Sure the Oscars have come and gone, but a sweet tooth is never irrelevant. Bakerella — a site dedicated to fun and easy baking ideas — has showcased a line of goodies centering around the movie award season. The collection includes tributes to Coraline, The Princess and the Frog and Up.

Click through for full baking instructions.

Coraline Cookies

These bite-size peanut butter buttons are super easy to make and fun to eat. Keep your eyes on them, though. They’ll disappear quickly.

Ribbits & Royalty

Frog cake pops! Cute enough to kiss and sweet to eat.

Upcakes

These upcakes will put a smile on the young and old alike. They use miniature multicolored confetti sprinkles to represent balloons and buttercream frosting for clouds.

Disney/Pixar’s heartfelt tale of adventure proved to be the class of the animated feature film category during last night’s 82nd Annual Academy Awards show. The presenters for Best Animated Feature Film were no strangers to the genre, as Cameron Diaz (voice of Shrek’s Princess Fiona) and Steve Carell (voice of Horton Hears a Who’s Mayor of Whoville) introduced an animated short featuring characters from each nominated film comically discussing the Oscars (see video below).

After running down the list of nominees, Diaz opened the envelope and promptly announced Up as the winner. Director Pete Docter accepted the award — which was his first — and gratefully stated “Boy! Never did I dream that making a flip-book out of my 3rd grade math book would lead to this.”

We would like to congratulate Disney/Pixar on their well-deserved win in a field comprised of some of the best quality animated films to date.

The success did not stop there, however. Michael Giacchino secured another Oscar for Up by winning for Best Original Score.

When the Oscar award nominations were announced the other day, most of us quickly scanned the list to find that the usual animated suspects were in fact represented.  Pixar’s Up (nominated for 5 different Academy Awards including Best Picture), Disney’s nostalgic hand-drawn Princess and the Frog, the visually striking Coraline, the uniquely crafted Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret of Kells were all accounted for.

So, no real surprises here… WAIT A MINUTE!

The Secret of Who??  What’s this?

Like almost all others in the film industry, I had never heard of The Secret of Kells and then I was stuck wondering how a movie that was so under the radar — so…well, secret — could actually be nominated for an Oscar (while potentially bumping a DrawnThatWay favorite in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs). I needed to research this dark horse to find out exactly what would warrant its surprising nomination.

It turns out The Secret of Kells is an Irish film developed and produced by Cartoon Saloon and was released in Ireland, France and Belgium among other countries.

This vibrant animation is a spirited retelling of the provenance of Ireland’s mosted cherished artefact, the Book of Kells. With the Viking hordes approaching, the monks of Kells are forced to turn their attention from transcripbing manuscripts to building barricades. The future of the precious book is in jeopardy and it falls to Brendan, young nephew of the abbot Cellach, to save the day.

Those of us stateside who are not enlightened regarding the “brilliance” of The Secret of Kells will get an opportunity next month as the film has been slated for a March 2010 U.S. release date.  At that point we will be able to review “Kells” and decide on its award-worthiness for ourselves.  Watch the official trailer below to see the animation in action.

Source(s):
The Secret of Kells (Official Site)
Cartoon Saloon
iMDB

On January 18, 1992, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast became the first animated feature to capture a Golden Globe award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.  The highly regarded film topped nominees City Slickers, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Commitments and The Fisher King. That night, Beauty and the Beast also won for Best Original Score (Alan Menken).

Since the breakthrough of Beauty and the Beast, there have been two other animated features which also won for Best Picture — Lion King and Toy Story 2.

Source(s):
This Day in Disney History.com
Golden Globe Awards [Wikipedia]

It has been a very efficient night for the team behind Disney-Pixar’s Up.  The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, as well as Best Original Score in the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards –  and walked away the winner of both categories.  In my opinion, this is one of the best crops of animated big-screen offerings ever, so it was no small task to come away victorious against other highly touted films such as Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, The Princess & The Frog and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for Best Animated Feature.

We’d like to congratulate everyone involved with making Up one of the most critically acclaimed animated films of all-time.  We are certain there will be even more accolades in the near future.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its 2010 award nominees and Disney/Pixar’s Up is nominated for Best Picture (period), while also represented in the Animated Motion Picture category along with 9, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Princess and the Frog.

2009 has probably been the strongest year for animated feature films in terms of quality and the gaining of respect from the movie industry.  The PGA awards — which recognize the best film productions and producers — are often an indicator of which films will succeed at the Oscars.

The PGA Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year film award is a reliable bellwether for the Academy Award for best picture. Last year’s PGA winner, “Slumdog Millionaire,” went on to capture Oscar’s top prize. In fact, 13 PGA winners over the last two decades have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture.

With so many great candidates in the animated category, it’s difficult to say which will come out on top.  Disney Pixar’s Up is gorgeous, hopeful and tugs at your heart strings.  9 goes against most tendencies with animation and ditches the blast of colorful images, instead opting for a dark post-apocalyptic tale — beautiful in its own right.  Coraline is an eery adventure which succeeds with a mixture of macabre and classic fairytale imagery.  Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox nails every single detail in it’s whimsical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book.  The Princess and the Frog breathes life into the stagnant Disney Princess while at the same time honoring its classics with good old fashioned hand-drawn storytelling. Certainly an exciting time for animation fans.

Which movie do you think deserves the PGA award and possibly an Oscar?  Do you think Up has a chance to walk away with “Best Picture?”

The 21st Annual PGA Awards takes place on January 24th at the Hollywood Palladium.

Source(s):
PGA Awards nominate ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Avatar’ for best picture [Gold Derby -- LA Times]

ASIFA has released their list of nominations for its February 6 Annual Annie Awards ceremony to be held in Los Angeles, CA.  Walt Disney Animation Studios leads the way by garnering 17 total nominations.

BURBANK, CA (December 1, 2009) – The International Animated Film
Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced nominations today for its 37th Annual Annie
Awards recognizing the year’s best animated features, television productions,
commercials, short subjects and outstanding individual achievements in the field of
animation. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “The Princess and the Frog” received
eight nominations, including Best Animated Feature and individual nominations for
animated effects, character animation, production design and voice acting, while its
“Prep and Landing” received nine nominations including Best Animated Television
Production and individual nominations for character animation, character design, music,
production design, storyboarding and writing.

DreamWorks Animation received 11 nominations, including Best Animated
Television Production for “Merry Madagascar.” Laika received a total of 10 nominations
including Best Animated Feature “Coraline” and Pixar Animation Studios received a
total of nine nominations including Best Animated Feature “Up.” Completing the list of
Best Animated Features nominated are: “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” Sony
Pictures Animation, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” 20th Century Fox and “The Secret of Kells,”
Cartoon Saloon.

Nickelodeon leads the field in television with 12 nominations, including three
for Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children: “SpongeBob
SquarePants,” “The Mighty B!,” and “The Penguins of Madagascar.” Completing
the nominations in this category are Disney Television’s “Mickey Mouse
Clubhouse” and Cartoon Network Studio’s “The Marvelous Misadventures of
Flapjack.” Nominees for the Best Animated Television Production are “Glenn
Martin, DDS,” Torante, Cuppa Coffee Studios & Rogers Communications, “Merry
Madagascar,” DreamWorks Animation, “Prep and Landing,” ABC Family/Walt
Disney Animation Studios, and “The Simpsons,” Gracie Films.
Winners will be announced at the 37th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Saturday,
February 6, 2010, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA. For a complete listing
of Annie Award nominations and event information, please go to
www.annieawards.org.

Special juried awards honoring career achievement and exceptional
contributions to animation will also be awarded: Winsor McCay award – Tim
Burton, Bruce Timm and Jeffrey Katzenberg for career contributions to the art of
animation; June Foray award – Tom Sito for significant and benevolent or
charitable impact on the art and industry of animation; Ub Iwerks award –
William T. Reeves for the development of particle systems for computer
animation. This system has led to the ability to simulate such effects as fire,
explosions, smoke, moving water, sparks, falling leaves, clouds, fog, snow, dust,
meteor trails, hair, fur, grass and abstract visual effects such as glowing trails
and magic spells; Special Achievement Annie award – Martin Meunier and
Brian McLean for the development and use of the Rapid Prototyping (RP)
process for stop motion animation. Starting with hand crafted sculpts as a guide,
CG artists built the characters in the computer and animate key expressions. The
RP system then builds 3-dimentional objects that are finished by hand and
placed on the stop motion figures; and Certificate of Merit award – Myles
Mikulic, Danny Young, Michael Woodside for their service to the art, craft and
industry of animation.

“I congratulate all of the 2009 Annie Award nominees and award recipients for
their outstanding work,” said ASIFA-Hollywood President Antran Manoogian.
“This has been an unprecedented year for animation and I look forward to an
exciting ceremony in February.”

The Annie Awards’ black-tie ceremony will feature a lively mix of animation
luminaries, celebrity presenters and comedic talent to celebrate this year’s best
of the best. A pre-reception begins at 5:00 pm with the awards ceremony
following 7:00 pm. A post-show celebration immediately follows at UCLA’s
Royce Hall. More than 1,500 entertainment industry insiders are expected to
attend the annual Annie Awards.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the largest of an international network of chapters and
supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership. Current
projects include an animation archive, library and museum, classes and
screenings, and animated film preservation efforts.

The industry’s oldest and most prestigious award, The Annie Award is
considered an important industry benchmark and an annual predictor of the
Academy Award for best animated feature.

Source(s):
The Annie Awards (Official Site) via StitchKingdom