ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000

The 2000 British Animation Awards

by Andrew Osmond

On March 9th, the third bi-annual British Animation Awards ceremony was held at the National Film Theatre on London's South Bank. Actually the name, if you read the publicity, was more like 'Baaaaa!' Inspired by the BAA acronym, the event had a definite 'sheep' -- but definitely not sheepish -- feel to it. Shaun, hero of A Close Shave, would have felt quite at home. Not only was there a very funny title sequence from the Moving Picture Company, a BAA sponsor, about some close encounters between sheep and a scarecrow, but each of the seventeen awards depicted a sheep as drawn by artists from Simon Pummell to Steve Bell. Who said only shepherds can tell the difference?

The event began with a short guest speech by Janet Anderson, Minister of Film and Broadcasting, who assured the packed professionals that animation was a valued part of the UK film industry. After that, the floor was left to comedian Jeremy Hardy, whose hugely entertaining presentation never faltered -- even if his topical routine had little to do with animation. He came into his own when a breakdown during the children's awards obliged him to fill in for several minutes (with material, which would definitely rate an '18'). The other technical problem, sadly unsolved, was the appearance of a thin stripe down one side of the projection. However, this did not spoil the enthusiasm for the films on show.

Richard Golszowski receiving one of his trio of awards for the very popular Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of Fire. All photos courtesy of BAA.

The Winners
Undoubtedly, the hit of the evening was Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of Fire, which scored a triple win of Best TV Special, Children's Choice and Best Scenario. It was directed by Richard Goleszowski, known for his Aardman work on the 1987 Barefootin' promo and the Rex the Runt TV series over Christmas '98. (Rex was another Best Scenario finalist.) A lazy-but-nice character trying to get on Santa's sleigh team, Robbie made his UK debut this past Yuletide. The half-hour stop-motion film was produced by Bristol's BBC Animation Unit for BBC Worldwide, in association with the charity Comic Relief. The narrator was the similarly named pop star Robbie Williams. Voice-talents included Jane Horrocks, Harry Enfield, Steve Coogan, Ricky Tomlinson and Jean Alexander. Ardol O'Hanlon from the popular British sitcom Father Ted played Robbie.

One of Robbie's writers was Richard Curtis, co-founder of Comic Relief, creator of Mr. Bean and writer of the films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, both starring Hugh Grant. Curtis told the listings magazine Radio Times, "[Because of my two young children] I spend my entire life watching Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. It seemed to me as a new dad that animation was a gorgeous form to work in. We wanted big effects; snowstorms and people being frozen and big races at the end, just like Chariots of Fire."
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