‘Toy Story 2’ Sweeps the Annies; ‘Chicken Run’ Left in the Cold

The continuing saga of Woody and Buzz Lightyear won big Saturday night at the animation industry’s answer to the Oscars. “Toy Story 2,” the sequel to the first entirely computer-generated feature in animation history, won seven top honors at the 28th Annual Annie Awards, including the prize for best animated feature.

Made by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures, “Toy Story 2” swept this year’s competition, much as the Warner Bros. sleeper “The Iron Giant” did last year. “TS2” voice actors Tim Allen and Joan Cusack and composer Randy Newman were among the film’s winners.

The biggest surprise of the event, held at Glendale’s historic Alex Theatre, was the failure of “Chicken Run,” an animated spoof of “The Great Escape” and “Stalag 17,” to take home a single award. Annie watchers had expected a close race between “Toy Story 2” and the clay-animated film directed by the British team of Peter Lord and Nick Park, who created the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit characters.

Other contenders for best feature were Disney’s “Fantasia/2000,” “The Road to El Dorado” from DreamWorks SKG, and 20th Century Fox’s “Titan A.E.” Many observers were surprised by the nomination of “Titan,” an $85-million sci-fi epic that flopped at the box office and is blamed for Fox’s decision to close its Phoenix-based feature animation studio.

Pixar’s “For the Birds” won the Annie for short subject; Disney won in the increasingly important category of direct-to-video feature for “An Extremely Goofy Movie.”

Fox’s perpetual favorite, “The Simpsons,” won for best prime-time television program.

Although Pixar creative head John Lasseter and CEO Steve Jobs were absent, the Northern California studio was represented by more than a dozen animators. Unlike industry insiders who express fears that computer animation is driving out the traditional form epitomized by Disney, Pixar animators insist that the medium is less important than the message.

Joe Ranft, who shared the Annie for storyboarding with Dan Jeup, said that a compelling story is the backbone of any animated feature, whether it is computer generated or drawn by hand.

“John Lasseter always says: ‘Story comes first,’ ” Ranft said. “I think it’s the most important thing.”

Hosted by Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, who won past Annies for their work as the voices of TV’s “Pinky and the Brain,” the evening started with jokes about the uncertain outcome of the 2000 presidential election.

Paulsen said he was happy ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles chapter of the the international animation society that sponsors the Annies, has no Florida branch. “If we announce you as the winner tonight, you get to remain the winner,” Paulsen said.

Because animation is a collaborative medium, long lists of thank-yous were the norm. Disney’s Ted C. Kiersey, who won for outstanding individual achievement in effects animation, thanked studio executive Roy Disney Jr. for opting for quality despite a tight deadline. Disney had urged Kiersey to take a second stab at animating the firebird sequence in “Fantasia/2000,” the updated version of Disney’s 1940 classic combining images and classical music.

Eric Goldberg took home the Annie for outstanding achievement for character animation for his work on “Fantasia/2000.” Goldberg was responsible for the sequence in which a flamingo wielding a yo-yo becomes a symbol of individualism in a conformist world.

Goldberg said he relished the challenge of animating a character who had no dialogue and couldn’t benefit from the skills that voice actors bring to the table.

“What’s nice about the ‘Fantasia’ format is you can do it in pantomime and that is pure animation,” Goldberg said. “It’s sort of animation naked, center stage.”

Both Goldberg and his wife, Susan McKinsey Goldberg, wept when she also won for her design of the “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Carnival of the Animals” sequences in “Fantasia/2000.”