For we the movie fanatics of the world, the Academy Awards are just as exciting as the Super Bowl. Many of us throw or attend Oscar parties, and even go so far as to print out that ballot and lock our picks into place.

Over the past few years, this and a lot of other awards shows have kind of lost their flare. It has become apparent that deciding nominees and voting for winners is not about who is the best and who is most deserving, but about what has the best side-story and what the popular names and titles are. This massive flaw is hard to swallow, and the appeal of the whole event is bordering on non-existent.

To help bring more appeal to the game, the folks behind the Academy Awards chose to make a few changes in the format of the show. The biggest of these alterations was of course changing the amount of Best Picture nominees from 5 to a whopping 10, which meant that all of the deserving but not-so-traditional contenders (The Dark Knight) could get their chance to be underdog heroes.

Continue reading on for more and to check out the full list of this year’s nominees!

Disney/Pixar’s latest animated features comes to DVD and Blu-ray on November 10, 2009. In celebration, the studio has released 8 retro posters created for the film.

Check them out here below (and click for larger, full view), along with details on the DVD/Blu-ray bonus features.

Synopsis
Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios take moviegoers up, up and away on one of the funniest adventures of all time with their latest comedy-fantasy. Up follows the uplifting tale of 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. Their journey to a lost world, where they encounter some strange, exotic and surprising characters, is filled with hilarity, emotion and wildly imaginative adventure.

MTV spoke to Pete Docter, director of Up and one of the main men at Pixar Studios, and he decided to share a sweet little morsel for fans of the studios’ films as well as fans of Easter Eggs. Docter admitted that the newest member of our favorite group of toys to be featured in next summer’s Toy Story 3 will have a brief cameo in Up, which will be released on May 29, 2009.

We all know that Disney/Pixar movies just love their Easter Egg surprises, whether it be a tiny appearance by the insects of A Bug’s Life in Toy Story 2, various toy versions of characters being played with, such as a Nemo toy shown in Monsters Inc. before Finding Nemo was anywhere near release, and any of the many others we’ve seen. The difference here is that the Easter Egg is usually revealed later, after the character has become hugely popular in its own film, not before we know who they are.

To go one better, Up producer Jonas Rivera explained where exactly the new toy can be found.

Click over to the other side to watch the trailer and look for yourself.