Academy Awards Best Picture Focus: 'Toy Story 3'

In Yidio's Academy Awards Best Picture Focus section, we take an in-depth look at all 10 films nominated for the 2011 Oscar. In this edition, we take a look at the only animated film to get a Best Picture nomination, "Toy Story 3."

About the film:

"Toy Story 3" is the third installment (natch) in Pixar's Toy Story trilogy. The movie is a true follow-up to the groundbreaking first movie and its excellent sequel, combining humor, warmth and emotion with moments of drama unrivaled by animated films of the past.

The story follows the journey of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of Andy's toys as they are donated to a daycare center once Andy goes off to college, and plays out like an animated prison break film.

Why the nomination for Best Picture?

Pixar's contributions to the world are always huge commercial hits and are widely loved by audiences and critics alike. The masterful Pixar touch makes each movie enjoyable and accessible to both children and adults, a feat not often achieved by children's movies.

Every Pixar film has been nominated for Best Animated Feature since the category was introduced in 2001, and won the award five out of seven times. Last year, when the Best Picture category was expanded to 10 nominees, Pixar's "Up" became the second animated movie to ever be nominated in the category. "Toy Story 3" was one of the best-reviewed movies of the year and was better-reviewed than "Up," so a nomination is no surprise.

Other awards nominations:

"Toy Story 3" is up for five total awards including Best Picture. Randy Newman is nominated for Best Original Song with "We Belong Together"...Newman has been nominated for Oscars 20 times, many of them for his work with Pixar, but has only won once in 2002 for his work on Pixar's "Monster's Inc." The other nominations are Sound Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Animated Feature.

What are the chances?

Not great. An animated movie has yet to win Best Picture, and this is likely not the year for it to happen with juggernauts like "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network" having already won previous awards. However, the nomination for Best Picture all but guarantees a win for "Toy Story 3" in Best Animated Feature, despite great competition in "How to Train Your Dragon" and "The Illusionist".

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Watch the Toy Story 3 Trailer