2004 Puppet Awards

Rules: Well, I make the rules and alter them at will. Basically I award whatever awards I feel like to movies and games that I first saw/played in the year in question, 2004 this time around.


~~~Best Movie~~~
Return of the King: Extended Edition
(I’m awarding this to RotK despite it not being an entirely new movie partly because the Puppet Awards were absent last year so RotK didn’t get anything when it was out in theaters.)

Runners up:
Shrek 2, Spiderman 2, American History X



~~~Best comedy~~~
Shrek 2



~~~Best Computer Generated Movie~~~
Shrek 2



~~~ Scariest Movie~~~
The Exorcist
(Yes, it took me a while to get around to seeing this)



~~~Movie with Best Soundtrack (not necessarily original)~~~
Shrek 2 (I love this movie)



~~~Best Foreign Film~~~
Hero


~~~The Tasteful Nudity Award~~~
American Beauty (as usually)

Runners up:
None



~~~Best Blasphemous Movie~~~
Saved (OK, maybe wasn’t all that Blasphemous)



~~~Best show about a girl with supernatural powers that she can’t control that causes her to help those around her that was canceled by Fox without even airing the remaining already filmed episodes~~~
A tie between Wonderfalls and Tru Calling
(Fox was truly on a role the winter of 2004. Both are available on DVD now though)



~~~Worst show that was wisely canceled by Fox~~~
Forever Eden



~~~Best Reality TV Series~~~
The Apprentice

Runners up:
The Simple Life 2, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé
(Over all I think the best “reality” shows are mostly the ones that don’t just star “real” people. I don’t consider Paris, Nicole, Trump, or the Fiancé “real” people)



~~~Best non-CG Animated Movie/Series~~~
Broken Saints (www.brokensaints.com)

Another surprise to me. I thought some anime would win this, but instead we have an online Flash animation. The Broken Saints series is sort of an animated graphic novel, pretty unique in both style and story. Granted I didn’t watch as much new anime as usual in 2004 or maybe this would be different. 24 episodes, 12 hours total. The free online version is good, but the DVD version, with better art and professional voice actors, is better.



~~~Best Anime~~~
Rurouni Kenshin TV series (The Trust/Betrayal OVA is better, but I saw that years ago)
(Again, I didn’t really see that much new good anime in 2004. I guess I could cheat a little and say Millennium Actress, which I saw late 2003.)



~~~Best TV Series~~~
24



~~~Best video/computer game~~~
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay – The Developer’s Cut (PC)
This one caught me by surprise, I thought for sure Half-Life 2 could win, but I enjoyed TcoR considerably more. It had great stealth, the best hand-to-hand-combat yet in an FPS, a good story, unique gameplay (for an FPS), and it had Vin Diesel.

Runners up:
Ninja Gaiden, Half-Life 2, Pirates!
Note: I haven’t played GTA: SA yet or I suspect it may have been a contender)



~~~Best FPS Game~~~
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay – The Developer’s Cut (PC)



~~~Best Action Game (non-FPS)~~~
Ninja Gaiden

Runner’s up:
Crimson Sky (Xbox)



~~~Best Strategy Game~~~
Kohan 2
(all things said and done though, I’d rather play Total Annihilation even though it’s rather old now and I’ve been playing it for years)



~~~Best RPG~~~
Tales of Symphony
(Especially great if you have a couple friends to play it with)



~~~Best Game that I’m not sure what genre it really is exactly but it deserves to win something~~~
Pirates!
(maybe simulation/RPG/adventure?)



~~~Best video/computer Game Graphics~~~
Doom 3
(Almost nothing else compares to the lighting and shadows in this game)

Runner’s up:
Half-Life 2, The Chronicles of Riddick



~~~Best Identity Crisis in Music~~~
Bright Eyes for releasing simultaneous country and synth(?) albums, both of which are good.



~~~Best Song No One Has Ever Heard~~~
Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz
http://www.sjmp.com/waltz.htm



I will respond to any requested categories if people want to name some in the comments.