Director Pete Docter hopes his hit comedy Up will become the first animated film since 1991′s Beauty and the Beast to vie for a Best Picture Oscar, now that the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences has expanded the annual list of nominees to 10.

Up, about an old man and a boy who float off to South America in a house tied to helium balloons, has earned wide acclaim from both fans and critics since its theatrical release last May.

Beauty and the Beast remains the only animated movie ever nominated for Best Picture in the show’s more than 80 year history. Nonetheless, Docter is hoping Oscar voters will evaluate his film the same way it evaluates others when it is time to select nominees for the 2010 ceremony.

“We happen to use computers to be telling the story, but it’s first and foremost about the storytelling, just like anything else,” the lensman told Reuters. “For the world to look at it that way as well, that would be great.”