Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

Another great year for animation.

If you get a chance to see the Oscar nominations (and they are online), then do so.

From CartoonBrew:

• Watch French Roast.
• Watch Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty.
• Watch The Lady and the Reaper.
• Watch A Matter of Loaf and Death.
• Watch Logorama.

French Roast was an amusing tale of some unusual patrons in a French cafe. I was impressed with the simplicity of this short and the effective camera.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty is a hilarious short dominated by the great voice acting of the creator Kathleen O'Rourke.

The Lady and the Reaper - this is my pick to win - a bittersweet tale of a woman near death and a doctor who fights to save her. A slapstick tale of death!?

Wallace and Gromit are back in A Matter of Loaf and Death - the typically excellent clay figurines are in a new caper. Nothing new here.

Logorama is the most subversive of all of these films and I was surprised it got nominated. It SHOULD win, but it will not. A dark tale told completely through the use of corporate logos/mascots it pits a foul-mouthed Michelin Man against Ronald McDonald playing like Heath Ledger's The Joker, but the real star is the constant hammering of the corporate presence into every space in the film.

Cinematical review.

Several other shorts are playing along with the Oscar nominees (see Playback for a list).

The White Ribbon

Disturbing, alarming, unnerving, and yet slightly unsatisfying.

A dark portrait of life in a small village in Germany just prior to the start of WWI, Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon is up for two Oscars (best foreign language and cinematography). The film explores some disturbing events that take place in this village, some answered, some left to the imagination, all of which may help explain, or not, events that later occur in Germany.

Stark, black and white, and with minimal score (no music except diegetic hymns and piano playing), the film was completely riveting.

Highly recommended.

Two Docs

Both dealing with very horrific experiences but in different ways.

Waltz with Bashir is getting numerous awards and buzz, some of it due to the unusual nature of it being an animated documentary (Wikipedia, IMDB, web). It explores the remembered, misremembered, and forgotten experiences of Israeli soldiers during the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatila massacres. The name Bashir in the title refers to the Phalangist leader Bashir Gemayel whose assassination led in part to the tragedy explored in the film.













Trouble the Water (IMDB, web) is another doc dealing with tragedy: Hurricane Katrina and the vicious aftermath. Using footage shot by a survivor (Kim Rivers Roberts) who decided to stay when the storm hits, the film shows the utter devastation caused by the natural force of the hurricane. As we all know, the destruction caused by human ignorance, neglect, unpreparedness, and hubris turns out to be far greater. Following the survivors both during and after the storm results in a fantastic story that everyone in America should see.













Of the two I think Trouble the Water is the better film. Bashir deals with horrific experiences, but in the reliving and retelling of them. There appears to be no consequences to the exploration of memories of a horrific event, and apparently little long term repercussions to those who witnessed them besides bad dreams and memory gaps. In Trouble the Water, the repercussions are real and immediate, both good and bad. Although the plight of poverty and racism taints the entire Katrina event, there still appears in this film a thread of hope. Bashir never transcends its animated reimaginings, and in fact, abandons the them at the end, something that I think arguably concedes that the way they were used is flawed.

Still, I highly recommend both films. Both are nominated for Oscars, although in different categories, so they both could win.

Oscar Animated Shorts Nominees

Are playing in select cities. If you get a chance, check them out on the big screen.

The nominees are:

“I Met the Walrus”
Animation and line drawings set to a recorded interview with John Lennon in 1969 (which some kid recorded after having snuck into John's hotel room).

“Madame Tutli-Putli”
National Film Board of Canada (yah) makes a very strange puppet/animation mix.

“Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”
This one is pretty amusing. A priest is trying to sell the afterlife to someone who is about to die anyways.

“My Love (Moya Lyubov)”
Animated painting (oil on glass). The story is mediocre, but the animation is definitely unique.

“Peter & the Wolf”
This one is my favorite. Not sure of the techniques, but it is a well told story (no dialog) that mixes humor and horror, comedy and drama wonderfully.

Some are also available online:

Ticklebooth has a list.
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