Toy Story 3: Deserving of 2010 Best Picture Oscar

November has begun, which means many things for us Disney devotees. Christmas decorations will start to go up at Disneyland, Thanksgiving pins are up for trading, and a third thing that Disney doesn't usually participate in, Oscar Season, begins.

Now that Disney has shed its more art-influenced studio, Miramax, the Oscars has been something that the studio has little to do with. Anything distributed directly by the Disney studios–generally PG and G films centered around more child-centric themes–don't even register on the Academy's radar.

On the rare occasion, there's a nomination like Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow with Best Actor in a Leading Role nomination for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Or the 1991 Best Picture nomination for "Beauty and the Beast."

More often, Disney movies win the less glamourous technical awards. Though, during Walt's tenure, the studio won a gaggle of Golden nude men.

Recently, with the Best Picture category expanding to 10 nominees from five, Pixar films have been getting a little more attention from the Academy. Their shorts have won a number of Oscars, and their features have won the Best Animated Feature statues, but the big one has eluded them, despite their near-perfect record with the critics.

"WALL-E," with it's silent filme-esque opening 20 minutes, was by far one of the best pictures of 2008, but the bias The Academy has towards animated "children's films" left it out of the party. Also, many actors, who make up a large part of The Academy feel computer animation threatens their livelihood. Ahh, ignorance.

"Up" was nominated last year, but lost to "The Hurt Locker." Predicable: yes. Fair: nope.

This year though, according to the Financial Times, Disney is launching a huge Oscar campaign for "Toy Story 3." I find it a little ridiculous that you have to campaign for a film to win Best Picture, the best film should win because it's the best, but alas, that is the process.

I'm glad Disney has realized that Pixar is producing some the best films of our time, animated or live action. "WALL-E" and "Up" were both good enough to win Best Picture, and "Toy Story 3," with its dark, dramatic themes and tear-inducing ending, has all the elements of a Best Picture. Some have speculated that it could win the Oscar, not only because it's a great film, but because its two predecessors were also Oscar worthy, a body of work Oscar. If it wins, it will be the one of three sequels to win Best Picture. The others: "The Godfather: Part II", and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which won, most likely, for the Lord of the Rings body of work.

Maybe a high profile Oscar campaign will give the film the extra boost it needs. Hopefully The Academy will pull its head out of its live action behind and give the Best Picture Oscar to the film that is indeed Best Picture, no politics involved.

Out of "Toy Story 3," "WALL-E" and "UP," which film would you give the Best Picture Oscar to?