The BoxTrolls: A Suspenseful Review

With the hypnotic Coraline and the gutsy ParaNorman, Laika was two-for-two in my book. And I certainly believed their third sop-motion outing, The BoxTrolls, would extend their success. In fact this was my most anticipated animated film of 2014, as the teasers and trailers charmed me in a way that very few promotional campaign ever have. Then came the very mixed first reviews, and I started to worry. But despite that negative early buzz, I was still willing to enjoy The BoxTrolls.

So, did the Oregon-based studio strike gold once again, or is this their first flop? You can put an end to this absurdly thrilling suspense and discover my opinion after the break.

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.

William on the Scotty Jo Podcast Again: Wreck-It Ralph, Monsters U, The Boxtrolls and a Whole Lot More!

A few weeks back I went on the Scotty Jo Podcast to talk animation, and yesterday episode 7 of the podcast was released, with another animation-themed appearance by me! Far more extensive than my last visit, Scotty Jo and I discuss the last few weeks' super-exciting animation news (prepare for a link-a-thon): my thoughts on Wreck-It Ralph, the new Monsters University trailer, Laika's The Boxtrolls, the BAFTAs, the Oscars, the Annies, Finding Nemo 2, DreamWorks' current woes, Illumination's upcoming slate, the recently released fake Frozen posters, The Good Dinosaur and even more! If you like animation and don't mind the sound of my voice, give it a listen!

You can listen to the episode here or subscribe to the Scotty Jo Podcast on iTunes. You can check mine and Scott's half hour-plus animation conversation out from about 7:15 on - but I recommend giving the whole show a listen; particularly if you like hilarious Daniel Day-Lewis jokes.

3rd Annual A113Animation Awards Results

So, it's that time of year again, time to present our A113Animation Awards, honouring the best of animation in 2012! 2012 was undoubtedly a very strong year for animated films, it was the first year in recent memory where there was no clear cut winner; rather, a slew of very strong, very exciting and very diverse animated motion pictures. Nonetheless, winners had to be decided, so check out the results below - winners in bold - and a breakdown of what and why afterwards.

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.

3rd Annual A113Animation Award Nominations

They've been delayed thanks to Disney's release schedule, but the time is upon us again, and I'm here today to announced the nominees for the 3rd annual A113Animation Awards! This year, we're introducing a few new awards; check out the categories, a few comments about what sort of criteria each category has where necessary, and the nominees who've managed to make the cut this year below.

Note, I haven't seen every single animated film of the year - the most notable omission is Tim Burton's Frankenweenie - and the awards are to be judged on what I have seen, as of today.

40th Annual Annie Awards Winners: Disney Wins Big

Last night, ASIFA-Hollywood handed out this year's Annie Awards, honouring the best of animation for 2012; the evening was hosted by animation and film historian Leonard Maltin. The Annies are self-touted as animation's highest honour, and last night the highest honours went to Disney.

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:

New ParaNorman For Your Consideration Ads

Laika are taking full advantage of all the awards critical circles are lavishing on them as of late, as well as their Annie and Golden Globe nominations, working them into their For Your Consideration campaign and presumably hoping to segue this success into Oscar success in February.

Awards Daily have three new ParaNorman FYC ads (although two of them are actually ones we've already seen, now adorned with the film's awards success) and you can check 'em out above, as well as the previous batch here. ParaNorman's odds of taking home the Oscar seem stronger and stronger by the week, and Laika's second outing is slowly becoming the one to beat.

ParaNorman is out on DVD and Blu Ray now in the US, and arrives in the UK on 28th January, 2013.

More For Your Consideration Ads: DreamWorks Hammer Rise of the Guardians Promotion!

Awards, awards, awards. Yep, this is another one of those posts. Awards Daily has the latest batch of For Your Consideration ads, and DreamWorks have the majority of them for us; today we get a massive haul of Variety covers promoting the studio's latest, Rise of the Guardians, to Academy voters. Any other year, Guardians would be almost certain for a nomination, but 2012 has been a particularly strong year for animation, and with Frankenweenie all of a sudden emerging as a top contender, DreamWorks are promoting their film as hard as they can (with a strong, but lesser effort for Madagascar 3).

The bold Rise of the Guardians (directed by Peter Ramsey) ads tout some of the film's accolades (including its recent Annie nominations) and tote the simple-but-effective line: "Believe in the best animated film of the year". Check 'em out after the jump break.

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.

An Open Letter to The Walt Disney Company

Cc: Hollywood

To Mr. Rober Iger, Mr. Alan Horn and whomever else it may concern,

Let me preface this by saying I am a huge Disney fan, it formed my childhood, and it and its subsidiaries continue to shape my present and, hopefully, my future. That said, there is one particular area of Disney that I am not a fan of: excessively delayed 'foreign' release dates.

Interview: Pete Oswald, Vis. Dev. Artist on Hotel Transylvania and ParaNorman

This latest A113Animation interview seems particularly relevant given our recent competition to give away a copy of an Art of book. The companion books to most animated films are a great portal behind the screen, giving you a look at the colossal glut of fantastic visual development artwork that goes into a production and that we might otherwise never get to see. When reviewing The Art and Making of ParaNorman and The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania, one artist consistently stood out to me, Pete Oswald.

Pete's work was colourful, lively, caricatured, playful and full of cartoony energy! So, I sought Pete out, I found his website and sent him an email saying how much I enjoyed his work and asking if he'd mind doing an interview. Thankfully, he said yes - and expressed a great deal of enthusiasm about it too! Pete's a great guy; modest, helpful and very talented, and I'm grateful he took the time to speak to me.

In our interview - which we did via email - Pete and I discuss his role on the two aforementioned films, what working on them was like, his other work (including The Ricky Gervais Show!), working on Cloudy 2 for Sony right now, and broader animation. Check it out after the jump break!