So... Award Shows are stupid right? I mean we know at this point it's all just advertising so they can say "This was nominated for and/or won a prestigious award" and it's all just nonsense, yes even the Annie Awards are nonsense. I still got to love them though, this is often how I learn of many animated projects, movies to check out, shorts to look up, TV shows to... put on my back burner and ultimately never get around the watching them, but that does not change the fact that at the core, the Annie Awards are still just an award show, and it's all unnecessary and pointless. I made comments about how Across the Spider-Verse swept the award ceremony and that it was boring that it happened, but at the end of the day, I don't really care. Nimona is still the better movie, fight me, and we would still go flock to the theatres to see the next Spider-Verse movie, even if it didn't win a single award because that is just what we do.
But one of the things I do have to admire about award shows is that they are such a great window into the past. You look at the awards that were given to which movies or shows or music or what have you and you just have to think, "What made them pick this?". You notice this a lot with the really big awards, notably the Oscars and the Grammy Awards, they have some really big categories that everyone pays attention to because they always get it wrong and there was always something better they could have chosen. I hate to say it but... sometimes the Annie Awards are like that too, and I want to try something new. I'm going to look at the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, year by year, and kind of discuss why I think the films that won the award did so, what else was nominated and any movies that could have been nominated but weren't, and why they might not have been. Kind of like what Crash Thompson is doing with the Best New Artist Grammy, except not as funny.
With all of that said, let's start with the 1990s, because this is the year the Annie Awards began and... this is when the weirdest things happened. I'll be specifically looking at the "Best Animated Feature" category, but maybe in the future I'll look into the other categories. So, let's begin with 1990... my mistake, the Best Animated Feature Category didn't exist until the 20th Annie Awards in 1992... Even though the award has existed since 1972, this is a topic for another day, 1992!
1992
So, 1992 was the first year the Best Animated Feature award was a thing, so this very monumentous first award had to be given to a very special movie, a movie that really gives the medium of animation a good name, something big, important, high quality. Now, the good news is that a movie of that status was awarded that night, the problem is that the movie in question was released in 1991.
Winner: Beauty and the Beast
Now this isn't a knock against Beauty and the Beast, I mean I'm dumb but not dumb enough to anger a bunch of animation fans and invite them to trample me to death. Beauty and the Beast absolutely deserved this win, I mean it was the first animated movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was the first animated feature to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, I mean, this movie was a pretty big deal, so why is the 1991 release date a problem? Well, the other two nominees of that year, weren't 1991 releases, they were 1992 releases.
Stuff like this happens for multiple reasons, and in this case it's because the Annie Awards were usually held in November, but for the sake of simplicity, when I talk about the "Snubs", I'm only going to talk about movies from 1991. However, what were those two movies from 1992 that absolutely needed that "early" nomination?
The Other Nominees: Bebe's Kids, FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Does anyone else think that they picked these movies specifically to ensure that Beauty and the Beast won the award? I've never seen Bebe's Kids, but from my understanding it's one of those animated movies that... people forgot about, y'know until internet morons remembered it so we didn't have to, and as for FernGully, I've already reviewed that movie, so you know exactly my thoughts on the matter, but to summarize, FernGully is a boring, preachy, slog of a movie. What I'm saying is, I don't think these movies really deserved the nomination, I mean, wasn't there anything else from 1991 that could've been nominated?
Snubs:
So, 1991 wasn't an absolutely barren year for animated movies, but... it wasn't a particularly great one. I think the biggest snubs from this year were mostly movies that were released in Japan, stuff like Only Yesterday, which didn't get any release outside of Japan until 2006, and Roujin Z, which would not be released outside of Japan until 1994. Otherwise, there is a Ranma ½ movie, a Doraemon movie, and a couple Dragon Ball Z movies, I dunno, are Cooler's Revenge and Lord Slug considered high points in the DBZ movie series?
Outside of Japan though... it's pretty slim pickings, Don Bluth fully looses control of what made his work so great with Rock-a-Doodle, another movie I reviewed, Rover Dangerfield was also released that year, and it's another movie people forgot about until some critic reviewed way back when, and as far as I can tell, the only other movies that anyone might know anything about from '91, were The Princess and the Goblin, a Hungarian and British co-production based on a book from 1872, and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West... I mean, this one might have been a nominee, but you only know of this one if you had it on VHS because your Mom thought the first movie was too much for you as a kid.
So really, Beauty and the Beast was like, the only pick for 1991. Maybe if they released them in the U.S. earlier, Only Yesterday and Roujin Z could have been nominated, I guess An American Tail: Fievel Goes West could have gotten a nod to, but it sure as hay would not have walked away with that award. I'm also really confused at why they didn't nominate any other movie from 1991, I mean... what does that leave for next year?
1993
Okay, it is now 1993, we had out big inaugural award to give out, now we gotta actually start taking this category a bit more seriously, right? Right?
Winner: Aladdin
Okay, I'm not going to say Aladdin is a bad choice, it's not my favourite of the Disney animated canon, or even of the Disney Renaissance, but it's a solid movie, I like it fine. I dunno, they'd really have to have nominated some really lesser movies to make me think this was the only choice.
The Other Nominees: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Once Upon a Forest
Okay, for those of you who are thinking "But Little Nemo was originally released in 1989", you're right, but this is a technicality, Japanese animation wasn't as big in the nineties as it is now, so it took a while for their movies to cross over, so while Little Nemo was a 1989 release in Japan, in the United States it was released in 1992, so it is a bit "rules lawyering" but by technicality it counts. Otherwise, I haven't seen this movie either, I've heard it's not good, even from a fan of the Little Nemo comics, it is on my list of movies to review.
What I have seen is Once Upon a Forest and... I mean it's not the worst movie ever but... it's not very good. Also, it's a 1993 release, get used to this because the Annie Awards wouldn't have consistency in this department until 2004, I wish I was kidding.
Snubs:
1992 was also a slow year in terms of animated movies, like I can't think of very many "Big" animated movies from this year, there was Porco Rosso, which wouldn't hit the U.S. Shores until 2005, and there was the Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation movie, but that was Direct-to-Video so it probably wouldn't count anyway.
I think the only other "Well known" movies from this year would be Ralph Bakshi's Cool World, which... boy would that have been a wild choice, and Freddie as F.R.O. 7 which... you only know because small time animation reviewers talked about it, if you know it at all. Otherwise, there was a Japanese and Indian co-production called Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, might add that to the watchlist, Comet in Moominland , the first full-length Moomin film, but it doesn't seem like it was released in America at all, and there's a Bill Plympton musical-comedy called The Tune. Boy would I love to see the day Bill Plympton is nominated. Remember that statement.
So, 1992 was a bit of a bad year for animated movies, but still, I can imagine the Tiny Toon Adventures movie could have been nominated if they took direct-to-video films into account, Cool World would have been such an "out there" choice, and again some foreign films that never seemed to make it to the U.S., but surely the next year has to be better, right?
1994
The year is 1994, we're looking at the movies of 1993, there might not be much, but surely we can keep some kind of consistency here right? 1992 had a movie from 1991, 1993 had a movie from 1992, so 1994 has to have a movie from 1993 win the award, right?
Winner: The Lion King
Oh you are kidding me, right? Okay, well I guess The Lion King fell into the parameters of being eligible for this year, even if it's not at all consistent with the established norm, but again, an established norm wouldn't happen until 2004 so... bear with me here. I mean, I guess it's fair that this movie won the award, but if we're looking for movies from 1993, you had two really good choices alongside this one!
The Other Nominees: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Nightmare Before Christmas
Okay, so I've reviewed both of these movies, Mask of the Phantasm is an absolutely fantastic Batman adventure, and it's kind of a shame it didn't win the award, but I mean if you're going up against the Highest Grossing Animated Movie of the time, of course you're gonna lose, especially if you didn't even make your budget back at the box office. However, if there was no Lion King nomination for that year, I am absolutely certain the award would have gone to The Nightmare Before Christmas, because of just how unique it was at the time. Alas, The Lion King managed to eek in there, so it practically got handed the golden zoetrope on a silver plate.
Snubs:
Okay, straight up, 1993 was actually not a good year for animated movies. Yes, Mask of the Phantasm and Nightmare Before Christmas we're released, but you know what else was released in 1993? The Thief and the Cobbler, at least the version that was released as "The Princess and the Cobbler", the version that I reviewed, which was released as "Arabian Knight", was released in 1995, so the worst version wouldn't be up for nomination this year, but still. Also released in 1993 was We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, also on my "to review" list, and two other infamous movies that I have also previously reviewed we're also released this year, in America anyway. 1993 was the year that American audiences we're able to see the glorious garbage fires known as The Magic Voyage and Tom and Jerry: The Movie. Yeah, I know all sources say it Tom and Jerry was released in 1992, but that was in Germany and it didn't reach U.S. shores until 1993.
Was there anything good released in '93 outside of what was nominated? Well, there was Ninja Scroll, which I've heard good things about, but again it wouldn't be released in America that year, so it's tough to really consider it as a nominee. It's actually kind of dumb that the Annie Awards wouldn't really incorporate foreign animation until later, but I guess that is just what happens when world-wide communication is not at its peak yet.
1995
Okay, so 1995, the year that The Lion King should have been the winner, which technically means that there is no "best animated feature of 1993", but hey it's a new year, and a bunch of new movies are bound to get some attention. So, if The Lion King doesn't the award this year, what movie from 1994 does get it?
Winner: Pocahontas
Oh... so our second winner that is actually from the year the ceremony is held. Really, Pocahontas? This movie has a bit of a reputation to it, and frankly... it's kind of one that I don't want to review, because I am really not prepared to talk about this movie. Let's move on before I say something stupid.
The Other Nominees: A Goofy Movie, The Swan Princess
A Goofy Movie is also from 1995, so you would think this year would be when they finally decided to have some consistency with this, but it's not. Still, A Goofy Movie is an interesting choice here, it's actually kind of like the opposite of Pocahontas, with Pocahontas becoming less popular overtime, while A Goofy Movie has kind of become more beloved. So, I'd say good on them for nominating this, but it's also kind of like the only good choice this year because the only nominee from 1994 is The Swan Princess, and that movie sucks.
Snubs:
To be absolutely fair, it's not like 1994 had a killer line-up, but it had some good stuff that... if they were able to nominate them, would've been really cool to be nominated. Pom Poko was released in 1994, though stay tuned folks, it won't be long for a second anime film to get a nomination, though it won't be from Studio Ghibli. There was an Asterix movie this year, Asterix Conquers America, mostly a direct-to-video release in Europe but it was a thing. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was also released this year, though even if that was nominated, I wouldn't have put money on it winning. Speaking of movies that definitely would not have won the award even if they were nominated, 1994 was the year that a little German animated movie called Felidae was released, and quite frankly, if I were making my own list of nominees, you'd better believe I would be behind this movie one-hundred percent.
However, 1994 was also the year of Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park and The Pagemaster, so it obviously wasn't that great a year. Still, there was a good selection of films released in 1994, it's just that none of them were released in America, or at least not released in that year. Which is a shame because, I absolutely would have loved it if Felidae got a nomination.
And I think I'm gonna stop it here for now, trust me we still have a lot of weird stuff to go over, so I'm not done. However, I do need to keep this to a reasonable length, and four years is the half-way point for the Annie Awards in the 1990s, again they didn't have this category in 1990 or 1991, so what could have been the nominees for those years, we just have to speculate. Actually, put a pin in that idea, I may do that speculating some day in the future. As for now, let's put this little blast from the past on hold. See you guys for 1996 to 1999.
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