What the h*ll? I read about this in today’s papers that KFP swept 10 trophies, topping Rat’s record 9 in 2007. This is unbelievable… it’s a conspiracy I tell ya! As much as I love the Panda, it breaks any form of creditability I had in this award (not that I had any to begin with, I have never heard of it before), and trust in Dream-doesn’t-quite-works. This is terrible, they just shafted Mr Stanton & Co, not to mention shocking the entire animation community. KFP was the best Dream-hacks (sorry for the pun, but I’m just so angry) best feature since Shrek, but it doesn’t measure up to Wall-E’s grander story and scale.
Oh my gosh! You could’t have put it better. There’s the proof we need. What a sham! A scam! A scandal! A swindle!
That’s a bit too informal if you ask me… opening votes to the public. I’m against elitism, but I’d rather have the decision made by a board of industry professionals instead of having it “American Idiot Idol” style (Thanks for the BBCode, rachelcakes1985! Man, I hate that show!)
What I don’t understand is, if they opened it to all their members, why didn’t they vote for Wall-E instead? Unless that means most animation fans who joined their society prefer KFP over Wall-E (which I think highly unlikely).
Well, if anyone can join, and you really want your say that badly, join yourself. It’s as simple as that. The question is… If all PIXAR fans joined, and then PIXAR swept the awards, could people not still accuse the awards of being stacked in one companies favor?
Let me ask you. The animators at companies like Sony, or Warner Bros., did DreamWorks force all of them to vote their way as well? They did not have any big films nominated this year, (well, Waltz With Bashir was Sony Pictures Classics, so a few of the people at Sony may have voted that for Best Picture if they wanted to vote along party lines, but Waltz With Bashir wasn’t contending in most of the other categories).
They could have very easily been the deciding votes. A lot of animators, even if their own studio is not buying them a membership, would pay it themselves. It really is not that expensive for one year, especially if you are in the United States.
This was not just DreamWorks’ votes against PIXAR’s. There were other studios, that, ultimately, would have been the deciding factors. There is no way that DreamWorks’ bribed them all.
Oh - I just found this - you may find it very interesting. PIXAR may not have the Gold sponsorship package, but it is only $5000 dollars more. Maybe, having your name listed as Gold just isn’t worth the extra $5000. All that you get that’s different is, that you get 10 more free tickets to the awards ceremony, and a waiver of all entry fees, rather than just for thirty entries. If this really called the awards, DreamWorks could have dished out $5000 more to go PLATINUM, or PIXAR could have paid the extra $5000 just to match DreamWorks!
If you add up the numbers in the Silver package, you pay $10,000, and it’s actually worth $11,500. Not a bad deal. But for Gold, you pay $15,000 dollars, and unless you are entering more than 30 entries for consideration a year, it is only worth $14,000! PIXAR is smart. They have done the math. Since they aren’t entering in the short form categories for TV shows, or 20 min specials, for example, (unlike DreamWorks), it’s not worth it. 30 entries is fine for them at this point. If they ever wanted to upgrade, they could, and they would. This does not call the awards.
To find out that anybody can join and vote, the respectability of these awards has just gone down for me. Even if next year Up sweeps the awards, yes I would be happy, but I’d take those wins with a grain of salt. The only awards I’m interested in is is the critical awards (of which WALL•E swept) and the Academy Awards. Pixar shouldn’t lower itself to force everyone to vote, nor should they have to fork out money for sham awards like this, if indeed that sponsering business played any part in the result.
If anyone can vote, how are these Annie Awards any different from a voting poll on a movie website, for example?
Go see it Le_Chocolat, it only costs a lousy buck or a few bucks to rent it. Kiosks in supermarkets rent for about that. I’ve reviewed it before, and it well deserves its 89% Tomatometer rating. Those people here who dump on it are suspect. It seems to me to not be as good as Shrek, or Chicken Run. But, it doesn’t seem to stumble anywhere, the only things wrong being the premise and how the story developed, gimmicky and not terribly original.
Does anyone know if there is a KFP forum like this? A DreamWorks forum? I tried a search, but nothing came up, just links to one-liner forums like Fandango and Rottentomatoes. Wonder what they are saying.
I just don’t know of any proof of wrongdoing by DW here. Did they actually send out memo’s to their employees reminding them of the dates for voting and who to vote for? Do they pay for their own employees memberships or insist they join? Do they award memberships to fans, or unduly entice fans to join up? Do they have a list of members and did they send out emails or brochures about their candidates? Did they extend invitations to parties? It’s been about 10 years since excessive efforts by some studios to push the competition off the map began, such as when Shakespeare in Love knocked off Saving Private Ryan.
Almost as ridiculous as Happy Feet Winning Best Animated Feature a few years back at the Oscars. IMO, Cars>Monster House>>>>>>Happy Feet
For 2008, I saw Kung Fu Panda, Bolt, and WALL-E… Panda was good… I give credit to Dreamworks for making a decent animated film, but I thought WALL-E, and even Bolt outclassed the films as a whole.
To date, I have yet to see a Dreamworks film that I’ve liked, and I see them all (sometimes it’s painful to sit there and watch them). I have nothing against them as a studio and the animation is decent enough. But to me, every single one of their films is nothing but “surface.” It’s fart jokes or topical humor that will be sorely outdated if you watch it 10 years from now. It basically comes down to Dreamworks being juvenile to appease the juvenile set. While there’s nothing wrong with this I suppose, I’ve never seen one that has any depth or real meaning or substance beneath the surface. I have no problems with the “attitude” of Dreamworks films either – I wouldn’t mind it at all if there was depth there as well. To me, in a word, Dreamworks films are obnoxious. Sometimes a little of that can work and be funny. But when it’s obnoxious all the time it gets tiring real fast.
To be fair, Kung Fu Panda is the least obnoxious of the Dreamworks films… there’s a hint of a little something there. But it’s only there for fleeting moments before the usual Dreamworks attitude comes in. I know there are plenty of people out there who liked it. Fair enough, I won’t criticize that at all. But ask yourself honestly, when you’re 20 years older, will you want to look back at this and watch it again? The Pixar films (and a few films from studios other than Pixar) will hold up years from now. They’re timeless. Dreamworks are for instant gratification in the here and now. To me, it seems like Dreamworks is being rewarded for making a film 20% less obnoxious than their usual fare, with 15% more substance perhaps. But that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the artistry that Pixar (so far) has created with their films.
25 years from now, we’ll see which ones survive and remain classics, ahd which ones fade away with time.
Again, it’s cool that others like it. But this is how I see Dreamworks’ product. I will, once again, see Monsters vs Aliens. Maybe one of these times I won’t be disappointed.
KFP was thankfully free of so many current pop culture references. And it didn’t have some literal jackass to be obnoxious as you say, such as in Shrek. That was the biggest fault in that movie, made for the 10-15 year old males who go for the fart and poop jokes too, without fail. Still, DW delved into the fairytale genre and succeeded. The character of Shrek was superb.
The previews of M vs. A don’t look all that promising to me.
Actually, I might see Monsters vs. Aliens, if only because the trailer shown during the Super Bowl shows the UFO landing in my hometown, no lie.
On the other hand, it looks enough like the other DW movies that are full of toilet jokes (case in point: code brown) that I might wait for it to come out on DVD first.
I’m pretty pleased with this years Annies. While I am majorly surprised that Wall-e didn’t do at least moderately, and am very happy for KFP. I’m having a deja-vu year, very similar to 2006. While I ha thought Cars was a beautiful movie, I had no feelings deeper than the shiny shiny surface. I was happy that HF had won that year.
So once I find myself luke warm with Wall-e and inspired by KFP and Bolt. However I can honestly say that the cinematography was better in Wall-e than in the other 2 major noms.
Oh, and yay! for James Baxter. The man’s a legend I tells ya.
Twenty to thirty years from now budding, young animation fans will see Wall•E for the 1st time and say “Wow, incredible, that must have rocked the boat and made waves and gotten all kinds of awards and reviews.” They might go to various sites, including the Annie one and be startled: Wall•E didn’t win for Best Animated Picture. Delving further they would see a number of nominations, but no wins for anything. They will have heard of the KFP series of DreamWorks movies, of which they might have seen one or two and liked one, possibly not caring much for the other, and wondering what the heck happened. Doing a search will bring them to sites like this one and many other you can view on the internet right now, all reacting pretty much the same way: from “huh?” to outright anger. The consensus is that this organization has embarrassed itself and insulted fans of animation, however unintended.
That’s why I have been looking for a KFP site. It would be very interesting to see how they are reacting.
Every site I go to is saying the same thing. These are film buff sites and they have indeed seen most of the animated features. For example, at RottenTomatoes about 70%+ feel Wall•E to be the better film, and most of the rest are upset over the shut-out. There are a few people responding there who are glad for KFP, who found Wall•E boring and its lovers to be film snobs. Some said kids disdain Wall-E and love KFP, but an actual DisneyWorld employee corrected him! Read all about it:
The LATimes said that the people who vote in the Annies are the true animation experts and acted like they are the final word and issued a word of warning for Wall•E at the Oscars. Rubbish! These media ‘giants’ need to get off their duff and actually ask the voters why they went for KFP, why they went against the critics and against the fandom.
DarkHand - As far as I know there is no such thing as a Dreamworks forum, on the same level as Pixar Planet. I don’t think DW is a very well developed brand as Pixar is, and DW to me seems like a closed-off company. Aside from Jeffrey Katzenberg, could anyone name other head honchos at Dreamworks? Pixar seems like more of a friendly company and more accessible. I’ve searched for forums like this except about Dreamworks and came up with nothing.
Hm. I’ve always thought the LA Times had WALL•E’s back over Dreamworks but I guess not… and if anyone can join the voting panel, provided they cough up the dough, then it’s not really the opinion of animation experts, is it? What’s the criteria for making it onto the votee list aside from paying money…?
I’m gonna stick my neck out ad ask people to give KFP a chance. I’m as annoyed about the Annie wash as anybody. It wasn’t THAT good, but IMO it’s Dreamworks Animation’s best film and I enjoyed it.
I read about this in today’s papers that KFP swept 10 trophies, topping Rat’s record 9 in 2007. This is unbelievable… it’s a conspiracy I tell ya! As much as I love the Panda, it breaks any form of creditability I had in this award (not that I had any to begin with, I have never heard of it before), and trust in Dream-doesn’t-quite-works. This is terrible, they just shafted Mr Stanton & Co, not to mention shocking the entire animation community. KFP was the best Dream-hacks (sorry for the pun, but I’m just so angry) best feature since Shrek, but it doesn’t measure up to Wall-E’s grander story and scale.
You could’t have put it better. There’s the proof we need. What a sham! A scam! A scandal! A swindle!