The 47th Annual Annie Awards, from the folks at ASIFA-Hollywood, is this Saturday night. The Best Animated Feature Annie Award has matched-up with the Best Animated Feature Oscar winner 13 out of 18 times, including the past 4 years in a row.
This year’s Annies will be interesting for a number of reasons:
1.) The “Frozen” Factor
“Frozen II” co-leads all films nominations with 8, but it didn’t receive an Animated Feature Oscar nom. [It is in the Original Song category for ‘Into the Unknown’]. Will the Annies voters pull an “Argo” and reward “Frozen II” largely because of the Oscar snub?
2.) Laika’s “Link”
“Missing Link” is the other film that has 8 Annie noms. It stunned the industry by winning the Animated Feature Golden Globe earlier this month, beating three Disney features (including the motion-capture “Lion King”) and DreamWorks third “Dragon” movie. Laika had never won the Globe before, and they’ve yet to pick-up an Oscar.
3.) Quite a “Story”
Sometimes the ASIFA voters have gone against The Academy’s choice. For 2010 releases, the Annies rewarded “How to Train Your Dragon” instead of Oscar winner “Toy Story 3”. Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” has already picked-up the Critics Choice Animated Feature honor, as well as the ACE Editing Award for animation.
4.) The New Guy
Netflix has two animated features up for the Oscar – “Klaus” and “I Lost My Body”. For the Annies, “Klaus” is in the regular Best Animated Feature category, while “Body” will likely win in the Best Independent Animated Feature race (though it is going up against the marvelous “Weathering with You”). Do the Annies want to make a statement (like they did last year with “Spider-Verse”) and give both of their top honors to Netflix?
5.) Possible Repeat Victor
If Josh Gad wins for his voice performance as Olaf in “Frozen II” – in the Best Voice Acting in a Feature Production category – it will be the first time the same person will win that category twice AND for the same role.
You can watch the Annies LIVE this Saturday Jan. 25 at 10pmET on asifa-hollywood.org.