[Warner Bros. Pictures]

Oh hai, bro! Whatup? You here for some moar Weekly News? It’s pretty awesome stuff, bro!

Now don’t worry, I won’t be talking like Pigeon Toady in this entire article. But what I will do here is discuss the latest animation news. I’ll look into the nominations for the 44th Annie Awards, the new trailer for the direct-to-DVD Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania, more unfortunate layoffs at DreamWorks Animation, and a brand new Storks mini-movie.

The 44th Annie Awards nominations announced

Award season is near, which is that time one again to honour the best of cinema. In the case of animation, sure it gets it’s recognition at the Oscars and Golden Globes, but then theres the Annie Awards. The award ceremony that is dedicated to honouring the finest in animation achievement.

[ASIFA-Hollywood]

ASIFA-Hollywood have announced all the nominations across 36 categories for the 44th Annie Awards. With this batch, Disney’s Zootopia earned the most nominations with a total of 11, followed by Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings with 10 nominations. Among those for both is Best Animated Feature, being nominated alongside Pixar’s Finding Dory (3 total noms), DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda 3 (4 total noms), and Disney’s other 2016 outing Moana (6 total noms).

On the indie side, the nominations for the recently-created Best Animated Feature - Independent category are Long Way North (French: Tout en haut du monde), Miss Hokusai (Japanese: 百日紅), My Life as a Zucchini (French: Ma vie de Courgette), The Red Turtle (French: La Tortue Rouge; Japanese: レッドタートル ある島の物語), and Your Name (Japanese: 君の名は。). Of those five films, The Red Turtle earned four additional nominations, followed by My Life as a Zucchini with two more, and Your Name with one extra.

In the three television production categories (sorted by age demographic), there have been single episodes from many different animated TV series that were nominated. Some of the noteworthy ones include Puffin Rock (Episode: The First Snow), Adventure Time (Episode: Bad Jubies), Wander Over Yonder (Episode: My Fair Hatey), Bob’s Burgers (Episode: Glued, Where's My Bob?), and The Simpsons (Episode: Barthood).

Of course, theres too many nominations for me to list here. So I’ll link you with this Cartoon Brew article for the complete list of nominations, which includes the Individual Achievements nominations and the Juried Awards (past Annie voting controversies are discussed there too). We’ll find out who will win the many categories when the ceremony will take place on February 4, 2017.

Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania - Payoff Trailer

Back in the late-2000s, Sony Pictures Animation was relatively new to the animation scene with their first two movies Open Season, and Surf’s Up. The latter, a 2007 documentary-style feature that looks into surfing penguins, was met with critical praise, and was nominated the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (losing the Pixar’s Ratatouille).

Now, would you believe there exists a sequel with professional WWE wrestlers!? What kind of madness is this!?

Now that you’ve witnessed the new trailer and you’re still scratching your head, here’s the story of Surf's Up 2: WaveMania:

WWE Studios have teamed up with Sony Pictures Animation to produce a direct-to-DVD sequel that stars some of their most-famous wrestlers as surfing animals. This includes John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, Paige, and Mr. McMahon, all formed up as The Hang 5. Cody Maverick, Chicken Joe, and Lani Aliikai return to join The Hang 5 in search for the mysterious Trenches surf spot, where it’s believed to host the biggest waves in the world.

This is not the first time WWE Studios has been involved in animated crossovers. They have recently worked with Warner Bros. Animation making direct-to-DVD crossovers on Hanna-Barbera properties. These being Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, it’s sequel Curse of the Speed Demon, and The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.

The sequel is the directorial debut of storyboard artist Henry Yu, who has worked on Genndy Tartakovsky projects like Sym-Bionic Titan and both Hotel Transylvania films. Just like with Open Season: Scared Silly, the animation on Surf’s Up 2 has been outsourced to Rainmaker Entertainment rather than done in-house. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the sequel on DVD and Digital on January 17, 2017.

As someone who really likes the original movie, hearing about a sequel nearly 10 years after the release came as a complete shock, especially with the addition of WWE wrestlers. And with the trailer, it has left me rather underwhelmed. Sure the character animation looks fine for a low-budget sequel, but the big problem is that it lacks the documentary magic from the original. This is evident with the more-juvenile tone, and static and linear camera movements which make the cinematography uninteresting.

The old characters appear to have a fraction of their depth in the sequel, making them more one-dimensional. While this MovieWeb article does state that Jon Heder will return as Chicken Joe, which is a nice touch, you can defiantly tell that whoever voiced Cody in this one ain’t no Shia LaBeouf. Maybe WWE fans will get a kick out of seeing their favourite wrestlers as surfing animals, but this sequel just doesn’t seem to hold the candle to the original.

170 more layoffs at DreamWorks Animation

Things are not getting much better at DreamWorks Animation. Two months ago, 200 jobs were eliminated from the distribution and consumer products operations as the studio got integrated into new owner NBCUniversal. Now there’s going to be even more employees affected with a second round of layoffs.

[DreamWorks Animation]

It has been reported by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal that 170 more employees will be laid off in January. This time, it involves those on the animation and production side at the Glendale campus. The reason for the staff cuts was said to be related to the cancellation of The Croods 2.

A source told the publication that “This is separate from the positions eliminated earlier in the year in corporate functional areas”.

I feel that the more I hear about this kind of news, the more concerned I feel towards DreamWorks. I was hoping at the very least that the $3.8 billion buyout by Comcast would help save the troubled studio. But with these recent layoffs, it is unfortunate for the affected staff since they now have to look for another studio to get employed.

Are these layoffs going to benefit or damage the studio? Will their future films be affected by it? We don’t know what will happen at this point, but hopefully the consequences won’t be that severe. I hope for the best for those staff who have been dismissed.

• Source: San Fernando Valley Business Journal

Storks Mini-Movie: Pigeon Toady’s Guide to Your New Baby

Well there isn’t much more animation news to report this week. But to compensate for the fourth story, I’ve decided to share a new mini-movie. This one involves the new Warner Bros. animated feature Storks, which I have to admit I really like. It’s a flawed, but fun movie with fun characters and great laughs.

The offical YouTube Movies channel has exclusively posted the Storks mini-movie titled Pigeon Toady’s Guide to Your New Baby. And well, the title says it all. Pigeon Toady hosts the short providing tips on taking care of a new baby, with the help of Junior, Tulip, and the wolf pack. And considering Toady’s size and obliviousness, he probably isn’t the best at it. xD

Give it a watch if you desire two minutes of cartoony fun.

And thats all I have for this week. All comments are very much appreciated, and I’ll be back next Sunday with more news. Catch ya later, bro!

• - Karlamon