Academy Award-Nominated Animated Shorts

B Collection of animated shorts

Various theaters around the Bay will screen the Oscar-nominated short subjects next week. I got to screen them early. I’ll tell you about the animated shorts here, and the live-action ones in a later post.

The animated shorts vary from conventional to creative, hilarious to poetic, and masterful to mediocre. If you’re thinking about bringing your kids, they’re all child appropriate, and most of them are child-entertaining. Some may even be child enlightening.

This program includes two film that failed to receive nominations as well as the five nominees. The nominees are not all better than the extras – not by a long shot.

Nominees

Day & Night: There’s a good chance you’ve seen this one. It played in theaters with Toy Story 3, and is included in that hit’s DVD and Blu-ray packages. It’s a very fun, nice little parable about conflict. But let’s face it: In a field that should be dominated by independents, a Pixar title released by Disney feels like the establishment choice.

The Gruffalo: The other establishment choice, and in many ways the more conventional of the two. While the animation isn’t anywhere near the Pixar level, this children’s tale from England has big production values of another sort.  The all-star voices include those of Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, and Robbie Coltrane. Based on the book by Julia Donaldson, it’s nearly 30 minutes long and quite funny, but unexceptional.

Let’s Pollute: Green agitprop in the form of a parody of 1950’s educational films. If I hadn’t agreed so much with the message, I doubt I would have laughed anywhere near as much. This is the only nominee that didn’t appear to be created on a computer.

The Lost Thing: The best of the lot. A boy finds and befriends a huge entity who appears to be part machine and part organic–although not in an Earthling sort of way. Two things raise this above your typical "He followed me home; can I keep him?" story. First, the lost thing itself is one amazing and funny design. Second, it’s set in what appears to be an Orwellian dystopia.

Madagascar, Carnet De Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary):  The weakest short in the program. This 10-minute travelogue doesn’t really tell you much about the large island or its people. What’s worse, it would have been better – but still not very good – in live action. The animation just got in the way.

Playing but not nominated

The Cow That Wanted To Be a Hamburger: Anything by Bill Plympton is worth seeing. This five-minute fable about a calf, blinded by advertising into some very self-destructive behavor, warmed the cockels of this particular vegetarian’s heart – and also tickled his funny bone.

Urs: This wordless gem is almost as good as "The Lost Thing," and in a fair world, would have made the nomination before four of the shorts that beat it. In a lonely cottage, a frail old woman is cared for lovingly by a strapping younger man (her son?). Before the short is over, they will undertake a difficult and dangerous journey. The reason isn’t fully explained, but I think it was to see a sunset.