Hey all! As I am sure some of the regular readers of The Flickcast have noticed, my favorite part of the Con season is taking pics at them. Unfortunately, due to some professional responsibilities, I was only able to get down to one day of WonderCon this year.

But because my time was limited, I didn’t waste it on panels and the like. Instead I hit the floor with camera in hand and got as many pics of the Wondercon sights as I could.

While WonderCon doesn’t have the size of San Diego or New York Comic Con, the fans there weren’t any less fervent with their cosplay love. This year I saw a lot of new and original costumes I had not seen before. While a pimped out Boba Fett was present, I also saw for the first time Paper Mario as well as a group of female X-Man villains. Alongside the working R2 units, there was a life sized Wall-E that sadly the picture doesn’t do justice as it captured all of the personality of the movie and brought it to life in front of us all.

Andrew Stanton might have taken a blow with the commercial dud that was John Carter, but he is still responsible for two of the greatest animated films of all time, Finding Nemo & Wall-E. If anyone deserves a do over pass, it is that guy.

Recently the director shared something rather fun with the guys over at LA Times Hero Complex:

The two-time Oscar winner was the guest after our Sunday matinee screening of the most cosmic of Pixar films and he mentioned that the editorial department at Pixar had a bit of fun by taking a reference model of M-O over to the Sears Portrait Studio where warm family memories are preserved forever, um … tasteful flair?

PIXAR has long been known for adding mountains of humanity to animated inanimate objects, and Wall-E might have been their pinnacle. It is amazing how much personality and soul they managed to put into these, mostly, speechless robots.

Clearly that humanity was fostered behind the scenes too, as evidenced by these silly pictures. It is amazing that these characters make so such of an impact that even reference models paraded around in a series of family portraits can provoke an emotion.

Take a look at these adorable pictures after the jump, and don’t forget to catch the next PIXAR film, Brave, in theaters June 22nd.

Variety is reporting that from now on, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will now nominate ten films for Best Picture instead of five. According to the article, the change comes after some observations of the 2008 nominees and Oscars show by the Academy, critics and the public.

Perhaps after the exclusion of such films as Wall-E and The Dark Knight from the Best Picture category last year, much to the dismay of many film lovers, industry workers, and cinema critics, the Academy hopes to “widen the spectrum” of films nominated. The board hopes that this change will “make it more interesting and less cloistered” in the future, giving room for both small independent movies and big box office hits to win Best Picture.

This change will only affect the Best Picture category, and not any others. This also isn’t the first time the Academy has done this. The Best Picture category had ten nominees from 1931 to 1943.