Annie Award
Awarded for	Excellence in film animation
Presented by	ASIFA-Hollywood
Country	United States
First awarded	1972
Official website	http://annieawards.org

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The Annie Award is an American award for accomplishments in animation. The Annies have been presented by the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972. Originally designed to celebrate lifetime or career contributions to animation in the fields of producing, directing, animation, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects, etc., in 1992 it began to honor animation as a whole, and created the category of Best Animated Feature.

Memberships in the ASIFA-Hollywood consist of three main categories: General Member, Patron and Student Member. Joining ASIFA-Hollywood is open to professionals, students and fans of animation, for a membership fee. All members of ASIFA-Hollywood may vote for the winners.^[1]

The 39th Annie Awards ceremony took place on February 4, 2012, on the campus of UCLA.

Award categories[link]

Production[link]

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Animated Home Entertainment Production
• Best Animated Short Subject
• Best Animated Television Commercial
• Best Animated Television Production
• Best Animated Video Game

Individual achievement[link]

• Animated Effects
• Character Animation in a Feature Production
• Character Animation in a Television Production
• Character Design in a Feature Production
• Character Design in a Television Production
• Directing in a Feature Production
• Directing in a Television Production
• Music in a Feature Production
• Music in a Television Production
• Production Design in a Feature Production
• Production Design in a Television Production
• Storyboarding in a Feature Production
• Storyboarding in a Television Production
• Voice Acting in a Feature Production
• Voice Acting in a Television Production
• Writing in a Feature Production
• Writing in a Television Production

Juried awards[link]

• June Foray Award
• Ub Iwerks Award
• Winsor McCay Award
• Special Achievement in Animation
• Certificates of Merit

Balloting controversies and criticism[link]

2008[link]

In 2008, the Annie Award nominees for "Best Short Subject" included two Walt Disney cartoons, a Pixar short, and two independent films: Picnic Pictures' The Chestnut Tree, and Don Hertzfeldt's short, Everything Will Be OK. Official rules for the Annie Awards state that voting members must view all nominated achievements in their entirety before casting their ballot for a winner. Members are directed to view the nominated films on a secure website.

When the online ballot launched on January 15, the two independent films were not included for voters to judge. ASIFA acknowledged this error over a week later, at which point all the votes were reportedly thrown out and the balloting system was reset. Voters were instructed to return and re-vote the category. "The Chestnut Tree" was now uploaded properly to the ballot, however Everything Will Be OK was again not included: this time, the online ballot only played a portion of this film's 17-minute running time to voters, abruptly cutting out in the middle of a scene. ASIFA again took several days to repair the ballot, but this time allowed voting to continue.

By the time the ballot officially closed on February 1, Everything Will Be OK was only available to voters for less than 24 hours of the entire 18-day voting period.^[2]

Even though ASIFA apologized to Don Hertzfeldt, they took no further action and carried on with the event, awarding the prize to the Pixar short Your Friend the Rat.

2009[link]

In 2009, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda swept the Annie Awards in an overwhelming defeat against the eventual Oscar-winner WALL-E, which was shut out in every category. In an Oscar prediction article, New York Times writer David Carr noted, "Oscar watchers were stunned when Kung Fu Panda took all the awards from the International Animated Film Society. That was an inside job, full of backstage politics you don’t want to know about."^[3] Animator Bill Plympton (himself a recipient of ASIFA's lifetime achievement award), also criticized the organization's balloting practices, writing in his blog, "I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg, who knows a good publicity opportunity when he sees it, bought ASIFA-Hollywood memberships for his entire studio, and then told them to vote the party line... The unfortunate reality is that it feels like the elections were rigged - they were bought! What a travesty." ^[4]

2010[link]

In 2010, Walt Disney Studios decided to cease submissions and support for ASIFA-Hollywood's Annie Awards. At issue was the fact that anyone could buy a membership (and voting ballot) to ASIFA, whereas members of the Motion Picture Academy and other awards-giving bodies must be voted in only by their peers. Disney also believed the scales are tilted in favor of DreamWorks Animation, who gives each new employee a free membership to ASIFA-Hollywood.^[5]

Due to Disney's complaints, ASIFA-Hollywood changed the rules on voting for individual achievement categories, making those categories only available to professionals. ASIFA-Hollywood head Antran Manoogian said that this was just a first step to a future move where Annie voters would have to be approved by a committee and non-professionals would now be ineligible to vote.^[5]

That was not enough for Disney president Ed Catmull, who had called for an advisory committee of toon execs representing each studio to recommend rule changes to the ASIFA board. Catmull said, "We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board. Although some initial steps have been taken, the board informed us that no further changes would be made to address our concerns." ^[5]

Notable nominations[link]

• Animated features that earned the most nominations:

1. 16: The Incredibles (2004)
2. 16: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
3. 16: Kung Fu Panda (2008)
4. 16: How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
5. 13: Ratatouille (2007)
6. 12: Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
7. 12: Finding Nemo (2003)
8. 10: Coraline (2009)
9. 10: Mulan (1998)

See also[link]

• List of Annie Awards ceremonies

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site of the Annie Awards

Brad Bird
Bird at the Venice Film Festival, September 2009
Born	Phillip Bradley Bird (1957-09-24) September 24, 1957 (age 54) Kalispell, Montana, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, producer
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Elizabeth Canney (1988–present)

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird (born September 24, 1957) is a critically acclaimed American director, screenwriter, animator, voice actor and producer. He is best known for having written and directed Warner Bros.' The Iron Giant (1999), and Pixar's The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). He made his live-action film directing debut with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011).

All of Bird's films have received universal acclaim (or in the case of The Iron Giant, grown in popularity with time). On Rotten Tomatoes, his four films average a 95.75% rating, making him one of the most acclaimed living filmmakers, animated or otherwise.^[1]

Early life[link]

Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children^[2] of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in the propane business, and his grandfather, Francis Wesley "Frank" Bird, who was born in Sligo, Ireland, was a president and chief executive of the Montana Power Company.^[3][4][5] On a tour of the Walt Disney Studios at age 11, he announced that someday he would become part of its animation team, and soon afterward began work on his own 15-minute animated short. Within two years, Bird had completed his animation, which impressed the cartoon company. By age 14, barely in high school, Bird was mentored by the animator Milt Kahl, one of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men. Bird recalls Kahl's criticisms as ideal: Kahl would point out shortcomings by gently delivering thoughts on where Bird could improve. After graduating from Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, Bird took a three-year break. He was then awarded a scholarship by Disney to attend California Institute of the Arts, where he met and befriended another future animator, Pixar co-founder and director John Lasseter.^[2]

Career[link]

Upon graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Bird began working for Disney. His tenure with Disney was brief, and he left the company shortly after working on The Fox and the Hound in 1981.

He next worked on animated television series, with much shorter lead times. He was the creator (writer, director, and co-producer) of the Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In addition, Bird co-wrote the screenplay for the live-action film *batteries not included. In 1989 Bird joined Klasky Csupo, where he helped to develop The Simpsons from one-minute shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show into a series of half-hour programs. In 1990, he directed the episode "Krusty Gets Busted" (which marked the first speaking role of Sideshow Bob) and co-directed the Season Three episode "Like Father, Like Clown." He served as an executive consultant for the show for its first eight seasons. He worked on several other animated television series, including The Critic and King of the Hill before pitching Warner Brothers to write and direct the animated film The Iron Giant. Despite receiving near-universal acclaim from critics, it failed at the box office domestically, but grossed $103 million worldwide, making it at least a moderate box office success. The film impressed his old friend John Lasseter, founder of the computer-animation pioneer Pixar. Bird pitched the idea for The Incredibles to Pixar. In the finished picture, Bird also provides the voice of costume designer Edna Mode.^[2] As an inside joke, the character Syndrome was based on Bird's likeness and according to him, he did not realize the joke until the movie was too far into production to have it changed.^[6] The film became both a major critical and financial success. As a result, Bird won his first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and his screenplay was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.^[7]

Brad Bird with his second Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

In the middle of 2005, Bird was asked by the Pixar management team to take over Ratatouille from its previous director Jan Pinkava. This change was announced in March 2006, during a presentation at a Disney shareholders meeting. The film was released in 2007; like The Incredibles, the film was another critical and box office success. In January 2008, Ratatouille won the Best Animated Feature award at the Golden Globes; it was also nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay. On February 24, 2008, Ratatouille won Bird his second Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.^[7]

Bird has spoken passionately about animation as an art form. When Bird and producer John Walker recorded the Director's Commentary for The Incredibles' DVD, he jokingly offered to punch the next person that he heard call animation a genre instead of an art form. Bird believes animation can be used to tell any kind of story—drama or comedy, for an adult audience or children.

Before he was sidetracked by Ratatouille, Bird began work on a film adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel 1906, which would be his first live action project.^[8] In March 2008, Bird resumed work on the film, which is a co-production between Pixar and Warner Bros. The novel, narrated by reporter Annalisa Passarelli, examines police officers battling corruption in the government that causes the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to turn into such a disaster. The script was co-written by John Logan.^[9] Blogger Jim Hill suggested the film has been on hold due to Disney / Pixar and Warner Bros.' nervousness over the projected $200 million budget.^[10] In May 2010, with 1906 apparently still stalled, Bird signed on as the director of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, produced by Tom Cruise and J. J. Abrams.^[11] The collaboration was suggested by Tom Cruise following the release of The Incredibles, and was created with the help of J.J. Abrams, who sent Bird a late night text message saying "Mission?".^[12]

In May 2012, it was reported that Bird has been attached as the director for 1952, whose screenplay will be written by Damon Lindelof.^[13]

Filmography[link]

Animator[link]

• Animalympics (1980)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981) (uncredited) (animation producer)
• The Plague Dogs (1982)

Director[link]

• Family Dog (1987)
• "Do the Bartman" music video (1990)
• The Iron Giant (1999)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• Jack-Jack Attack (2005)
• Ratatouille (2007)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• 1952 (TBA)^[14]
• 1906 (TBA)

Screenwriter[link]

• Family Dog (1987)
• *batteries not included (1987)
• The Iron Giant (1999)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• Jack-Jack Attack (2005)
• Ratatouille (2007)
• 1906 (TBA)

Producer[link]

• Your Friend the Rat (2007)

Actor[link]

• The Incredibles (2004) – Edna Mode (voice)
• Assassination Vacation (2005) – Charles Guiteau and Emma Goldman (voices)
• Ratatouille (2007) – Ambrister Minion (voice)

Reception[link]

Critical[link]

Awards[link]

He holds the record of the most Annie Awards wins with eight, winning both Best Directing and Best Writing for 3 films, The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille (all of them also won Best Animated Feature), as well as Best Voice Acting for The Incredibles and the Winsor McCay Award.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Brad Bird

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brad Bird

• Brad Bird at the Internet Movie Database
• Brad Bird Interview at IGN
• DVD Talk: Interview with Brad Bird about The Incredibles
• Brad Bird premieres and discusses the development of "The Incredibles" with CalArts' Character Animation Program
• Brad Bird Interview (Ratatouille)
• The Art of Making Pixar's Ratatouille Interviews with Harley Jessup, Sharon Calahan and Brad Bird accompany an article on the making of the film.
• Brad Bird Interview at Blu-ray.com Interview regarding the release of Ratatouille on Blu-ray.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011)

Tara Strong
Strong in July 2009 at the San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Tara Lyn Charendoff (1973-02-12) February 12, 1973 (age 39) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other names	Tara Charendoff
Occupation	Actress, voice actress, singer
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Craig Strong (May 14, 2000-present)
Children	2 sons
Signature
Website
www.tarastrong.com

Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian actress, voice actress, and singer, who is perhaps best known for her voice work in animated films and television series.

Early life and career[link]

Tara Lyn Charendoff was born on February 12, 1973 to Jewish-Canadian parents who ran a convenience/toy/candy store called The Wiz, and was raised in Toronto, Ontario. Strong's acting career began when she volunteered to be a soloist in the school production at age four. Soon, she began acting in the Yiddish Theater; though she did not know Yiddish, she memorized her lines phonetically. During this time, she also performed at the Toronto Jewish Theater (TJA), where she acted in A Night of Stars, and was featured in an audiotape for "Lay Down Your Arms" with the Habonim Youth Choir, where she sang the lyrics in both English and Hebrew,^[1] a feat she repeated on February 10, 2005, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the March of the Living dinner in honor of Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[1]

At age thirteen, Strong was accepted into a performing arts school, where she landed her first professional role: the role of Gracie in the Limelight Theater's production of The Music Man. That same year, she booked a guest starring role in Mr. T's T. and T. Afterwards, she landed the title role in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater and starred in the short-lived CBC Television sitcom Mosquito Lake before moving to Los Angeles in the midst of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.^[1]

Strong is the voice behind a multitude of North American animated characters, including main roles in The Fairly OddParents as Timmy Turner and Poof; The New Batman Adventures as Batgirl; Fillmore! as Ingrid Third; Rugrats and All Grown Up! as Dil Pickles; The Powerpuff Girls as Bubbles; Ben 10 as Ben Tennyson, Upgrade, Benwolf, and Buzzshock; Xiaolin Showdown as Omi; Teen Titans as Raven; Drawn Together as Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein; The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World as Hip/Lemmy and Hop/Iggy Koopa; Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as Terrence; Transformers Animated as Sari Sumdac, Slipstream, Slo-Mo, Strika, Red Alert, Mayor Edsel's press secretary, and additional voices; Sym-Bionic Titan as Ilana Lunas; Chowder as Truffles; the singing voice of Meg Griffin and additional voices on Family Guy; 101 Dalmatians: The Series as Spot/Two-Tone; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as Twilight Sparkle; and currently voices Betty Boop in commercials with Tress MacNeille.

Tara Strong with Teen Titans co-star Scott Menville

She has also lent her voice to English-language localizations of Japanese anime such as Spirited Away, Sailor Moon, Shaman King, and Princess Mononoke, as well as several video games, including her work as Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker; Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey; Rikku in Final Fantasy X, its sequel Final Fantasy X-2, and Kingdom Hearts II; Norma Beatty in Tales of Legendia; Talwyn Apogee in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (both of which reunite her with her Final Fantasy X and Drawn Together co-star James Arnold Taylor) and Harley Quinn replacing Arleen Sorkin in Batman: Arkham City. Numerous sources have stated that she also voiced Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine and went uncredited for the role.

She has appeared in live roles in National Lampoon's Senior Trip, Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina, Down Under, Mosquito Lake, and The Last White Dishwasher. She also made guest appearances on such shows as Forever Knight, Street Legal, Touched by an Angel, Take Home Chef, Party of Five, Comic Book: The Movie, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.^[1] She has the role of the character Miss Collins in Nickelodeon's live action series Big Time Rush. Strong has been nominated four times for an Annie Award, and once for a Daytime Emmy and she will voice Roxy of Winx Club,which will be broadcast on Nickelodeon.^[1]

In 2004, she won an Interactive Achievement Award for her role as Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2. She also served as the announcer for the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards, appeared as a guest at several fan conventions (including BotCon, Jacon, Comic-Con International, and Anime Overdose), and was featured on the front cover of the July/August 2004 issue of Working Mother magazine, saying, "My son is now old enough to respond to my work. To me, that's what it is all about."^[1][2]

Personal life[link]

Strong was raised Jewish in a kosher household. She is a vegetarian.^[3] Prior to her marriage, she was originally credited under her maiden name, Charendoff. She has one sister, Marla Charendoff (born October 18, 1971). Strong's parents ran a candy/toy store business in the Toronto area. Tara attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, class of 1991. After leaving high school she studied at The Second City in Toronto for two years before moving to Los Angeles in January 1994. Strong and actress Neve Campbell lived together when they both moved to Los Angeles at the same time. They both auditioned for the same role, Julia, in the '90s TV series Party of Five which would prove to be Campbell's big break. Strong appeared in a few episodes as Lorna.

Among her favorite voicework roles are: Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (the original The Little Mermaid is her favorite Disney film), Toot Braunstein in Drawn Together,^[4] and Raven in Teen Titans.^[5]

Tara met American actor Craig Strong in early 1999 at a party hosted by Sharon Stone's sister. Tara and Craig married on May 14, 2000. They have two sons, Sammy and Aden. The family resides in Toluca Lake, California with their dog, Baci. She and Craig are the founders of VoiceStarz, Inc., an Internet-based company which teaches people how to get into the voiceover business. Craig is the CEO.

Filmography[link]