Golden Globes 2013: Animation nominees

“Hotel Transylvania” director Genndy Tartakovsky was watching TV when the Golden Globes nominations were announced Thursday morning and didn’t hear his movie -- or any other animated titles -- named.

Instead, Tartakovsky found out by text that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had nominated his film for best animated feature, along with Mark Andrews’s “Brave,” Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie,” Peter Ramsey’s “Rise of the Guardians” and Rich Moore’s “Wreck-It Ralph.”

“Animators, we’re always the last to know,” said Tartakovsky, the sixth director to come aboard the monster comedy, which ended up being a surprise hit for Sony Pictures Animation. “We’ll probably be at the last table, but I don’t care. This is great.”

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Despite the medium’s low profile on awards telecasts, animation has been central to the movie industry this year, representing six of 2012’s 15 highest-grossing titles, and many of its best reviewed films.

Three of the five nominees came from animation’s historic studio home, Disney -- “Brave,” Disney/Pixar’s fantasy film, “Frankenweenie,” Walt Disney Pictures’ stop-motion monster movie, and “Wreck-It Ralph,” Walt Disney Animation Studios’s video adventure.

“Rise of the Guardians,” an adaptation of the “Guardians of Childhood” series of children’s books by William Joyce, is a Dreamworks Animation film.

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“It was a booming year year for animation,” said “Brave’s” Andrews, whose movie has been the No. 1-selling DVD and Blu-ray disc for the last three weeks. “Animation is just kicking live action’s [butt] right now.”

Moore’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” which is set in an arcade, has inspired what he characterized as “casual” conversations about a sequel.

“Those of us that worked on the film, we’ve talked about how great it would be to do it,” Moore said. “But seriously, that’s yet to come.”

As a first-time feature director, he said he’s soaking up his first awards season.

“I’ve seen the Golden Globes on TV,” said Moore, who directed such animated TV shows as “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.” “This’ll be the first time attending. More than anything else, this feels like I’m doing my job, that the hard work, the days, the hours, the months, the years, it feels like it’s all worth it.”

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