"Up" would be the ultimate dark horse for Best Picture. "Beauty and the Beast" was the one and only animated feature to get a nod for Best Picture, and no other animated film has been nominated before or since. The Oscars are known for liking live action, so don't get your hopes "up" ...no pun intended. 

I hope to see Coraline, 9, Ponyo and Up among the 5 Little Gold Naked Men nominees for Best Animated Feature.

And I hope to see Alvin & the Upchucks 2 among the Big Gold Naked RAZZberry nominees. . . .   

This movie is now one of the 20 qualifying films in the running for the Oscar as Best Animated Feature. 

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Here is a LINK to check out the actual press release, as posted today on the AMPAS web site, announcing the 20 qualifying titles... 

I'm reading Dickens words right now. . . .

It's interesting to find that different scenes from the book have been depicted in different movies.  For example, the men shoveling snow off their roofs throwing snowballs at each other is unique to this film.  It's also interesting to find other scenes which have never yet been filmed as far as I recall.  For example, in the book, the Ghost of Christmas Past grows noticeably older before Scrooge's eyes as the day goes by, and the hand of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a spectral hand, not a skeletal hand.

And there is no horse-driven hearse chasing Scrooge through the streets of London.  Apparently, Zemeckis took the hearse that went up Scrooge's staircase at the beginning of the book and converted it into a chase scene later in the movie.  Now, I wouldn't nominate the movie for any of the usual Razzies, but if I could nominate a single scene from a movie, this particular scene is bad.  It has nothing to do with the story, it kicks up my disbelief (rather than suspending it) it borrows from Lewis Carroll to shrink Scrooge (for some odd reason) and it is ridiculous.  It is as preposterous as the scene of stampeding brontosauruses in Peter Jackson's King Kong.  I know I'm in rare company around here for liking that movie, but the brontosaurus stampede was ridiculous and should have been re-thought and re-done if not completely cut out.  The same goes for the hearse scene in this movie. 

So, I propose this year's "Nuke The Fridge" award, in honor of Spielberg and Lucas giving us such a ridiculous movie scene, goes to Robert Zemeckis for the hearse chase scene in A Christmas Carol.

Ok. You're right. I'll respect his/her opinion until Michaels respects mine.

But anyway, which is the best movie version of the Christmas Carol story? I heard the 1951 version is the best. 

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Since it is the most faithful to Dickens' original text -- And Alistair Sim perfectly captures the before-and-after versions of Scrooge -- I would concur that the 1951 British remake of A CHRISTMAS CAROL is the best done so far. The worst would have to be one of the Hanna Barberra animated ones -- Either A JETSONS' CHRISTMAS CAROL or A FLINTSTONES CHRISTMAS CAROL, both of which were done as holiday TV specials decades after the original shows left the air...