It certainly was an eventful night in the Kodak Theater, Hollywood, last night. Returning to the role of host, Billy Crystal enlivened proceedings with his now traditional mocked up appearances in several of the year’s big movies, as well as his razzmatazz singsong announcements of the five Best Picture nominees, “It’s A Wonderful Night For Oscar”. Throughout the night, the well-known Michael Eisner-Roy Disney argument was let off pretty lightly, though Crystal did refer to it at one point during his opening rendition of Mystic River, sung to, of course, Old Man River: “There’s a shooting, and there’s a beating; It’s like a Disney and Eisner meeting” he crooned. Another song lampooned, this time in the cause for the eventual topper of the evening, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, was My Favorite Things from The Sound Of Music. “Sorry Julie”, Crystal quipped to the star of that classic film, Julie Andrews (soon to be heard as Fiona’s mother in the Shrek sequel), who was on hand to see her husband, Pink Panther director Blake Edwards, accept an Honorary Oscar from Jim Carrey, in possibly the show’s funniest moment, which saw the veteran zoom past in a wheelchair to clutch his award before crashing into the scenery in true Clouseau style!

Unlike previous years, there were no animated characters inserted into the live program to present the animation awards (guess that CG Mickey really scared ’em off!), but the almost animated Robin Williams stepped in. Known for his previous disagreements with the Disney Company, he took a more scathing approach to Eisner: “I’m here tonight to present the award for Best Animated Feature. One of them is made by the French, one by Disney and one by Pixar, formerly of Disney. Makes you think of a French Minnie Mouse”, he said, assuming a French accent, “with armpit hair, smoking a cigarette, going ‘What are you doing Michael Eisner? Listen, if you lose Miramax all you are going to have left IS basically a Muppet and a water slide’!” Guess he won’t be appearing on the Aladdin: Platinum Edition DVD anytime soon, then! Eisner was spared any more comments, particularly from Roy Disney himself, when Destino failed to grab the Best Animated Short Film prize, something more astounding by the fact that it didn’t go to its nearest rival, Pixar’s Boundin’ either, instead ending up in the hands of Adam Elliot for Harvie Krumpet, which was the outside choice with a number of wins at last year’s Annecy festival.

Best Animated Feature went, as many expected, to Finding Nemo, accepted by the film’s writer-director Andrew Stanton. “Finding Nemo would have never been possible if it wasn’t for the extraordinary filmmaking environment created at Pixar Animation Studios by John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs. And I am going to be forever grateful to the entire cast and crew of Nemo for the giving of their incomparable talents to this little fish story that I had”, he said, adding thanks to his producer, co-director and the “incredible distribution team at Disney”, as well as telling his wife that he loved her in front of the worldwide audience of one billion people! Though it was certainly a favorite, Nemo failed to pick up its further nominations in Sound Editing, Score or Original Screenplay. Going away totally empty handed was The Triplets Of Belleville, surely a close second to Nemo’s win, which also lost its Best Song nod (despite an energetic live performance) to The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, which triumphed in all eleven categories it was nominated in – a record first for the Academy Awards! Anticipation mounted during the evening, as the culmination of the juggernaut Rings Trilogy took away award after award, finally, and justifiably, nabbing the big two: Director Peter Jackson being crowned the new “king of the world”, and the winning of the all-important Best Picture, reportedly the first time this prize has gone to an all-out fantasy genre film, and only the second time the award has been handed to a sequel (after The Godfather, Part II).

Tributes were also given to long-time Oscar host Bob Hope, Kathryn Hepburn, Gregory Peck and others whom we have lost to the “giant archive in the sky”, including screenwriter David Newman (Superman: The Movie), Buddy Ebsen (Davy Crockett), John Ritter (Clifford The Big Red Dog), Buddy Hackett (The Love Bug, The Little Mermaid), composer Michael Kamen (The Iron Giant, X-Men) and Donald O’Connor (Singin’ In The Rain). And as for Oscar himself? Well he goes back into the vault for another twelve months, with the 2005 show already in the works, and a full year’s worth of movies to get us there. Who’ll be taking the little golden guy home next year? Will Pixar win consecutively for The Incredibles? Will Shrek 2 repeat its predecessor’s success, or will Disney Feature Animation finally get an award in the category that it helped initiate, and for its last foray into the traditional animated world, this summer’s Home On The Range? Only time will tell, of course, but the count down to the 77th Academy Awards, unbelievable as it may seem, has already started!

Check out our full list of the 2004 nominees and winners right here!