'Cars' wins the Annie race

GLENDALE, Calif. — A cocky race car that learns the wisdom of slowing down won the race for best animated feature Sunday at the 34th annual Annie Awards, honoring achievements in feature film and television animation.

"Cars," from The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios, defeated a crowd of contenders that included "Happy Feet" from Warner Bros., "Over the Hedge," from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., "Monster House" from Sony Pictures, a division of Sony Corp., and "Open Season," also from Sony Pictures.

The Annie Awards are presented by The International Animated Film Society. The winner has gone on to claim the Oscar for animated feature every year since the Academy Award for animation was created.

Three films are contending for the animated feature Oscar to be presented Feb. 25, including "Cars," "Monster House" and "Happy Feet."

"Cars" takes place in a world populated by talking autos and tells the story of Lightning McQueen, an overconfident contender on the NASCAR circuit who gets sidetracked in Radiator Springs, an aging town on old Route 66 that was bypassed by an interstate highway.

While there, McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, encounters a ragtag bunch including Mater, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, and Doc, voiced by Paul Newman.

Unlike in previous years, no one film dominated this year's Annie Awards.

"Cars" director John Lasseter praised the filmmakers who released more than a dozen animated films in 2006.

"What a year we've had in animation," he said.

SpongeBob Squarepants voice Tom Kenny, who hosted the awards, joked with the sold-out crowd about the fact that the biggest night for animators was held at the same time as two other high profile awards shows: the Grammys and the Writers Guild Awards.

"The fact that you're here means one thing. You didn't have the juice to get into the Grammys," Kenny said.

The award for best directing in a feature went to Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick for "Over the Hedge," based on the popular comic strip. The movie featured the voice talents of Bruce Willis, Wanda Sykes and Steve Carell.

Best writing honors went to a team of five people behind "Flushed Away," which was co-produced by the British company Aardman Features.

The film was the first computer-animated feature from Aardman, which won last year's Annie with its stop-action claymation film "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit."