciting! So, in a bid to get their films nominates for as many awards (well, mainly Oscars) as possible, studios have begun rolling out For Your Consideration ads - and we've got some cool animation ones so far.

Brand New Frankenweenie Short to Appear on DVD/Blu-ray Release

Tim Burton's Frankenweenie hasn't had the best run at the box-office (just north of $63 million at the time of writing), but the critics love it, and the DVD and Blu-ray will likely sell well among Burton and animation fans.

Stitch Kingdom reports that the film arrives on home video on 15th January (in the US), and is bringing a brand new feature-based short with it. In the same vein as Brave, which is accompanied on home video with the new short The Legend of Mor'du, one of the bonus features on the Frankenweenie - which is also released by Disney - release will be a two minutes and twenty second short called Captain Sparky vs The Flying Saucers.

Going from the title, the short will likely follow the home movies Victor makes with his later-reanimated dog Sparky. Captain Sparky was written by Frankenweenie co-producer Derek Fray, a long-time collaborator of Burton's who also worked on Alice in Wonderland and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

No word yet on the UK release date though.

21 Animated Features Submitted for Oscar Consideration

Apologies for the mini-hiatus, guys, I've been in London watching Monsters, Inc. 3D (review up later)! But, it's back to business as usual, with this exciting news from Friday: the list of the 21 animated feature films that have been submitted to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for consideration for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature have been revealed.

Included among the running are likely favourites Brave, Wreck-It Ralph and ParaNorman. Check out the full list, with studios (where known), after the jump break - with links to trailers and reviews where appropriate:

Happy Halloween from A113Animation!

Boo! Happy Halloween! Yes, All Hallows' Eve is upon us again, and we here at A113Animation hope you have a spooktacular day. Fortunately for us animation fans, there's plenty of animated Halloween stimulus, so enjoy two quintessential pieces of Halloween animation, from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and from the charming and endearing Peanuts special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Frankenweenie European Premiere Coverage

Frankenweenie is out in the US, and the countdown is now on to its UK release this coming Wednesday. So, a couple of days ago, the film had its European premiere at the 56th BFI London Film Festival, a star-studded event featuring appearances from director Tim Burton, wife Helena Bonham-Carter, producer Allison Abbate and more!

Review Round-Up - Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania

Following precious few releases in the first half of the year, it's been a strong summer for animation, with great films like Brave and ParaNorman - oh, and there was The Lorax too I guess. Coming up in winter we have DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians and Disney's Wreck-It Ralph - as well as Pixar's 3D re-release of Monsters, Inc. But right now, as we turn towards autumn, we've got two big releases (and, finally, the UK release of Madagascar 3): Hotel Transylvania and Frankenweenie.

Check out our recaps, reviews coverage, and thoughts after the jump break!

Jake's Takes Interview with the Cast and Crew of Frankenweenie

The most original interviewer around, Jake Hamilton, the host of the self-titled Jake's Takes is back with more great interviews. Last month Jake interviewed the cast of Laika's ParaNorman, and today he brings us interviews with the cast and crew of the similarly spooky Frankenweenie.

Questions fielded to director Tim Burton included asking what the key differences between Frankenweenie now, and the original short film from 28 years ago that famously lost Burton his job at Disney, are, to which he responded:

"I love stop-motion animation, so the idea of doing it black and white, 3D, stop-motion, and adding the other kids, the other monsters, and teachers, things that I was thinking about, the kind of memories that are all sort of based on this thing: it felt like a whole new project for me."

Burton also spoke about the emotional heart of the film and the importance of friendships with pets - both for him and for Victor in the film. Jake also spoke to cast members Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Landau, Atticus Shaffer and Charlie Tahan who spoke very passionately about the project, touching on the importance of doing the film in stop-motion, and working with Tim Burton. And Martin Landau's Mr. Rzykruski promises to be powerful and hilarious!

Jake's great at asking curve-ball questions and really coaxing his interviewees into expressing their passion for the project - nice touch having the video in black and white too! And jeez, from watching The Middle, who would've guessed Atticus Shaffer was so smart?

Frankenweenie promises to be a great addition to a great year for animation when it opens on 5th October in the US and 17th October in the UK. Check out the 21-minute video interview compilation above!

Frankenweenie IMAX Poster and 6 New Clips!

As Tim Burton and Disney's Frankenweenie's October release date draws ever closer, we're getting more and more wonderful new videos, images and information! Today, we get six brand new clips from the film, a few featurettes, interviews with the film-makers and a great new IMAX poster!

The "12:01 IMAX Poster" features an original Tim Burton sketch of Sparky, and these awesome rare posters will be given to people who attend a midinght IMAX screening of the film. Check out the clips and other videos after the jump break!