John Lasseter and Joe Ranft's Cars (above, top photo), set in the back roads of the United States, and Flushed Away (above, lower photo), the story of an upscale rat who gets flushed down into the sewers of London, received the most nominations — nine in all — for the International Animated Film Society's 2007 Annie Awards, announced Monday, Dec. 4.
Cars received a best animated feature nod, though Flushed Away was strangely absent from that category in spite of nominations for directors David Bowers and Sam Fell, and for screenwriter Will Davies.
George Miller's Australia-U.S. co-production and box-office hit Happy Feet, about a genetically impaired penguin that tap dances, received two nods: best animated feature and writing in an animated feature production (director Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris, and Warren Coleman).
This year, DreamWorks Animation garnered the most nominations — 17 nods for two features: Flushed Away, a co-production with the British-based Aardman Animation, and Over the Hedge, an animated version of a popular comic strip.
It should be noted that the winner of the Annie Awards has gone on to win the Academy Award for best animated film every year since the Academy instituted the yearly award in 2001.
The winners of the 2007 Annie Awards will be announced at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Feb. 11, 2007.