The Clone Wars gets 2 Annie nominations

The Clone Wars Season Five

While we are eagerly awaiting news of how the bonus content for The Clone Wars will take shape, the show picked up nominations for the 41st Annie Awards, given out for the best in animation. Announced by ASIFA-Hollywood, nominations for The Clone Wars included two individual achievement categories: Keith Kellogg for Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production and Jason W.A. Tucker for Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production. The nominations were released today, and the award winners will be announced in February.

Our frequent interviewee Michael Price, writer of the LEGO Star Wars specials earned a nomination for Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production for his work on The Simpsons. Juried awards have already been announced, including the Winsor McCay Awards to Steven Spielberg and Phil Tippett.

ILM also continued its streak of Annie award nominations, with four nominations, three of them in a single category of Animated Effects in a Live Action Production (two different teams for Star Trek Into Darkness and one for Pacific Rim). Another Pacific Rim ILM team got a nomination for Character Animation in a Live Action Production.

Rumor: A new Buffy animated series?

TV Overmind is reporting that a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series is in the works, based on the “Season 8” comic books:

What is certain is that because they’re using the comic books as their starting point, all our favorite characters will be returning and this animated series will compliment the original series. Whether any of the original cast will provide voices is uncertain (though I’m doubtful). But Joss Whedon is involved.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of a Buffy animated series, of course: Fox was developing one in 2002, but it never went furthur than a 4-minute “pilot.” Will this new attempt will ever get beyond the rumor stage? We’ll just have to wait and see.

3 Annies for Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II won Annie Awards for Best Animated Television Production, Writing, and Voice Acting for Ahmed Best’s Jar-Jar. But perhaps the biggest shock was the total shut-out of WALL-E – it was beat in nearly every category it was nominated for by Kung Fu Panda. Seriously. Kung Fu Panda. The hell?

Other winners include Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Kevin Kiner was up for Music in an Animated Television Production for the ‘Rising Malevolence’ episode of The Clone Wars, but lost out to Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell for Secrets of the Furious Five, a Kung Fu Panda spinoff.