Animated Film Grabs Best-Picture

[RBBrittain]

It's been obvious from the beginning that one of the motivations behind going to 10 nominees was to get around the folks who shut WALL-E out of the race last year. Not only do WALL-E and Up appeal to animation fans, but they also appeal to silent-film aficionados for their lengthy dialog-free sequences--possibly the longest such sequences in Hollywood films since the days of Charlie Chaplin. (Not to mention that the writing branch has always loved Pixar.)

That, and with one major critic (Time's Richard Corliss) putting out a top-10 movie list (as part of the magazine's Top 10 Everything of 2009 list) in which his top THREE films are all animated (The Princess and the Frog, Up, and Fantastic Mr. Fox), the Academy will lose credibility if they don't nominate at least one animated film, probably Up--though PATF may have a shot due to Academy old-timers nostalgic for old-school Disney animation (like Beauty and the Beast, the only one to do it so far).

Ponyo doesn't have a chance at a Best Picture nom, but with five slots in Animated Feature Film it's a shoo-in for one of the five, especially since the only time that's happened before was 2002, when Spirited Away won. Ever since the Academy announced sufficient submissions for 5 nominees, nearly everyone has had Up, PATF & Ponyo written in as nominees; Disney also had three noms in 2002 (Spirited Away, Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet), even though there was no Pixar film that year--and Treasure Planet was such a bomb that it helped lead to Disney abandoning 2D until John Lasseter insisted on bringing it back for PATF.

An animated film actually WINNING Best Picture? That's another question altogether; I doubt it will happen this year. More than likely, not only would both Up & PATF have to be nommed, but they'd also need acting noms for their leads (Ed Asner & Anika Noni Rose) to have much of a chance; though it appears voiceover roles CAN be nommed for acting (they appear as actors on the Academy's official "Reminder List" each year), I doubt Disney will even seek those (unlike Robin Williams in Aladdin).