3D spices up battle for Oscars animation glory

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A record 20 animated films will vie for Oscars glory in a 2010 race stuffed with wildly popular 3D offerings such as "Up," "Astro Boy," "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "Disney's A Christmas Carol."

Computer-generated films like "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" will duel against stop-motion pictures like "Coraline" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and hand-drawn offerings "The Princess and the Frog" and "Ponyo."

More than anything, the list announced on Wednesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shows a bumper crop of 2009 animation features boosted by the mainstream renaissance of 3D.

Others in the running are "Battle for Terra," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Mary and Max," "The Missing Lynx," "9," "Planet 51," "The Secret of Kells," "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure," and "A Town Called Panic."

If at least 16 films qualify - some still have to fulfill the stipulation of a week-long run in Los Angeles cinemas - the Academy will be forced to expand the number of nominations from three to five.

This has only happened once in the past, when 17 films qualified in 2002 and Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's fantasy "Spirited Away" claimed the Oscar.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category can also run in other categories, including Best Picture. The only animation feature ever to do so to date was the Disney classic "Beauty and the Beast" in 2001.

Next year's Academy Awards will take place on Sunday March 7 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The nominations for best feature-length animation will be announced on February 2.

The first ever Oscar for Animated Feature Film was won in 2001 by "Shrek."