No big surprises in Oscar noms

Per usual, not too much for genre fans to get excited about. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I suppose could classify as fantasy, sort of, had the most nods this year, including Best Picture and Actor. Heath Ledger is up for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, but the movie failed to get any other major nominations. It is up for the usual throw-them-a-bone categories of Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Wall-E did pretty good – it failed to get a Best Picture nod as many were hoping for, but it is up for Animated Film (duh,) Original Screenplay, Original Song, and several technical awards.

The Visual Effects category puts Benjamin Button up against The Dark Knight and ILM’s Iron Man.

UPDATE: StarWars.com has a full listing of all ILM and Skywalker Sound Oscar nominations, as well as BAFTA and VES nods.

The fandom minute: Star Wars yoda; Return of the Jedi Obama references; cakes and parties

Matthew Latkiewicz explores the comedy potential of Star Wars branded yoga in a series of correspondence between faux Lucasfilm executive Steve Jones and George Lucas.

The Clone Wars: Now with lemurs

The Clone Wars: Jedi Crash

Friday’s ‘Jedi Crash’ brings the Jedi to Maridun, home of a colony of Irish-accented Lurmen. In the video commentary, Dave Filoni talks about the comic book influences in the episode.

Catchup: Holiday weekend link parade

Star Wars: People seemed really excited about the Battlefront III Sith Obi-Wan concept. I’m underwhelmed. Slightly more interesting is this Vader gas mask, which is the first piece revealed from a new round of The Vader Project.

Wacky merchandise: Tiny Mos Eisleys for you and me

Hawthorne Village, which produces those little Christmas villages beloved by grandmas, aunties, and other connoisseurs of twee*, is now a Star Wars licensee. First up is the Mos Eisley Cantina, which Rebelscum has thoughtfully provided a picture of. (Click the picture above to go directly to the full ad.) I’m getting a total kick out of the image of fanboys drooling all over these things, and/or little kids begging Mom to include the Hoth Rebel base next December.

* They have the Thomas Kinkade license: ‘Nuff said. And, less alarmingly, Disney, which leads to Pirates of the Caribbean.