‘Spirited Away’ Wins Animation Award
GLENDALE, Calif. – The Japanese fantasy “Spirited Away” won top honors at the animation industry’s Annie Awards ceremony, picking up trophies for best feature film, writing, music and direction.
The film, by writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, tells an Alice in Wonderland-style story about a girl who becomes trapped in a world of nature spirits and must escape to rescue her parents from a spell that transformed them into pigs.
Known as “Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi” in its homeland, “Spirited Away” became Japan’s highest-grossing movie ever in 2001, topping the American film “Titanic” by earning approximately $234 million.
An English-language translation, produced by “Toy Story” creator John Lasseter, was released by Walt Disney Co. in September. It earned about $5.5 million while at its peak playing in only 150 theaters nationwide.
The Annie Awards, created 30 years ago, are presented by The International Animated Film Society to honor outstanding animation in television and film. Organizers decided last year to move the event from November to February to make them a more closely watched prelude to the Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last year awarded its first Oscar for best animated feature to “Shrek,” which also was the big winner at the previous Annies.
Among the other winners Saturday, DreamWorks’ “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” about a young horse fleeing human captors in the wilderness, received awards for character design, effects animation, production design and storyboarding.
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