More For Your Consideration Adverts

As awards season heats up, what with Annie, Golden Globe and more nominations being revealed, and the 84th Academy Awards getting closer and closer, we are treated to more and more For Your Consideration Ads, promoting the year's best animated films.

Above and below, you can see, courtesy of Awards Daily, some of the latest For Your Consideration Ads for animated films, including ones for the Warner Bros. short film, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, as well as Blue Sky Studios' Rio, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, and Aardman's Arthur Christmas.

For a full list of For Your Consideration Adverts, animated or otherwise, keep your eyes on Awards Daily.

2nd Annual A113Animation Awards

The winners for the 2nd Annual A113Animation Awards have been revealed. The big winner this year was DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2, which swiped 7 awards, including a lot of the top ones, such as The Oh So Close Award, the Second Opinion Award, both the Luke's and Sean's Choice Awards (as each of our The Corner reviewers get their own award this year), The People's Choice Award (which it shares with Pixar's Cars 2) as well as Best Director (Jennifer Yuh Nelson) and Best Voice Acting (Jack Black).

However, Kung Fu Panda 2 couldn't quite take the top award, as, as you can see above, courtesy of David A. Price (author of The Pixar Touch), that honour went to Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin, which was, in my opinion, just such a brilliant film that I simply couldn't not have it win the award, also collected the Heather's Choice Award and the Best Villain Award (Sakharine).

It seems the general populous agrees with me, that Cars 2 was rather good after all, as Pixar's latest drew with Kung Fu Panda 2 in The People's Choice Award (the poll is currently still up, to the right, if you want to view the results). Cars 2 also took the music related awards, winning Best Song (You Might Think, Weezer) and Best Score.

Disney's Tangled won the Best New Side Character(s) Award for the brilliant Maximus and Pascal, and also the Breakout Film Award, for putting Disney Animation back on the map and reestablishing a sense of credibility for the famed studio.

Rango won the animation related awards: Best Animation - as the animation in Rango is the best I've ever seen in an animated film - and the Ben Kerfoot Award for Specific Character Animation or Design in Fur, Hair or Textures for the fantastically detailed character, Spoons.

Finally, in terms of feature films, DreamWorks' other offering this year, Puss in Boots, collected the award for Best Female Character (Kitty Softpaws).

The breakdown for this years awards, by film, is:

• Kung Fu Panda 2 - 7
• The Adventures of Tintin - 3
• Cars 2 - 3
• Tangled - 2
• Rango - 2
• Puss in Boots - 1

In terms of our final two awards, the Best Animated Short Film Award went to the fantastic CGI Looney Tunes short, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, and The One to Watch Out For Award went to Pixar's Brave.

It's safe to say that 2011 has been a great year for animation, it was particularly difficult for me to pick the Best Animated Film Award, specifically having to choose between Tintin and Kung Fu Panda 2 proved rather challenging; and I have high hopes for 2012.

Reviews for all nominations and winners can be found on the reviews page.

The full awards listings can be viewed on the A113Animation Awards page.

The Future of Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is one of those shows that we all grew up watching, it's a staple of any childhood if you're old enough; the wacky, extremely violent and beloved shorts graced our screens for several decades and are still replayed today. However, in recent years, their popularity has somewhat diminished due to the fact that they haven't been putting out a lot of new stuff. There was a time that Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the rest of the Looney Tunes characters were more popular and well known than even Walt Disney's best known creations and over the past few years, Warner Bros. have attempted a resurgence of that - to introduce Looney Tunes to a new generation.

Now, I've always been a fan of Looney Tunes - I grew up watching that, Tom and Jerry and Ed, Edd n Eddy more than any other shows - but I'd never obsessed over it in the same way that I have over Disney, Pixar and animated features, however, I've been infatuated with it since seeing Happy Feet Two. As I mentioned in my review of the dancing-penguin sequel, the film was preceded by an all new CGI Looney Tunes short film, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, starring Sylvester and Tweety.



The short (clip above) was absolutely fantastic and brilliantly encapsulated the genius of Looney Tunes in just a few short minutes. Using the archived song, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, recorded back in the 50s by the late, great voice of Looney Tunes, Mel Blanc, the short feels wonderfully familiar, quirky and nostalgic and is a very fitting tribute to the animation legend. The short also features Looney Tunes mainstay, June Foray, as the voice of Granny. The characters are far more lively than they could've conceivably been with new voices, and although the CGI animation, in place of the old fashioned traditional animation, took a while to get used to, the wonderful, familiar characters, the charming style, the ridiculously violent comedy, engaging story and Mel Blanc's talented voice work made it an absolute delight.



Puddy Tat was directed by Matthew O'Callaghan - who previously worked at Disney on films like The Great Mouse Detective, as well as directing the feature film adaptation of Curious George. O'Callaghan has been leading the Looney Tunes revival in recent years, after directing three brilliant Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts last year, including the Annie Award nominated Coyote Falls (above). He's also directed Daffy's Rhaspsody (another short, starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, featuring the voice of Mel Blanc - clip below) and another, as of yet untitled, Road Runner short, both of which will debut in 2012.



From what I've seen, so far, the future looks bright for Looney Tunes, as the beloved cartoons are being done proud by these all new, fun 3D shorts.

Ammended A113Animation Awards Nominations

I recently unveiled the nominations for the second annual A113Animation Awards. However, since then, I've watched Happy Feet Two, and while it wasn't good enough to have much of a drastic effect on my opinions of animated films in 2011, the music and animation were both fantastic, so it has been nominated for Best Song (for Bridge of Light) and the Best Animation, replacing Tangled and Kung Fu Panda 2's respective nominations in the category.

Moreover, I've added a new award: Best Animated Short Film, the nominations for which are:

• The Ballad of Nessie - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Hawaiian Vacation - Pixar Animation Studios
• I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat - Warner Bros. Animation

Head on over to the A113Animation Awards page to check out the updated nominations.

Happy Feet Two Review - An Amiable, Toe-Tapping, Song-Singing Sequel

The sequel to the 2006 Academy Award winning musical-penguin film, Happy Feet Two, still directed by George Miller, is an ambitious sequel. It takes the charming, touching, coming-of-age original and populates the world with more characters, more songs, dances and adventures. Yet, Happy Feet Two does it all less effectively than its predecessor; it is still charming and has a decent story, but mainly because at least half of the film feels copy and pasted from the first. This is a case of having to remind the film makers that less is more; adventure and enthralling peril cannot, and should not, be a substitute for story.

Best Animated Short Film Oscar Shortlist Surfaces

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) have released the short list of animated short films for consideration for Best Animated Short Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Amongst those on the list are Pixar's latest offering, La Luna (directed by Enrico Casarosa) - which is set to play in theatres alongside Brave next summer -, and I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, the latest Looney Tunes short film, which is playing with Happy Feet Two at the moment.

The final set of between 3 and 5 nominations will be announced in January, with the awards taking place on February 26.

The full list can be viewed here.