Sure the Oscars have come and gone, but a sweet tooth is never irrelevant. Bakerella — a site dedicated to fun and easy baking ideas — has showcased a line of goodies centering around the movie award season. The collection includes tributes to Coraline, The Princess and the Frog and Up.

Click through for full baking instructions.

Coraline Cookies

These bite-size peanut butter buttons are super easy to make and fun to eat. Keep your eyes on them, though. They’ll disappear quickly.

Ribbits & Royalty

Frog cake pops! Cute enough to kiss and sweet to eat.

Upcakes

These upcakes will put a smile on the young and old alike. They use miniature multicolored confetti sprinkles to represent balloons and buttercream frosting for clouds.

Button, button, who’s got the button!?  I happened upon an awesome Coraline-inspired costume project where a fan constructed ‘button eyes’ for her guise as the “Other Mother” character.  The awesomeness lies in the fact that the buttons are made using either prescription lenses or non-prescription resulting in fairly unobstructed vision.

The fan’s handy-work is a result of the following DIY instructions (make a mental note for Halloween 2010):

Coraline Button Eyes (see through and prescription)

Image via briemoo

With the various upcoming movie awards pomp and circumstance, relatively older movies such as Coraline are getting their second wind within the scope of entertainment relevancy.  Apple has released a brand new behind-the-scenes look at the Oscar-nominated fantasy/horror flick.

Among other topics, director Henry Selick discusses the “look” they were trying to accomplish with Coraline herself — as well as the supporting characters — and the amount of models and artists needed to create just the right expressions.  As is the case with most stop-motion productions, the statistics are staggering.

Source(s):
Behind the Scenes Look at Coraline [Movie Cultist]

Director: Shane Acker Starring: voices of Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly Running Time: 1 hour, 19 minutes Theatrical Release: September 9, 2009 Shop for 9 Merchandise

Plot Summary

“9″ stars Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and features the music of Danny Elfman. When “9″ (“The Lord of the Ring’s” Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

9 is a feature film born out of director Shane Acker’s 2005 student award-winning animated short by the same title. Acker’s 9 caught the attention of one Tim Burton and, along with Timur Bekmambetov, produced the big screen version of Acker’s post-apocalyptic tale. As such, it should not come as a surprise that the gorgeously morbid visual backdrop for the film is quite easily its most outstanding quality. Within this “steampunk” style adventure, you will immediately immerse yourself in the desolate world in which main character, 9, awakens after being “breathed” to life by a scientist.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

I truly appreciated the distinct “ragdoll” look of 9 himself and the other characters he met along the way. Although they all look the same — aside from certain differentiating quirks — and do not have actual names (the beings are just numbered 1 through 9), I found myself heavily connected to the feelings of each individual as the story unfolded. With each moment of peril, more and more of each characters’ traits are revealed in a logical format.

Which leads me to the actual story content. The formula may have been just a bit too logical. Streamlined. Certainly not the type of straight-laced yarn I would have expected from a film with such unique and powerful visual charm. I spent most of my time viewing the movie just waiting for that one moment…a signature moment in the film which would suck me in beyond visual-appeal alone. Unfortunately, for me, this never happened.

Regarding content for children, parents, just keep in mind that 9 is rated PG-13. The film features a dark and gritty atmosphere in which several potentially frightening monsters prowl. However, use your judgement based on what your children usually watch. 9 is the same type of fare offered up by titles such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. So if those movies currently reside in your media library, then by all means, 9 will be a welcome addition for the family.

Overall, 9 is a title that shouldn’t be missed. Especially by those who appreciate the darker side of animation as opposed to standard bright and splashy family entertainment. As mentioned, the visuals absolutely carry this film, and in a rarity, those merits alone make 9 a worthy flick. If the story were a bit more compelling, this would be a no-doubt-about-it classic.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its 2010 award nominees and Disney/Pixar’s Up is nominated for Best Picture (period), while also represented in the Animated Motion Picture category along with 9, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Princess and the Frog.

2009 has probably been the strongest year for animated feature films in terms of quality and the gaining of respect from the movie industry.  The PGA awards — which recognize the best film productions and producers — are often an indicator of which films will succeed at the Oscars.

The PGA Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year film award is a reliable bellwether for the Academy Award for best picture. Last year’s PGA winner, “Slumdog Millionaire,” went on to capture Oscar’s top prize. In fact, 13 PGA winners over the last two decades have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture.

With so many great candidates in the animated category, it’s difficult to say which will come out on top.  Disney Pixar’s Up is gorgeous, hopeful and tugs at your heart strings.  9 goes against most tendencies with animation and ditches the blast of colorful images, instead opting for a dark post-apocalyptic tale — beautiful in its own right.  Coraline is an eery adventure which succeeds with a mixture of macabre and classic fairytale imagery.  Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox nails every single detail in it’s whimsical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book.  The Princess and the Frog breathes life into the stagnant Disney Princess while at the same time honoring its classics with good old fashioned hand-drawn storytelling. Certainly an exciting time for animation fans.

Which movie do you think deserves the PGA award and possibly an Oscar?  Do you think Up has a chance to walk away with “Best Picture?”

The 21st Annual PGA Awards takes place on January 24th at the Hollywood Palladium.

Source(s):
PGA Awards nominate ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Avatar’ for best picture [Gold Derby -- LA Times]

Universal Home Video will be offering up yet another iteration of the critically acclaimed stop-motion animated 3-D fantasy, Coraline.  Following the film’s initial July releases of special edition DVD and Blu-ray packs, comes a new Limited Edition Gift Set available in both formats.  The new collection will be available beginning December 8 and will include the following:

• 4 pairs of 3-D glasses
• Limited Edition Coraline postcards
• Limited Edition Book: Getting Things Right

Other than the accompanying book, in which director Henry Selick writes about the creative process behind the film, I don’t believe there is enough incentive here for anyone who may have already purchased their copy of Coraline which also included a 3-D version with glasses.  However, this is certainly a no-brainer for any fan of the moody mis-adventure who had not yet sprung for the previous collector’s edition.

Source(s):
Universal reveals details and package artwork for a new limited edition giftset [dvdactive]