Ratatouille leads animation field

LOS ANGELES (AP) - December 3, 2007

"Ratatouille," from Disney and Pixar Animation, was joined in the best animated feature category by DreamWorks' insect story "Bee Movie," Sony Pictures' penguin romp "Surf's Up," Sony Pictures Classics' coming-of-age chronicle "Persepolis" and 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie," a big-screen take on the TV cartoon hit.

Presented by the International Animated Film Society, Annie Award winners in 25 film and TV categories will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 8.

Three of the five voice-acting nominations for film went to "Ratatouille." Oswalt provides the voice of a gourmet rat who gets a chance to cook in a fine French restaurant, Garofalo plays a cook there and Holm does vocals for a scheming head chef.

The other voice-acting nominations went to Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge Simpson in "The Simpsons Movie," and Patrick Warburton, who provides vocals for Renee Zellweger's lunkhead boyfriend in "Bee Movie."

Among other nominations for "Ratatouille" were best director for Brad Bird, who also earned a writing nomination for the film. Bird's superhero saga "The Incredibles," also from Disney and Pixar, won the 2004 Academy Award and Annie for best animated feature.

The best-picture winner at the Annie Awards has gone on to win the Academy Award for animated feature every year but one since the Oscars added the category in 2001. Last year's Annie winner, the Disney-Pixar auto-racing comedy "Cars," lost at the Oscars to the penguin musical "Happy Feet."

Other directing nominees: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck for "Surf's Up," Chris Miller and Raman Hui for "Shrek the Third," Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi for "Persepolis" and David Silverman for "The Simpsons Movie."

DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third," the year's top-grossing animated flick, was snubbed for a best-feature nomination. The blockbuster franchise's first installment, "Shrek," won the 2001 Annie for best feature, while 2004's "Shrek 2" was nominated.

"Shrek" co-star Eddie Murphy earned a TV voice-acting nomination for the holiday special "Shrek the Halls," in which he reprises his character Donkey, the gabby sidekick of ogre Shrek.