Up: Best Film of the Year, but not Best Picture?

I've recieved a great amount of disagreement on my choice to nominate Up for Best Picture, and when I say great I mean one person. However seeing as there are probably only 3 people who come to my site I feel as if I need to address it.

I know that it's hard to grasp that an animated childrens film could possibly be nominated for Best Picture, but if you think about it it's not all that out of the ordinary. Last year WALL-E was close to getting nominated and that was when amount of nominees was 5. Now that there are 10 nominees Up is almost certain to get in. Why? For one thing it deals with some dark themes like death, and depression and it deals with them in a realistic manner that is truly sad and can be related to real life. And even if that isn't taken into account Up is still the best film of the year. Even watching it on the tiny screen of my portable DVD player I was filled with all the intense emotions I got in the theatre, and more. Up is the type of movie you can watch again and again and get more out of it. For instance, during my third time seeing it I realized a rather tucked away but still huge character development of Russell. During the final battle when Russell is dangling from hose on Carl's house he musters the strength to pull himself all the way to the porch, having been inspired by Mr. Fredrickson. Rather unremarkable, but only if you forget that he could drag himself up to the porch when he and Carl first reached Paradise Falls. It was truly much more inspiring knowing that knowledge.

The thing about Up that seperates it from other Pixar masterpieces is that it carries you on the emotional journey of all the characters throughout the entire film. One of my big problems with WALL-E is that during the first half of the movie you aren't thinking about WALL-E and EVE, but about where the hell the human race went, and during the second half when the destiny of the human race rests in the balance you don't care. You only care about WALL-E and EVE being together again. Up brings you in to every emotional state that all the characters are in. You can feel Carl Fredrickson's sadness when Ellie dies, and his emptiness when he finally gets his house to Paradise Falls. You feel Russell's sadness at his father practically adandoning him, and his anger when Mr. Fredrickson fails him. Even in the case of Dug, you can feel the simple emotions he feels and care about him considerably.

With ten nominations this year, the floodgate is certainly open for films like Up to make it in. I dare anybody to find a film from this year that is more emotionally poignant than Up.