THE 42nd ANNUAL ANNIE AWARDS

Animation award shows can be dangerous.

That's why it's best for hyper-important

visiting dignitaries to turn up well protected to

ASIFA HOLLYWOOD's

ANNIE AWARDS.

Case in point,

ASIFA-EAST Co-President

Linda Chittick Beck

who flew in from NYC

for the festivities and 

surrounded herself with a

six foot two,

large foreheaded lunk

 to throw off the targeting of would-be

snipers and assassins.

Namely,

ME:

It was a great crowd this year;

smartly dressed

and happy to be out for an evening

of recognizing the best in animation.

It started with a champagne reception

on a beautiful LA Winter night

(sorry cold weather peeps)

Huge props go out to 

ASIFA HOLLYWOOD

president

Jerry Beck and company

for overhauling the awards to make them

classier

funnier

and

(thankfully)

FASTER

than ever before!

Disney TVA

KILLED 

it this year by

winning

9 of it's 10

nominations

including

GRAVITY FALLS

winner of best 

TV Production for Children

TVA's

MICKEY SHORTS

rocked it

with a 

ton of awards

including

sooper pals

Darrick Bachman

(writer)

and

Illya Owens

(editor)

pulling honors.

Executive Producer

Paul Rudish

(middle)

has truly made something remarkable

with these films and 

voters everywhere are saying so.

In features,

Dreamworks's

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

rightfully 

dominated the proceedings but

the crowd went wild 

(also rightfully)

for

Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua

winning Best Character Design

for

THE BOOK OF LIFE

The party afterwards was a blur of

food

fun

and

friends,

both old and new.

I wish I had snagged more pics

(i've stolen a bunch of the above off assorted social media)

(sorry) 

but here's a great one of 

comrades in cartoons

Titmouse's

Chris P

Antonio Cannobio,

the aforementioned,

Jorge Gutierrez

and

producer

John Andrews

And how happy was I to catch up with

Number Four

(aka Dee Bradley Baker)?

Yeah.

It was a 

GREAT

year at the Annies!

Especially since no visiting

dignitaries

got murdered on my watch.