"Up" looks aloft, hopes for best picture Oscar

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When an expanded list of 10 movies competes next year for the best picture Oscar, director Pete Docter hopes his "Up" will become the first animated film since 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" to vie for Hollywood's most coveted honor.

Award show trackers say Docter has reason to be hopeful because "Up," about an old man and a boy who float off to South America in a house tied to helium balloons, has earned wide acclaim from fans and critics, alike.

"Up" has tallied $507 million at worldwide box offices since May's theatrical release, and is one of the year's best-reviewed films scoring a 98 percent positive rating at review website rottentomatoes.com.

But the movie, which sees its DVD version land on retail shelves on Tuesday, faces a harsh Hollywood climate in which to soar if it hopes to win 2009's best film Oscar.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not nominated an animated movie in its best motion picture category since it began giving a separate award for best animated feature in 2002.

In fact, "Beauty and the Beast" is the only animated movie ever nominated for best picture in more than 80 years since the Academy began giving away the film industry's highest honors.

Still, Docter told Reuters that Oscar voters should evaluate his computer-animated "Up" in the same way they view any movie because that's how his team approaches filmmaking.