I didn't realize so many people are on the fence about the film.

Produced by John Lasseter, with music by Randy Newman, from the directors of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Seems like a no brainer.

The trouble with Coraline is the release date. It made good money at the box office, but I still think it could be very easy for the voters to forget about it by the end of the year if the rest of this year's animated slate is really good.

Also if there are 16 submission there will be 5 nominations. We might be counting off movies instead of thinking which 5 will get in. That has only happened in 2002 for now, but this year seems to be packed with animated movies.

I can't imagine PatF, Up and Ponyo all being nominated. All 3 are Disney.

Indeed. I don't think Disney wants to compete so heavily with itself, though.

I think its a foregone conclusion that's its 5 films this year. Fantastic Mr. Fox has a spot.

Well I do think there is "enough" for Monsters vs. Aliens to consider that it will probably get nominated even if there is only 3 nominated films, as Dreamworks almost always has a horse in the race.

speaking of Mr. Fox

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/03/30/ear ... more-23626

Disney should bite the bullet and pull Up.

They really got nothing to lose. They have three other films, one of which I'm sure they'd rather push for a win, and it'll certainly get like four nominations sans Animated Film anyway, as long as it gets over an 80 on MetaCritic. Now even if it gets Wall-E reviews and makes $250 million, it's unlikely to compete big even if it's pulled from Animated Feature, but it's worth a shot.

A group of about 70 people holed up in the AMC Southdale Thursday became the first members of the general public to see "Up" the new offering from Pixar. The movie is likely to be one of the hot releases when it comes out in late May.

Thursday's screening wasn't without a little drama though. It started more than three-quarters of an hour late, which is never good when a large proportion of your audience is under the age of 10, as was the case yesterday.

Let's just say there was a lot of energy in the theater, and a lot of popcorn on the floor.

The delay it turned out was because the movie was so new it was delivered on a hard-drive handcuffed to a security guard. Actually the delivery was on time, but the package lacked the vital cord which the theater staff needed to download the movie to the theater's server.

Someone was dispatched to the local Radio Shack to get a replacement, but the film was still downloading when the audience arrived. The gathering press reps were all advised about the delay and the mass of youngsters inside, and some of us decided to take advantage of the pleasant weather outside for half an hour.

It has to be said, the wait was worthwhile. "Up" is at times quite breathtaking. The film was so new it didn't have credits at the end yet.

After the show the security folks watched as the movie was erased from the server, and the drive was handcuffed again to the minder, and off it flew again to Pixar HQ.