‘Wallace and Gromit’ takes 8 Annie Awards
British-made claymation film Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit took eight animated film awards, including best animated film, at the 33rd Annual Annie Awards in Los Angeles.
Wallace & Gromit beat fellow Oscar contenders Corpse Bride and Howl’s Moving Castle and digitally animated films such as Chicken Little and Madagascar.
Nick Park and Steve Box took home best directing, best music and best writing awards for their work on the film.
The Annie Awards, given Saturday, are presented by The International Animated Film Society, and often predict the winner of the Academy Award’s best animated film category.
Park created the cheese-loving Wallace and his dog Gromit for a film school project and introduced the characters in TV shorts in 1989 to 1995. They starred in the 2000 animated film Chicken Run.
In Curse of the Were-Rabbit, they track a rabbit that is stealing from local vegetable gardens.
An award for voice acting went to British actor Peter Sallis, who has been the voice of Wallace since the show’s inception.
The film picked up further awards in character animation, effects, storyboarding and production design.
Unlike many modern animated movies, Wallace and Gromit are crafted of clay and moved one frame at a time with stop-motion action, enhanced by computer animation. Aardman Animation produced in association with U.S. animation firm, Dreamworks.
Other awards given Saturday were:
– Animated television production: Star Wars: Clone Wars II, Cartoon Network Studios.
– Animated video game: Ultimate Spider-Man, Activision/Treyarch.
– Voice acting in an animated TV production: Seth MacFarlane, the voice of “Stewie” in Family Guy.
– Best home entertainment: Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch.
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