Animal Actors Earn Acting Awards

The American Humane Association has just revealed the winners of the 2012 PAWSCAR(TM) Awards honoring the performances by animal actors in 2011 films. The animal equivalent of the Oscars doesn’t offer Best Actor or Supporting Actor awards but instead recognizes standouts in unique categories such as Best Inspirational “Tail” and Best Animal Speaking Role Ever. The AHA also announced voting will be open February 10-19, 2012 for the first annual Animal Planet People’s Choice Award. Cast your vote at www.animalplanet.com/pawscars.
 
Here’s the full list of winners:
 
Best Scene Stealer
 
Uggie, the adorable Jack Russell in the new silent film, The Artist, can evoke more humor and lightheartedness in silence and in black and white than most dogs can in Technicolor and sound. Not only did Uggie steal the hearts of The Artist‘s audience, he also stole the hearts of his co-stars. Uggie even managed to continue stealing the spotlight when the camera person at the Golden Globes couldn’t take the camera off him during the cast’s acceptance speech as The Artist won Best Film. By the way, in real life Uggie is a shelter rescue and American Humane Association Film & TV Unit estimates that approximately 80 percent of the cats and dogs you see on the large and small screen are rescues and/or adopted from shelters!
 
Best Perception vs. Reality
 
There is no doubt that there are scenes in War Horse that are gut-wrenching and tough to watch, such as the scene where Joey the horse (whose real name is Finder) runs across the battlefield and gets caught in a fence of barbed wire (which was really made of soft rubber). Although this scene appeared incredibly visceral and real, the truth is the American Humane Association was on set to make sure that all of our strict and comprehensive Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were in place. The scene is a perfect example of the audience perceiving Joey in in danger while the reality is that No Animals Were Harmed and Finder did an amazing acting job.
 
Best Dressed
 
American Humane Association Certified Animal Safety Representatives(TM) are extremely knowledgeable about all species of animals – including, of course, the well-known Pygoscelis Papua. Okay, that means Gentoo Penguin. Besides being darn cute and gliding on ice like skaters, one thing we can all agree on about the penguins in Mr. Popper’s Penguins is that they’re darn snappy dressers. They even out-dressed their co-star Jim Carrey at the Hollywood premiere of the film when they waddled down the red carpet in their naturally tailored tuxedos. And man, as Jim Carrey would say, “They were smokin’!”
 
Best Inspirational “Tail”
 
When the true story of Winter the dolphin with her prosthetic tail was made into an inspirational film called Dolphin Tale, the whole world took notice. It’s incredible that Winter was able to beat the odds that were stacked against her and live a wonderful life with her new tail. And now she lives that life, encouraging people of all ages and walks of life, including children with disabilities and returning veterans with severe injuries, to find hope within themselves. Winter beautifully illustrates what the human-animal bond is all about.
 
Best Use of Technology
 
In Jack And Jill a cockatoo named Poopsie finds himself in a chocolate fountain, sipping a Jack Daniels and flying against a gale-force wind. Now if co-stars Adam Sandler and Robert De Niro want a glass of whiskey or take a swim in chocolate, that’s up to them, but green screens, computer-generated imaging and a fake bird filled in for the real Poopsie in those situations. American Humane Association can safely say that Poopsie was the most entertaining bird of 2011.
 
Best Ensemble Cast
 
We scoured the world to find a movie that could win this particular category and oh man, it was tough, but we finally settled on Cameron Crowe’s holiday family film, We Bought a Zoo. The animal actors in this film include otters, peacocks, a bear, a lion, tigers, a capuchin, snakes, bees, porcupines, an iguana and a binturong. That’s right, a binturong (aka a bearcat). Oh, and we almost forgot! A cute beagle named Leon.
 
Best Animal Speaking Role Ever
 
You know the human-animal bond is the emotional epicenter of the film when the dog’s barks are scrawled out in subtitles. Cosmo, the canine companion to Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer in the wonderful film, Beginners, runs the gamut of emotions, from fear to sadness, elation to redemption. You’ll be surprised how much emotion Cosmo brings out of his co-stars, which is probably why Christopher Plummer thanked Cosmo (who was also rescued from a shelter before becoming a star) in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards. And Ewan fell so hard for Cosmo that immediately after wrapping the movie, he adopted a dog of his own.
 
Best Doppelganger
 
When the legendary Four Musketeers proclaimed, “All four one and one four all” they could’ve been talking about the four four-legged pooches from the Science Fiction film, I Am Number Four. You would never know by watching the film but four dogs were used to portray one dog. Sometimes animal trainers use multiple look-alike animals to play one character for a variety of reasons, whether it’s to make sure that each animal gets enough rest or when they need different characteristics that one animal may exhibit more than another. Maybe that’s secretly why they named it I Am Number Four?
 
Source: American Humane Association – February 9, 2012
 
—Posted by Rebecca Murray