Ah, summer. The start of Oscar buzz. Right now Wall*E is clearly and obviously being invited, by the critical press at least, to submit itself for consideration as a Best Picture nominee. That would be great if it weren�t for the simple fact that I don�t think it will be considered because it�s the first animated feature since �Beauty & the Beast� to deserve the honor, nor because the Academy�s rules provide a loophole for animation to step outside of its specially created category when deemed worthy. No, I believe it will be considered for Best Picture because it doesn�t look or feel or sound like animation; it will be considered because it�s not a �cartoon�.

I love the word �cartoon�. I don�t think it�s a pejorative moniker, although somehow it has become a pejorative. In some silly rush to be loved and admired and let into the sacred halls of �serious film� - read �not cartoons� - a good deal of animation has busted its digital chops to stop looking like cartoons and look more and more like live action.

Wake me up when the serious films are over.

In an ironic twist of fate, the once false-profit of so-called �serious animation�, Jeffrey Katzenberg, finally, at long last, has delivered a truly great cartoon feature � Kung Fu Panda. The same year, Pixar has presented a �serious film�, Wall*E. While it would be�actually, very likely will be great to see an animated feature compete for Best Picture, I can�t help but feel that we�ll be sending a robot in to do a panda�s job.

I know it�s a huge leap in the right direction for any animated film to have a shot at a Best Picture Oscar�, but I think an assimilated critical success is a very poor ambassador for the argument that cartoons - because that�s what they are whether pixel or pencil - are as valid a form of film making as live action, and not just charming but childish entertainment. I sincerely believe that animation will surrender something critical if Wall*E becomes the standard bearer for what passes as a truly great animated film worthy of being considered for a Best Picture nod.

I greatly admire and respect the enormous talents of the creators of Wall*E. Andrew Stanton is a gifted director and writer, and has already proven himself a master of visual pathos, as anyone who has watched the opening moments of Finding Nemo can attest. Similarly, I�d be a complete fool to ignore Wall*E�s first thirty seven minutes of cinematic magic: it�s the remaining hour that feels entirely empty. Worse, for the first time in Pixar history, it makes me wonder why they bothered to animate it when they just could have filmed it in live action.

You can bet that the Academy, and all it�s very human members, likely see Wall*E as the ideal inaugural animated member of their �real films� club; it looks like live action, walks like live action, and preaches like live action. Wall*E proves to Hollywood that Pixar is no longer simply making cartoons�.ah, remember when Pixar made feature length cartoons, like Toy Story, and Cars, oh, and the best of all, Monsters, Inc.!, Those magnificent, impossible worlds of tender, hysterical, mysterious, brave buffoonery. No , it appears that Pixar has graduated away from that, and as a result they are very likely to be invited to leave the children�s table and join the grown-ups at that Academy Nominees luncheon next January. There they will sit at a table where verbal barbs and bragging rights to first look deal are flung about, as opposed to spoonfuls of peas being hurled back at the Best Animated Feature booth by the kitchen.