For kicks, I actually watched the show on live stream, and Oh. My. Lord. What an unmitigated train-wreck. Host Patton Oswalt was clearly having much more fun than anyone else in the room (he did confess to being "so high right now" at one point, but we'll never know if that was just his tongue in his cheek, or a concealed bag of weed). To be fair, he does seem unshakably at home on the stage, and with a bit more structure, I think he'd make a killer awards show host.
Structure, however, was in short supply at this affair. Bill Nighy was announced winner of the award for voice acting, only to walk out of the hall and never return! Tweets abound that he was in the bathroom at the time. True or not, he certainly wasn't in the room, leaving presenters Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall clumsily killing time while everyone waited. They eventually moved on, as Nighy made no appearance. Funnier still, the award was for Arthur Christmas, but they played the theme music from the PBS children's cartoon series Arthur.
I thought things couldn't possibly get more awkward than that, but the next presenter proceeded to read the winner for Best Preschool TV Program from the wrong envelope! This led to a confusing delay that was both hilarious and excruciating, while Patton himself marched out on stage to sort things out. Co-presenter Jason Marsden, meanwhile, delighted in photographing the awkward situation with his iPhone.
These are only the highlights from a shoddily put together evening. The whole thing kinda makes me appreciate the oft-maligned Oscars a little more. I may have high-standard complaints about the show every year, but at least it's done professionally.
Anyway, full list of feature film winners after the cut.
Storyboarding: Winnie the Pooh - Jeremy Spears
Editing: Rango - Craig Wood Shoulda been Tintin
Character Design: Rango - Mark "Crash" McCreery Couldn't have picked a better winner
Members' favourite: Rango
Music: Tintin - John Williams Awwww yeah!!!
Animated Effects (Live Action Production): Transformers - Florent Andarra
Animated Effects (Animated Production): Tintin - Kevin Romond Love this!
Character Animation (Live Action Production): Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Eric Reynolds
Character Animation (Animated Production): Rio - Jeff Gabor
Production Design: Kung Fu Panda 2 - Raymond Zilbach Awesome!
Writing: Rango - John Logan, Gore Verbinski, James Byrkit
Animated Short: Adam and Dog - Minkyu Lee
Voice Acting: Arthur Christmas - Bill Nighy He did give the best vocal performance of the year, but in Rango!
Director: Kung Fu Panda 2 - Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Picture: Rango
