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BEVERLY HILLS - The Australian-made movie Happy Feet tonight lost what most critics thought was a certain Golden Globe for best animated feature, which instead went to a movie about talking cars.
The animated movie about singing and dancing penguins, directed by Australian George Miller, and voiced by many Australians including Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, was run down by Cars, a product of the Disney Pixar animation factory.
Monster House was the other film in the first time animated category at the Golden Globes, which are seen as a major indicator of potential Oscar success.
There was come consolation for Happy Feet, however, when it won the best original song Golden Globe with The Song of the Heart.
Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette also missed out.
Blanchett was beaten to the award for best supporting actress in a movie to newcomer Jennifer Hudson, who made a stunning screen debut in the musical, Dreamgirls.
Blanchett had been nominated for her tense performance as a British school teacher involved in a sexual relationship with a pupil in Notes on a Scandal.
Collette lost twice - including to Meryl Streep, who won best actress in a comedy for The Devil Wears Prada. Collette was nominated for her role in Little Miss Sunshine.
Collette also missed out on a Globe for best supporting actress in a TV series, mini-series or movie category for Tsunami, The Aftermath, a mini-series based on the 2004 tsunami that struck Asia. That award went to Emily Blunt for Gideon's Daughter.
Mel Gibson's violent new epic using Mayan dialects, Apocalypto, was nominated for best foreign language film.
The Golden Globes, which are voted on by nearly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are a major stop on the road to the February 25 Academy Awards, because winners often go on to compete for Oscars.
- AAP
