A Reel Review: The Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films

Utilizing varying styles of animation and traditional storytelling, this year’s group of nominees for Best Animated Short are a colorful and entertaining lot; each worth seeing more than once. In no particular order:

DAY & NIGHT (USA)
A story of what happens when a Day, a sunny character, meets Night, a dark and moody character. The two meet, disagree, scuffle, and in the end realize how alike they really are.

DAY & NIGHT is a Pixar production that ran in front of TOY STORY 3 this year, and is the most-seen film out of the group. Using what looks like hand-drawn animation with the usual Pixar graphics, it uses the age-old tale of strangers going through conflict before coming to friendship.

THE GRUFFALO (UK/Germany)
A little mouse takes a stroll through the woods in search of lunch (a nut), and comes across mouse-eating predators. The mouse makes up a character known as a Gruffalo to thwart them, before realizing that the creature is real.

THE GUFFALO is the only film to utilize the voice talent of some heavyweight actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Wilkinson, and John Hurt. It’s a simple tale of boy-cries-wolf combined with a Dr. Seuss narration that really entertains and bring smiles. The (CG) animated characters are a bit rigid, but their vibrant design, along with the lushness of their environment, make up for it.

LET’S POLLUTE (USA)
A modern satire on how pollution is our national heritage and keeps our economy strong.

LET’S POLLUTE is structured as a PSA in reverse; remember all the “keep America clean” spots on Saturday mornings? This is just the opposite; done in the same spirit and style. The traditional animation strikes a perfect tone for the film, which feels like something the EPA would be dying to get their hands on.

THE LOST THING (Australia/UK)
In a utopian society where everything has a number and a place, a boy finds a bizarre creature and sets out to find a place for it.

THE LOST THING is a coming-of-age story disguised as a fantasy film. The CG isn’t the real star as much as the world that the characters and creatures inhabit, and overall has all the right pieces for a feature-length film.

MADAGASCAR, CARNET DE VOYAGE (France)
A journey-diary of a European traveler who ventures out to view a funeral-tradition of the people of Madagascar.

VOYAGE is by far the strongest of the nominees in style; it uses various art-forms from all over the world (watercolor, charcoal, colored pencils, etc.) and animates them. Every other scene changes styles as the traveler goes on. VOYAGE is a stylistic adventure in search of a story, of which there really isn’t one. The changing of animation styles gets old after a while, and the lack of any story or characters turns it more into a musical montage.