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I'll be the first to admit that, sometimes, Disney does cool stuff. Unfortunately, as in the case of the yet released Glago's Guest, this 'cool stuff' is usually in the form of shorts not features. Okay, so I thought that Wall-e was visually striking and a fascinating (if slightly standard) scifi parable, but there's something even more interesting about this tale of an aging Russian soldier, alone in the Siberian wasteland, coming face to face with the inexplicable. Very Quiet Earth indeed.

Glago’s Guest follows the intriguing and thought-provoking story of a lonely Russian soldier stationed in a remote Siberian outpost. When the soldier’s solitude is interrupted one day by the arrival of a strange new “guest,” Glago is jolted out of his uneventful daily routine but soon comes to realize that things aren’t always what they appear to be.

Glago's Guest was directed by relative newcomer...

Photo: DreamWorks Animation Wall-e is the certain frontrunner to win the Oscar Best Animated Feature at the 2009 Oscars as it competes with DreamWorks's Kung Fu Panda and Disney's Bolt for the award, but on Friday night at the 36th annual Annie Awards Wall-e's name was nowhere to be found when looking at the winner's circle. Instead Kung Fu Panda took home eleven Annie Awards including Best Animated Feature and all the way down to Best Animated Video Game. Outside of that, it's DVD counterpart Secrets of the Furious Five won four more Annie's for DreamWorks Animation. I would love to tell you there is more to the story, but it was an absolute domination. I don't think this changes anything in terms of the Oscar race as Wall-e remains the likely winner, but it certainly adds a little more flavor to a rather weird award season. The winners are featured...

Photo: DreamWorks Animation The International Animated Film Society announced the nominees for the 2008 Annie Awards and Kung Fu Panda is leading the way with 17 nominations followed by Disney's Bolt with 9 and the Disney/Pixar feature Wall-e earning 8. Panda picked up a healthy amount of noms in categories such as Character Animation, Character Design, Music, Production Design, Storyboarding, Voice Acting and Writing. In each of those categories it was either nominated while Bolt and Wall-e were not or secured multiple nominations giving it the outright nomination lead by 8. Could this be a sign of a Panda-over-wall-e Oscar upset? The nominees are listed below and you can check out the official award site here. Best Animated Feature Bolt (Walt Disney Animation Studios) Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation) $9.99 (Sherman Pictures/Lama Films) Wall-e (Pixar Animation Studios) Waltz With Bashir (Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D'ici, Razor Films) Best Animated Home Entertainment...

DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" fought off stiff competition to earn 16 nominations -- the most for a feature -- for the International Animated Film Society's 36th Annual Annie Awards.

That includes a nomination for best-animated feature, a category that includes Pixar Animation Studios "Wall-e"-considered the frontrunner for the Oscar-which earned seven nominations. "Panda" and "Wall-e" also earned one additional nomination each in the best video game competition.

The top category is rounded out by nominations for Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Bolt," a 3-D release that earned five nominations; Sony Pictures Classics' "Waltz With Bashir," Israel's award-winning documentary, which took four nominations; and Sherman Pictures/Lama Films "$9.99," a stop-motion title that earned two nominations.

Blue Sky Studios' "Dr. Suess' Horton Hear as Who," a Fox release, also had a strong showing with five nominations.

All of these features are short listed by AMPAS for this season's animated feature competition.

Dwa earned a total of 27 nominations.