Los Angeles  - The slapstick animated comedy Kung Fu Panda won by a knockout at the annual Annie Awards, winning 14 awards while its main rival WALL-E went home empty handed.

The Sunday night rout for Kung Fu Panda confirms its favoured status to win the Oscar in the animation category later this month, and counts as a major blow for Pixar, which at one time had held hopes that the dystopian WALL-E might even become the first animated film ever to win a best picture Oscar.

Among the 14 awards collected by Panda were best feature, best animation, best direction best character design and best voice actor for Dustin Hoffman, who played martial arts guru Shifu in the film.

Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death won the prize for best animated short film. The creator of the stop motion series, Nick Park, also won a lifetime achievement award at the Los Angeles event, along with Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge and Disney/Pixar's John Lasseter. dpa