Back in June, when we first called on the Academy to do the right thing and nominate Wall-E for Best Picture, plenty of people said we were nuts (and not just because we hadn’t yet seen it) — but one of the most passionate quibblers was Hollywood Elsewhere blogger Jeffrey Wells, who argued that, while the film deserves its probable win for Best Animated Feature, it’s the opposite of “organic raw-grain realism” and should “stay the fuck out of Reality Nation.” And as recently as December 21, he still felt pretty much the same way — not only will Wall-E probably not score a Best Picture nomination, it just shouldn’t: “Wall-E, to use a nationalistic metaphor, is a splendid Mexican classic … [but] there is no need for it to cross the Rio Grande and obtain American citizenship.”
But he’s changed his mind! On Wednesday, a certain Mexican classic made its first-ever appearance in Gold Derby’s weekly Buzzmeter poll, with none other than Jeffrey Wells becoming the first major Oscar pundit to recognize the inevitability of Wall-E’s nomination for Best Picture (like everybody else, though, he still thinks Slumdog Millionaire will win). Wells hasn’t yet explained the flip-flop on his blog, but the end of this post indicates it might be some sort of protest vote. Even so, we’ll take it! If Pixar’s masterpiece can win over even a live-action purist like Wells, who’s to say it can’t win over the Academy. Wall-E for Best Picture!
Oscars predix: Finally, ‘Wall-E’ rolls into the best-picture derby [Gold Derby/LAT]
Earlier: Jeffrey Wells Argues Against an Oscar for ‘Wall-E’: ‘Animation, Stay On Your Side of the Fence’
