The 2016 Ursa Major Award winners
The 2016 Ursa Major Awards have been announced on Friday afternoon, June 30th at the Anthrocon convention in Pittsburgh. The Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic fiction of the past calendar year, are presented in twelve categories by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), and are voted upon by the public on the Ursa Major Awards website.
There were 1,446 votes this year, most from the U.S. but some from throughout the rest of the world. Below are listed the winners and nominees of the 2016 Ursa Major Awards. All runner-ups are in descending order of votes tallied.
Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
Winner
Zootopia (Directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush; February 11)
Runners-Up
Finding Dory (Directed by Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane; June 17)
Sing (Directed by Garth Jennings and Christophe Lourdelet; December 21)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni; January 29)
The Secret Life of Pets (Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney; July 8)
Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series
Winner
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by James Thiessen, Jim Miller, Tim Stuby, and Denny Lu; Season 6 episodes 1 to 143 [TV])
Runners-Up
The Lion Guard (Directed by Howy Parkins; Season 1 episodes 1 to 22 [TV])
Bunnicula (Directed by Jessica Borutski, Maxwell Atoms, Robert F. Hughes, Matthew Whitlock, and Ian Wasseluk; Season 1 episodes 1 to 8 [TV])
Littlest Pet Shop (Directed by Joel Dickie, Steven Garcia, and Mike Myhre; Season 4 episode 10 to Season 4 episode 26 [TV])
Petals (Directed by Andrea Gallo and Alvaro Dominguez; November 29 [student film])
Best Anthropomorphic Novel
Winner
My Diary, by Fredrick Usiku Kruger, Lieutenant of the Rackenroon Hyena Brigade, by Kathy Garrison Kellog (The Cross Time Cafe; April 2)
Runners-Up
Sixes Wild: Echoes, by Tempe O’Kun (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
Dog Country, by Malcolm F. Cross (Amazon Digital Services; March 28)
Fracture, by Hugo Jackson (Inspired Quill; September 1)
The Origin Chronicles: Mineau, by Justin Swatsworth (Dolphyn Visions; June 14)
Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
Winner
400 Rabbits, by Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden, in Gods With Fur (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
Runners-Up
A Gentleman of Strength, by Dwale, in Claw the Way to Victory (Jaffa Books; January 24)
Questor’s Gambit, by Mary E. Lowd, in Gods With Fur (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
Marge the Barge, by Mary E. Lowd, in Claw the Way to Victory (Jaffa Books; January 24)
Sheeperfly’s Lullaby, by Mary E. Lowd, in GoAL #2 (Goal Publications; March 27)
Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
Winner
Gods With Fur, ed. by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions; June 30 [anthology])
Runners-Up
Claw the Way to Victory, ed. by AnthroAquatic (Jaffa Books; January 24 [anthology])
ROAR volume 7, ed. by Mary E. Lowd (Bad Dog Books; June 30 [anthology])
The Muse, by Alex Cockburn (Rabbit Valley Publishing; March [background booklet for Lucid’s Dream])
Hot Dish #2, ed. by Dark End (Sofawolf Press; December 1 [anthology])
Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction Work
Winner
The Art of Zootopia, by Jessica Julius (Chronicle Books; March 8 [book; making of feature film])
Runners-Up
Fursonas (Directed by Dominic Rodriguez; May 10 [documentary film])
17 Misconceptions About Furries and the Furry Fandom (Culturally F’d #23; February 11 [podcast])
CSI: Fur Fest; The Unsolved Case of the Gas Attack at a Furry Convention, by Jennifer Swann (VICE Media; February 10 [Internet])
Burned Furs and How You Perceive Porn (Culturally F’d: After Dark; October 6 [podcast])
Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
Winner
TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach (Internet; January 6 to December 25)
Runners-Up
Swords and Sausages, by Jan (Internet; January 10 to December 25)
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (Internet; Lackadaisy Sabbatical to Lackadaisy Headlong)
Lucid’s Dream, by Alex Cockburn (Rabbit Valley Publishing; March)
Endtown, by Aaron Neathery (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
Winner
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
Runners-Up
Savestate, by Tim Weeks (Internet; January 6 to December 28)
Carry On, by Kathy Garrison (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
Kevin & Kell, by Bill Holbrook (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
Winner
Dogpatch Press, ed. by Patch Packrat (Internet; January 4 to December 20)
Runners-Up
Fur What It’s Worth (Podcast; Season 5 episode #8 to Season 6 episode #8)
InFurNation, ed. by Rod O’Riley (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Flayrah, ed. by crossaffliction and GreenReaper (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
Fangs and Fonts (Podcast; episodes #57 to #72)
Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
Winner
Tracy J. Butler, cover of Anthrocon 2016 Souvenir Book
Runners-Up
Teagan Gavet, cover of Gods With Fur, ed. by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions, June 30)
Iskra, “Autumn”, FurAffinity, October 22
Jenn ‘Pac’ Rodriguez, cover of Claw the Way to Victory, ed. by AnthroAquatic (Jaffa Books, January 24)
Dolphyn, “Hey Baby, You’re the Cat’s Meow!” in Anthrocon 2016 Souvenir Book
Best Anthropomorphic Game
Winner
Major \ Minor (Developer: Klace; Publisher: Steam; October 11)
Runners-Up
Pokémon Sun & Moon (Developer: Game Freak; Publishers: Nintendo and the Pokémon Company; November 18)
Overwatch (Developer and Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment; May 24)
Stories: The Path of Destinies (Developer and Publisher: Spearhead Games; April 12)
Bear Simulator (Developer and Publisher: Farjay Studios; February 26)
Best Anthropomorphic Website
Winner
Fur Affinity (Internet [furry art & discussion])
Runners-Up
E621 (Internet [furry art & discussion])
WikiFur (Internet [furry wiki])
The Furry Writers’ Guild (Internet [FWG news & discussion])
Culturally F’d, ed. by Arrkay and Underbite (YouTube [furry history & sociology])
Next year's presentation venue will be at the FurDU convention, May 4-6, 2018, in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. In addition, the Ursa Major Awards are adding a thirteenth category beginning this year, for Best Anthropomorphic Fursuit, but with special rules. See the UMA website.
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
Comments
Congratulations to the winners.
Hmm, Major/Minor did quite well against more well known video games. That's awesome.
Of course, Ziitipia got the most votes I believe. So much so that The Art of Zootopia also won.
Oi, I meant Zootopia...
crossie reporting in from Anthrocon ... a day late, but apparently Zootopia got more votes than all the other nominees combined. Still tickled the inaugural "furry journalism" award went to ... an art book (as a guy whose always been "art first, fandom second" kind of a good win for me, but also, as that one commenter in an earlier post pointed out, kind of like Coldplay winning best local concert ...). Also glad Kung Fu Panda 3 beat The Secret Life of Pets; not sure how, according to all previously believed rules of Ursa Major punditry (or how ol' SLoP finished dead last).
Yay, didn't get dead last in my category! FYC to non-furry sites didn't work (and probably gave more votes to Zootopia incidentally), not that I thought it would.
That Major/Minor thing did come out of nowhere, didn't it? Pokemon was almost unbeatable, and there was another "popular", a-list game in Overwatch, but a game ... I've never even heard of managed to win.
It's because Major\Minor was made by that weird pink husky guy with 15 thousand Twitter followers.
I was actually pretty surprised that KFP3 came fourth. I thought that would for sure be second due to the second one winning years ago, but I guess I underestimated the Finding Nemo fanbase.
Probably helped that Major/Minor was made by a furry.
In fairness, movies often get the largest number of votes, simply because almost anyone voting has seen at least one of them.
I also noticed that The Lion Guard got a strong number of votes.
Maybe the Ponies will have a rival.
Just thought I'd let you guys know that one of the people who worked on Zootopia, Joaquin Baldwin, was forwarded a tweet saying Zootopia won and responded by stating "This is such a surprise!!! ;)"
Not only that, but Rich Moore, Zootopia co-director, liked his tweet.
You can see it here: https://twitter.com/joabaldwin/status/881145344905674753
Oh, and Rich Moore also liked this tweet: https://twitter.com/UrsaMajorAwards/status/881025630632005632
I think it has gotten to the point where Housepets! and MLP need to be given a timeout. They're juggernauts and there needs to be a limit on how many times a work can win and then it can't be nominated. Kyell Gold stepped back this year to give others a chance and I think it would be classy of Rick to do the same.
You remember MLP lost once, right?
Fair enough, but I stand by my point with Housepets! Doubly so, considering MLP's category is usually dominated by mainstream works where as best comic is usually dominated by original furry pieces. Up and coming artists deserve a fair chance.
A whole once, guys!
I have been trying for some time to convince my fellow members of the ALAA that it's time to split the "Short or Series" category into TWO categories, and give the Shorts more of a running chance than they've had against multi-episode TV series.
When the Ursa Major Awards started, over 15 years ago, a major complaint was, "That many categories? [There were nine then.] The ballot is too complicated! You need to shorten it to about six categories or nobody will bother to read the whole thing." Today there are twelve categories, we've just added a thirteenth (Best Fursuit), and there are calls for more.
Fred Patten
You see? Slowly we educate people. We've got a long way to go to catch up with the Grammies! ;)
Here's a crazy thought, double the amount of categories. For each one have a vote for mainstream and for fan work. What counts as fan... any creator with an FA account (you get the idea) or about them (rather than funny animal stuff in general). Maybe crossover stuff could compete for both.
A predictable corporate thing wouldn't automatically beat indie things that deserve support. And you could encourage looking outside the bubble. For some categories (movies) there might not be much point, but others show why (see Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction Work, and Best Anthropomorphic Game this time.)
I think part of the issue there is it doubles the number of award plaques they need to buy and mail.
Perhaps people should just get a certificate and frame it themselves? Also: streamed award event.
That makes next to no sense. If they are the most popular ones then they deserve to win. I understand why he did it but I don't particularly agree with what Kyell Gold did. Would it make sense for people to say "Usain Bolt wins too many races, he should not be allowed to race so other people can win"? No! If the people and works that are supposed to win the awards step out of the awards show then what is the point of the awards? It's arrogant on the part of whoever steps out and it lessens the victory of anyone who wins because they are no longer the best, they just an award because someone took pity on them.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Likely true, but for the pure sake of publicity it's nice to have a variety of names marched in front of people's faces as the years go bye. I've often admired the model that Guitar Player and some other musical instrument magazine use: Anyone who wins their "Player of the Year" award for 5 years (even non-contiguous) is automatically put into their Hall of Fame -- and no longer eligible for the Player of the Year.
The main purpose of the UMAs is to recognize, promote and reward excellence in furry material. By giving the award to a single contestant for many many years you're discouraging creators. The awards becomes same old same old, and why should I even try, it's not like I'm gonna be better than Kyell Gold.
If other contestants (besides the umpteenth winner) don't offer enough quality, there might be the option of 'No Award', which is what the Hugo Awards have been doing.
Just be careful. It might win, and then it makes the nominees feel like they were worse than nothing.
I made this happen once! I'd probably do it again, but it wasn't all that pleasant for anyone involved.
As a practical matter, people who aren't confident enough probably won't be nominated, let alone win.
You have to get the votes to start with, and while it might not take much for some categories, it's not zero.
There is more than first place. The runners up made it through nominations and are competing on the same stage. That's already recognition and reward of excellence as well as promoting them. But it's stupid to talk about rewarding excellence while excluding excellence. I don't think it would discourage creators at all, it gives them something to strive for. You can aim to be better than Kyell Gold. Dropping people from the awards also means you can't compare over long time periods. Kyell Gold has the most Ursa Major wins but when someone else takes the title, does it mean much since Kyell just didn't compete for a number of years?
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
A lot of well-deserving winners here for sure, but I would make a suggestion.
Rename "Best Anthropomorphic Magazine" to "Best Anthropromorphic News Site"
When I look at the list of nominees and the winner, Dogpatch Press, I don't see a single magazine in them based on how I would define the term magazine, which is a periodical with a volume and issue number, usually published weekly, monthly, annually, or semi-annually.
Dogpatch Press, InFurNation, and Flayrah seemingly publish news stories as they happen, or have daily updates, and would fit the same category as Newspapers or Newsletters.
The others are Podcasts, which are not magazines at all. They are audio streams of news.
Take note I have no issue with any of these sites. Most, if not all are sites full of quality and useful information for the fandom. This is just a snow leopard's two cents. :)
Arguably they're 'news magazines', like BBC News Magazine. Few seem to be making traditional magazines in real life.
In submitting Flayrah as a magazine, I was trying to be more specific than "Website". The results demonstrates the value in a separate category. Perhaps "best non-fiction serial"? This'd include news podcasts; serials can be in any medium. Flayrah even has an ISSN already - you can apply for one for free via your national centre.
Full disclosure: Green Reaper lobbied for Flayrah to be categorized as a magazine, rather than a website (I keep gleefully admitting it's category fraud, but you probably won't get him to admit it's basically a move to an easier to win category, not that helps us now that everyone's doing it). It was originally a, well, magazine category, and Heat won last year (guess they had an off year in 2016?).
Dogpatch Press is as periodical as it gets. Paper magazines are almost entirely dead. I know too because I tried to resuscitate one, and it didn't work out. Volume / Issue number classifying makes sense only in paper form.
It fits the description.
Proof this award is unfair and only the elite sites will get on the list. Furry Times has no mentions after 8 years.
I thought Furry Times was a blog, not a news site?
It couldn't be that Furry Times just didn't get enough nominations to get onto the final ballot? The Ursa Major Award is a popular-vote award, not limited to the elite sites, whatever they may be.
Fred Patten
you do understand that flayrah and dogpatch posts news and not copyright material, material from furryraiders and snippets of quotes from people like Mr Patten that they didn't get permission to post, right?
It's a popular vote, Ahmar.
Nobody nominated you because nobody likes you. Now, seriously, would you mind fucking the fuck off, please? Stop posting your blog to our Newsite, and acting like we have an unhealthy obsession with you.
Meanwhile, in unsurprising news, Perri leaves the fandom forever about as well as expected.
Klace cheated his way to winning that award, you guys know that right?
Can you explain? They encourage campaigning. Basically if you can convince people to vote they have no restriction on how. Or are you suggesting he made up tons of fake ID's? I see lots of complaints about his approach to promotion, and a few about manipulating game ratings, but as far as i can tell he's still just a guy who made a game and promoted it more than others.
Honestly, who cares? I mean, you're complaining Pokemon didn't win for like the seventh time this decade (and they were second)?
How long did we see periodic complaints here about "Fantastic Mr. Fox" not winning the Ursa Major Award?
I am just simply stunned "Kubo and the Two Strings" didn't even get a glance. Did it not meet the requirements, despite having anthropomorphic main characters?
The 2016 Ursa Major Awards received nominations for seven motion pictures in the Best Motion Picture category. They were for, in descending order of number of nominations, "Zootopia", "Sing", "Finding Dory", "Kung Fu Panda 3", "The Secret Life of Pets", "Kubo and the Two Strings", and "The Jungle Book". "Kubo and the Two Strings" was just not in the top five.
Fred Patten
An absolute travesty, in my opinion. Ah well. ^^
It's an unfortunate truth that, for all the praise that Kubo got, not a lot of people actually went out to SEE it. Which reduced the number of people who thought to nominate it.
Even WORSE of a travesty.
The movie ends with the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"!
HOW IS THAT NOT THE BEST THING EVER??? *^^*
Fine, audiences of the world, go see "Kubo and the Two Strings". Without question, it deserved to win the Oscar over "Zootopia". Sorry, furries. *^^*
I don’t agree that it is better than “Zootopia” (I voted for “Zootopia”), but it is a fine movie and I also enjoyed it very much. I agree that people should see it. Since it is no longer in theaters, get the DVD.
https://www.amazon.com/Kubo-Two-Strings-Charlize-Theron/dp/B01KMKM5NW/ref=ice_ac...
Fred Patten
Doesn't it bother anyone that we seem to constantly look for films that showcase negative values on society, then shows us how to rise up against them?
We know this. We've seen it in almost every damned Disney/Pixar film ever made. ^^
Just once, praise a film that teaches children values like culture, history, love, devotion, loyalty, sacrifices, life, and death. Show them the true world.
I liked "Zootopia" but all I got out of it was racial division and stereotypes. Sure, like we haven't seen THAT before in a Disney film. =P
"Kubo" was a great movie which I highly recommend, but I agree with Fred, "Zootopia" got my vote. In my top 10 list of animated films from 2016, "Kubo" was #3 and "Zootopia" was #1. (In case you're wondering, #2 was "Your Name".)
If we're including 2016 movies that were not on the final ballot, I also liked the French "April and the Extraordinary World" and the Japanese "The Boy and the Beast". I also felt that Disney's "The Jungle Book" remake didn't get as much attention as it deserved from furry fans.
Fred Patten
When I made up my list, I had declared those two films (along with "The Little Prince" and a couple of others) as ineligible due to having significant overseas releases in 2015. By the same token, some films released overseas in 2016 were eligible, including "Your Name" (#2), "The Red Turtle" (#8), "Koe No Katachi" (#5 and still unreleased in the US), "My Life as as Zucchini" (#7), and "Rock Dog" (didn't make my top 10).
Several of these would be ineligible for the Ursa Major Award in any case because they don't include any anthropomorphic animals.
Fred Patten
Five of my top 10 easily qualify as furry (#10 "Sing", #9 "Kung Fu Panda 3", #6 "Finding Dory", #3 "Kubo and the Two Strings", and #1 "Zootopia"). #8 "The Red Turtle" probably qualifies. #4 "Moana" is iffy but it does have the crab, plus Moana's pet rooster. There's no furry content to speak of in the other three (#7 "My Life as a Zucchini", #5 "Koe no Katachi", and #2 "Your Name"). Of those I considered that didn't make my top 10, "The Secret Life of Pets" and "Rock Dog" are definitely furry. "Trolls" could start an argument about what kind of anthro creatures could qualify as furries.
You're right, in that the cover of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' was the best thing ever, it was also hands down the only really good part of the movie. The animation was nice (though less handcrafted, in it's way, than Zootopia, which at least didn't hide it's CG and did things beyond what was necessary), but I had a conversation with my brother where we both realized about halfway through that neither of us really liked it and that it was okay to kind of hate it, and I've felt okay kind of hating it ever since. I mean, I enjoyed it's story ... when I played it as the first three levels of The Ocarina of Time back in the 90s.
LAIKA's kinda been coasting on it's "handcrafted" reputation (which is unfounded; a good third of their movies are CG) and Neil Gaiman's writing on Coraline; everyone agreed The Boxtrolls was crap (but, like, really pretty, right?) while I keep forgetting people actually thought ParaNorman was a good movie, because my biggest memory of it was the grade school kid next to me in the theater turning to me after it was over and saying, "wow, that was just like Chicken Little" and then realizing he was absolutely right.
(It still should have been at least nominated over The Secret Life of Pets, though.)
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