Here we have the 49th Annie Awards from March 2022 and I just watched a recording of this show and will do some brainstorming now what stayed in the mind for me from these almost 110 minutes (including commercials). If you are quick enough, you can watch the ceremony on the official site of course and if not, they will probably upload it on Youtube, just like they did with all other previous editions. Good choice of course. Full access is never bad, even if it is debatable if the quality here was on a level where you would wanna watch. Somehow they messed up the Youtube upload anyway for now and only included half the ceremony. It was a virtual ceremony because of the pandemic still and this is what I am referring to with the title of my review. If it is justified. I think they even postponed the event for several weeks, if not months, quite some time anyway, and taking this into account, this should not have been a virtual event I think. Look at other ceremonies and gatherings taking place nowadays like the demonstrations against the war in Ukraine, but that is a totally different story. Let's stay with this one here. You can also see from the title that a really round anniversary is coming up soon and I truly hope that the 2023 edition will be a bit better than this one here. There was some rambling about equality, tolerance etc. Which is okay and generally support it, but no matter how hard they tried to come up with connections, it simply had nothing to do with the occasion. Like it or not. These were the animation Oscars you could say, so please stay on topic, guys.
In terms of both films and television, it ended up being a true display of domination. The Mitchells vs. The Machines was only third in the ranking of the most nominations, but it managed to win each and every single one of its eight nods. Truly impressive. Disney's Encanto won three out of nine at least. Not great, but tolerable and a pretty decent percentage nonetheless. The big bummer went to Raya and the Last Dragon that ended up empty-handed despite leading the field with ten nominations. This domination also shows us that the glory days of Pixar when it dominated almost every year may be over for good. Luca also scored zero out of eight. So yeah, Sony impressively closed the gap for now to Disney and Pixar and we will see how it goes at the Oscars. I think Encanto was the favorite for winning Best Animated Feature, but the category is a lot closer now. That much is safe. Then there is also dark horse Flee in the race and maybe people want it to win one Oscar and it probably won't be in the documentary category, so Encanto's relatively low number of wins at the Annie Awards also works in favor of Flee. On the television side, everything was going Arcane's way as expected. As a League of Legends player, I am not sad about it at all and very curious to watch this show for sure eventually, especially because of Hailee Steinfeld, but the actress who won for voicing Jinx also was not bad at all. Not too shabby. I think a second season will happen too, even if it's still gonna take some time. Admittedly, if Arlo the Alligator Boy is among the most nominated television projects, then the competition for Arcane was not too gigantic honestly. Still, nine out of nine is really impressive. Credit where credit is due.
I must say it did feel a bit strange honestly what they did with the acceptance speeches. Apparently, everybody had to pre-record one and then they played the one from the winner? At least the winners said at the beginning sometimes something along the lines of "If this is played, then I/we actually won.", so it must have been this way. Still strange, I mean there were some nominees who knew 100% they would not win, but never mind. Awkward. Another reason to end this virtual ceremony travesty for good. Also an example set for other (awards) shows for sure. How not to do it! The most famous face you will see or, if you watched, already saw during this ceremony was Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro. He is known for using interesting animation and effects in many of his films, so not a bad choice. Also, he is a always a really likable guy which helps too. Nice neighbor dude. Just like some of the others he got to announce several categories. Also there were no envelopes or something I think, so they knew the winner already and just said the name after the nominees were presented. They included an in-memoriam segment too, without photos, but simply presented the names written on the screen. I liked that approach. Maybe also an idea for the Oscars etc., so nobody can complain about who is getting the first and last attention of this list. They can still complain who was left out though.
What else can I say about this ceremoney, let me think. Oh yeah, some of the awards, I think the honorary awards especially were named after people who really deserve it like June Foray. Yes yes, I know it's not new. Icons from the animation/cartoon industry. Of course, in her case the age helped as well. A bit of a Betty White, only with focus on animation. Both came really, really close to 100, but then did not make it in the end. The winners errr.. recipients of these awards were not too shabby either. Probably not people you will know by their names (even if Miyazaki was referenced briefly with his connection to those), especially if you are not American, unless you are really an expert on the subject, but looking at what they did, the really old man and even older woman, way over 90, it's nice to see them score further attention here. Absolutely not undeserving after I checked their wikipedia pages. I personally think animation is great and I am always happy to watch the newest animated films. No grown-up should be ashamed of that. The level is insanely high still and that's pretty cool. Stories are told with lots of attention to detail too. Animated films have such depth. If you think you need children to watch them, you're getting it wrong. Still, do not mistake the best animated movies for this awards ceremony. It was a bit shoddy. Shaky. No denying. So probably the better choice this time is to skip the watch.
I still liked that, like every year, they included segments, like the one about Python, where they absolutely do not care about the general audience. It felt so much in-depth. I did not understand anything pretty much, but I liked it nonetheless. The stuff they cut out at the Oscars. Especially now. Boo! Anyway, I like some programming, but with Delphi only. No Python. Also nice to see two animation icons from Japan getting the recoognition. They did not keep it US-only, but it made sense. Anime has been so big for decades and deserves more praise. Kinda fitting too, now that Japanese and Korean (non-animated) films are making huge waves at the Oscars, that the animation branch also honors some of the finest Asian movies. There are surely more than enough to pick from, even if I think from this very year there is none that really wowed everybody. No worries, Shinkai and the rest, probably also many new names, will make huge waves soon again. Okay, this is it then. Oh wait, I also did not know there was a new movie linked to Beauty and the Beast. Name is Belle. That one sure went under the radar this year. Maybe not too surprising as I did not like too much the way it looked during the scenes they showed us during the show. Overall, this show was not a failure, but I still have to give it a thumbs-down. Skip, unless you are a gigantic awards show and animation lover and maybe have seen most of the nominees in full, so you can get engaged cheer for your favorites. The rest, watch an animated movie!
In terms of both films and television, it ended up being a true display of domination. The Mitchells vs. The Machines was only third in the ranking of the most nominations, but it managed to win each and every single one of its eight nods. Truly impressive. Disney's Encanto won three out of nine at least. Not great, but tolerable and a pretty decent percentage nonetheless. The big bummer went to Raya and the Last Dragon that ended up empty-handed despite leading the field with ten nominations. This domination also shows us that the glory days of Pixar when it dominated almost every year may be over for good. Luca also scored zero out of eight. So yeah, Sony impressively closed the gap for now to Disney and Pixar and we will see how it goes at the Oscars. I think Encanto was the favorite for winning Best Animated Feature, but the category is a lot closer now. That much is safe. Then there is also dark horse Flee in the race and maybe people want it to win one Oscar and it probably won't be in the documentary category, so Encanto's relatively low number of wins at the Annie Awards also works in favor of Flee. On the television side, everything was going Arcane's way as expected. As a League of Legends player, I am not sad about it at all and very curious to watch this show for sure eventually, especially because of Hailee Steinfeld, but the actress who won for voicing Jinx also was not bad at all. Not too shabby. I think a second season will happen too, even if it's still gonna take some time. Admittedly, if Arlo the Alligator Boy is among the most nominated television projects, then the competition for Arcane was not too gigantic honestly. Still, nine out of nine is really impressive. Credit where credit is due.
I must say it did feel a bit strange honestly what they did with the acceptance speeches. Apparently, everybody had to pre-record one and then they played the one from the winner? At least the winners said at the beginning sometimes something along the lines of "If this is played, then I/we actually won.", so it must have been this way. Still strange, I mean there were some nominees who knew 100% they would not win, but never mind. Awkward. Another reason to end this virtual ceremony travesty for good. Also an example set for other (awards) shows for sure. How not to do it! The most famous face you will see or, if you watched, already saw during this ceremony was Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro. He is known for using interesting animation and effects in many of his films, so not a bad choice. Also, he is a always a really likable guy which helps too. Nice neighbor dude. Just like some of the others he got to announce several categories. Also there were no envelopes or something I think, so they knew the winner already and just said the name after the nominees were presented. They included an in-memoriam segment too, without photos, but simply presented the names written on the screen. I liked that approach. Maybe also an idea for the Oscars etc., so nobody can complain about who is getting the first and last attention of this list. They can still complain who was left out though.
What else can I say about this ceremoney, let me think. Oh yeah, some of the awards, I think the honorary awards especially were named after people who really deserve it like June Foray. Yes yes, I know it's not new. Icons from the animation/cartoon industry. Of course, in her case the age helped as well. A bit of a Betty White, only with focus on animation. Both came really, really close to 100, but then did not make it in the end. The winners errr.. recipients of these awards were not too shabby either. Probably not people you will know by their names (even if Miyazaki was referenced briefly with his connection to those), especially if you are not American, unless you are really an expert on the subject, but looking at what they did, the really old man and even older woman, way over 90, it's nice to see them score further attention here. Absolutely not undeserving after I checked their wikipedia pages. I personally think animation is great and I am always happy to watch the newest animated films. No grown-up should be ashamed of that. The level is insanely high still and that's pretty cool. Stories are told with lots of attention to detail too. Animated films have such depth. If you think you need children to watch them, you're getting it wrong. Still, do not mistake the best animated movies for this awards ceremony. It was a bit shoddy. Shaky. No denying. So probably the better choice this time is to skip the watch.
I still liked that, like every year, they included segments, like the one about Python, where they absolutely do not care about the general audience. It felt so much in-depth. I did not understand anything pretty much, but I liked it nonetheless. The stuff they cut out at the Oscars. Especially now. Boo! Anyway, I like some programming, but with Delphi only. No Python. Also nice to see two animation icons from Japan getting the recoognition. They did not keep it US-only, but it made sense. Anime has been so big for decades and deserves more praise. Kinda fitting too, now that Japanese and Korean (non-animated) films are making huge waves at the Oscars, that the animation branch also honors some of the finest Asian movies. There are surely more than enough to pick from, even if I think from this very year there is none that really wowed everybody. No worries, Shinkai and the rest, probably also many new names, will make huge waves soon again. Okay, this is it then. Oh wait, I also did not know there was a new movie linked to Beauty and the Beast. Name is Belle. That one sure went under the radar this year. Maybe not too surprising as I did not like too much the way it looked during the scenes they showed us during the show. Overall, this show was not a failure, but I still have to give it a thumbs-down. Skip, unless you are a gigantic awards show and animation lover and maybe have seen most of the nominees in full, so you can get engaged cheer for your favorites. The rest, watch an animated movie!