REVIEW: 2010 Oscar Animated Shorts

Viewing the Oscar Animated Shorts in the theater has become a favorite February ritual of mine. It's enjoyable to watch them online, too, but there's something about the immersive theater experience that really makes these short films pop, even more so than feature length film. In these, every frame and every second counts, so the rich details are just jam packed into every corner of the screen.

Last year I didn't think there was any question as to which of the shorts was the best - La Maison en Petits Cubes, as I posted here numerous times, was the deserving winner. This year I'm not as confident either in the winner or even in my own opinion of what should win. Two of the films - A Matter of Loaf and Death and Logorama - stand out for their quality and creativity, respectively, so my guess is it will be one of those two, but whatever happens, here are my thoughts on the whole bunch. I've included trailers for most, but if they aren't at a theater near you I really urge you to find them online, not for the purposes of winning your Oscar pool, but because they really are astonishing achievements in animation.

A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park/U.K./30 minutes)

This Wallace and Gromit-starring short should be considered the front-runner at this point based on voters' familiarity with the franchise and the fact that it runs a full half-hour. Not to mention that claymation, in my opinion, is one of the most tedious forms of animation. A Matter of Loaf and Death features loads of humor on top of some really impressive effects; it's guaranteed to leave you smiling so I'd be surprised if AMPAS voters didn't reward it with a majority of votes.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan/Ireland/6 minutes)

Every year features a dark comic short - this year has at least three, with this one being the shortest and funniest. Sweet-looking Granny O'Grimm is full of resentment in her old age, and her bitterness comes out in a horrifying bedtime story told to her granddaughter. It's well paced and consistently chuckle-worthy, but maybe a little too edgy to take the prize. You can view the full film below and decide for yourself.

Logorama ("H5": Franςois Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, Ludovic Houplain/France/16 minutes)

Speaking of edgy, Logorama was so adult-oriented that it was preceded by an extended warning before it screened at the end of the program (even after the Highly Commended also-rans), ostensibly alerting parents to get their kids the heck out of the theater ASAP. Those who didn't may have regretted it, as their kids would soon see Ronald McDonald cussing up a storm and indiscriminately firing an assault rifle in public while holding two kids hostage.

I have to admit I found Logorama to be conceptually brilliant but thematically lacking. It looked beautiful and repulsive at the same time, but when the characters started talking my overall impression of it went downhill rather quickly. The script for this was uninspired and what I originally considered to be a satire of Quentin Tarantino-style storytelling soon began to look much more like an homage to it, and a bad one at that. I was also intrigued by the what the French filmmakers chose as American brands - I didn't recognize a large chunk of them, and I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to advertising. The result is a representation of the Los Angeles that looks foreign and intimately familiar at the same time.

Were the Academy to award Logorama the prize it would be a major departure from the feel-good warmth of previous winners. On the other hand, it may not be surprising for it to be rewarded for its ingenuity alone. It's also a film that gets people thinking and talking, evidenced by how much I've written here. Take a look at the first minute here for a taste; the full film is available but elusive online, so I wasn't going to bother embedding it only to see it removed.

The Lady & the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia/Spain/8 minutes)

Here's yet another film about death, or rather Death. An old widow dies in her sleep and the Grim Reaper is about to reunite her with her husband in the afterlife, when suddenly she is revived by a heroic doctor, much to her chagrin. What follows is a charged battle between the doctor and Death for the woman's soul. There were some great comic bits in this one but it seemed a bit long, which is never good for a nine minute film. It became a little repetitive and might have packed more of a punch in five or six minutes instead. Nevertheless it looked fantastic from the first frame to the last - I'd like to see more from this director.

 

French Roast (Fabrice O. Joubert/France/8 minutes)

Full disclosure: We walked in late and missed probably the first minute and a half of this short, so I had to play catch up to figure out what was going on. I loved the camera work in this short (strange to say for an animated film, but when you see it you'll know what I mean) and it was charming enough, but on balance I don't think it showed me anything I hadn't seen before. It's tailor-made for an Oscar nomination, but I would be surprised if voters awarded what is a pretty plain entry in this field. The full-length film is available below, at least until it's removed from YouTube:

Highly Commended:

These shortlisted films were not chosen as official nominees, but they were still included as part of the short film package screened in theaters.

Partly Cloudy (Peter Sohn/United States/6 minutes)
This Pixar-produced short was shown before Up in theaters last year, so it's probably the most widely-viewed among the collection. I actually liked this one a lot more the second time around for some reason, and while I rarely use the word "cute" to describe a film, there aren't many words better to describe Partly Cloudy.

Runaway (Cordell Barker/Canada/9 minutes)

Featuring possibly the best music in all of these films, Runaway was chuckle-inducing and distinctively drawn, but, like The Lady and the Reaper, it was maybe a couple minutes too long. There isn't much of a story arc here, although the film can reportedly be read as a social critique: a runaway train with no one at the controls, the rich and powerful in the front car exploiting, stripping, and robbing the rest of the population in the rear car.

The Kinematograph (Tomek Baginski/Poland/12 minutes)
I'm actually shocked this incredibly poignant film wasn't selected as a nominee: it is absorbingly animated, well-paced, meaningful, and about the very history of film itself. One would think AMPAS voters would have eaten it up, and I can only speculate that not enough of them saw it? Who knows. It didn't bring me to tears, but among these eight is has to be considered the most moving. Evidently Baginski is someone to keep an eye on - he was previously nominated for The Cathedral in 2002.