Barbie as Island Princess Rakes in the Awards at the 2007 Elans

Friday, February 15, marked the second annual Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, or Elans for short. This year's ceremony was hosted by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane (who also won for “Best International Animated Television Production"...for Family Guy), and -- according to the press release -- attracted studio reps and producers around the world. Like last year's inaugural ceremony (hosted by William Shatner), the event was held in Vancouver, my current home town as well as that of a large number of videogame production and design studios. You can read more about the awards, event, winners, on the Elans website. And here is the full list of winners in the Animation categories:

1. BEST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION
Barbie as the Island Princess, Rainmaker Animation: Jennifer Twiner Mccarron

2. THE SEVEN GROUP AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)
Edgar & Ellen, Bardel Entertainment: Delna Bhesania, Barry Ward, Trish Lindsay, Barbara Ferro

3. BEST ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT
Yellow Sticky Notes, Jeff Chiba Stearns

4. BEST DIRECTION in a FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION
Barbie as the Island Princess, Rainmaker Animation: Greg Richardson

5. BEST DIRECTION in an ANIMATED TELEVISION SERIES
Ruby Gloom: Venus de Gloomsville, Nelvana LTD: Robin Budd

6. BEST MALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Lee Tockar, George of the Jungle, Studio B

7. BEST FEMALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Marÿke Hendrikse, Johnny Test, Cookie Jar Entertainment

8. BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE
Bruno and the Banana Bunch, Cuppa Coffee Studios: Adam Goddard

9. BEST STORYBOARDING
George of the Jungle: Naked Ape Man, Studio B: Dennis Crawford and Lyn Hart

10. BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN OR ART DIRECTION
Edgar & Ellen: Crushed, Bardel Entertainment: Greg Huculak and Zoe Evamy

11. BEST WRITING IN AN ANIMATED PRODUCTION
Storm Hawks, Nerd Corps Entertainment: Rob Hoegee

12. THE ELECTRONIC ART’S AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)
Family Guy, Fuzzy Door Productions: Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith

13.THE INAUGURAL AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Feature)
Bee Movie, Dreamworks Animation SKG

14. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN ANIMATION
Kai Pindal

Not a Persepolis or a Peter and the Wolf in sight! Shocking! Instead, big awards for Barbie as the Island Princess! Also Shocking! As far as feature films go, it seems that the winners in these categories were picked more for revenue generation than quality of animation..that, said, however, I've only ever seen clips of the Barbie film in question, so I shouldn't really judge it prematurely I suppose. Still...

However, I am really happy to see Edgar & Ellen and Ruby Gloom get some recognition, as both shows are pretty awesome and deserve some props for their (respective) original styles, themes and content.

The winners in the electronic game categories are much more predictable:

1. THE AUTODESK GAME OF THE YEAR
Mass Effect, Bioware/Microsoft Games BioWare

2. BEST CONSOLE GAME
Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Development Team

3. BEST PC GAME
Company of Heroes, Relic Entertainment: Ian Thomson

4. BEST NEW VIDEO GAME COMPANY
Tie between Blue Castle Games/Rob Barrett for The Bigs
Slant Six Games/Brian Thalken for Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Tactical Strike

5. BEST SOUND DESIGN IN VIDEO GAMING
Skate Electronic Arts, Audio Director: Lance Brown; Sound Designers: Francois Lafleur, Bryan Rennie, Sean Webster, Terry Fairfield

6. BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE IN VIDEO GAMING
Assasins Creed Ubisoft Jesper Kyd

7. BEST CHARACTER IN VIDEO GAMING
Commander Shepard (Mass Effect), BioWare/Microsoft Games: Drew Karpyshyn

8. BEST ART DIRECTION IN VIDEO GAMING
Mass Effect, BioWare/Microsoft Games: Derek Watts

9. BEST HANDHELD GAME OF THE YEAR (psp, ds, etc...)
Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Tactical Strike, Slant Six Games: Brian Thalken

10. BEST GAME DESIGN OF THE YEAR
Mass Effect, BioWare/Microsoft Games: Preston Watamaniuk

11. BEST MOBILE/CASUAL/ARCADE GAME OF THE YEAR
Skate, Electronic Arts: David Manriquez

12. BEST WRITING FOR A GAME PRODUCTION
Mass Effect, BioWare/ Microsoft Games: Drew Karpyshyn

13. THE NOKIA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING INNOVATION IN GAMING
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Relic Entertainment: Josh Mosqueira

14. THE ERNST & YOUNG AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL VIDEO GAME OF THE YEAR
Crysis Crytek/Electronic Arts USA Cevat Yerli CEO, Crytek

15. VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME
Don Mattrick

Very war-themed line-up...I was pretty surprised that Bioshock didn't get a single nod, or any of the Mario games, but I suspect that this event is slanted towards a very specific crowd and purpose within these overlapping industries. Puzzling indeed. And now I'm going to have to go out and rent Barbie as the Island Princess to see what all the fuss is about - *sigh*.