'Rango' wins the Annie Award for animated feature

"Rango," the Oscar-nominated box-office hit about a pet chameleon who becomes sheriff of a small western town, won the Annie Award for animated feature from the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, on Saturday.

The film, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Johnny Depp as the voice of Rango, also won Annie Awards for character design for Mark "Crash" McCreery, writing for John Logan, Verbinski and James Byrkit, and editing for Craig Wood.

"Rango," which is nominated for the Academy Award for animated feature, topped a field that included "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss in Boots," "Cars 2," "Rio" and "The Adventures of Tintin."

The 39th annual Annie Awards were handed out at a ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Patton Oswalt, who most recently appeared in "Young Adult" and was the voice of Remy in the Oscar-winning 2007 animated movie "Ratatouille," was the host of the event.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson won for directing in a feature production for "Kung Fu Panda 2," which also earned an Annie for production design for Raymond Zilbach. Steven Spielberg’s "Tintin" won Annies for music for veteran composer John Williams and animated effects for Kevin Romond.

Jeremy Spears won an Annie for feature storyboarding for "Winnie the Pooh," while Jeff Gabor took home the Annie for feature character animation for "Rio." Bill Nighy won for voice acting for his role as Grandsanta in "Arthur Christmas." Animated short honors went to Minkyu Lee for "Adam and Dog."

The group also honored animation work in live-action productions. Eric Reynolds received the award for character animation in a live-action production for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," and Florent Andorra earned an Annie for animated effects in a live-action production for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

Besides feature films, Annies are also presented for TV, video games and commercials.

On the TV front, "Kung Fu Panda -- Secrets of the Masters" won the Annie for animated special production, while "The Simpsons" won the award for general audience animated TV production, as well as writing for the "Treehouse of Horror XXII" episode for Caroline Omine.

Following is a list of the rest of the winners.

'Tintin,' 'Puss in Boots,' 'Cars 2' among nominees for top Annie Award

"Cars 2," "Puss in Boots" and "The Adventures of Tintin" are among the 10 films that will compete for the best feature prize at the 39th Annie Awards, the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced Monday. The other contenders are "A Cat in Paris," "Arthur Christmas," "Arrugas," "Chico & Rita," "Kung Fu Panda 2," Rango" and "Rio."

ASIFA-Hollywood announced nominations in 28 categories in film, TV, video games and commercials Monday morning for the Annie Awards.

Vying for best animated short subject are "Adam and Dog," "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat," "La Luna," "(Notes on) Biology," "Paths of Hate," "Sunday," "The Ballad of Nessie," "The Girl and the Fox" and "Wild Life."

Nominees for best general audience TV production are "Archer," "Green Lantern: The Animated Series,"' "Hoops & YoYo Ruin Christmas," "MAD," "Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and Fox's long-running series "The Simpsons."

Nominated for feature director are Carlos Saldahna for "Rio," Chris Miller for "Puss in Boots," Don Hall and Stephen Anderson for "Winnie the Pooh," Gore Verbinski for "Rango," Jennifer Yuh Nelson for "Kung Fu Panda 2" and Kelly Asbury for "Gnomeo & Juliet."

Ashley Jensen as Bryony for "Arthur Christmas" and Bill Nighy as Grandsanta for "Arthur Christmas" were both nominated for voice acting in a feature production. They will compete against Gary Oldman as Shen in "Kung Fu Panda 2," James Hong as Mr. Ping for "Kung Fu Panda 2," Jemaine Clement as Nigel in 'Rio," Jim Cummings as Featherstone in "Gnomeo and Juliet" and Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Dumpty in "Puss in Boots."

Nominated for music in a feature production are Henry Jackman for "Puss in Boots," John Williams for "Tintin," Mikael Multi, Siedah Garrett, Carlinhos Brown, Sergio Mendes and John Powell for "Rio," and Zooey Deschanel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Jackman and Robert Lopez for "Winnie the Pooh."

The awards will be handed out Feb. 4 at UCLA's Royce Hall.

For a complete list of nominees go to www.annieawards.org

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-- Susan King

Image: "The Adventures of Tintin." Credit: Paramount