Animation Tidbits: 2020 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Well, it’s that time of year again; let’s do quick little reviews for all of the nominated animated shorts at the Oscars. In general, whether you enjoyed the theatrical animated features every year or not, you can always count on the animated shorts to pick up the slack. There is something so fun and entertaining to see stories told in just a few minutes or half an hour. I always love the variety as well. Where it can seem somewhat “samey” with what comes out in the US theatrical scene, the shorts always have variety in both story and animation. Well, I’m going to be looking at this year’s Oscar batch and the ones that didn’t make the cut, but were Highly Commendable. Let’s get started!

Hair Love 

Directed by Matthew A. Cherry, this short tackles the story of a father doing his daughter’s hair for the first time. I may have some bias for this one, because I have seen it multiple times in theater screenings, have a picture with me and the director, and a signed lithograph from him, but I love this short. First off, the 2D animation is adorable, the visuals are wonderful, the story itself is touching, and a lot of it is told with very little dialogue. The only dialogue you hear in the short is from the YouTube videos the daughter watches. The jokes are funny, the characters are loveable as all get out, and it was a real crowd-pleaser. If I had to choose from all of the really good shorts from this batch, Hair Love would be my choice to win.

Daughter

Directed by Daria Kashceeva, this stop-motion short focuses on a daughter seeing her dad in a hospital bed as she recollects on memories and interactions with her father. I think I love the technical and animation side of this short more than the actual story. The stop-motion is a little rough, and the camera being so close to the characters moved a bit too much for me, but man, this is an emotional and poignant short. While you can talk about the animation and the story itself, you get so much emotion out of the eyes, the movements, and the visuals. It’s quite a fantastic short. It might not be my favorite of the bunch, but I still think everyone should see it, and I can’t wait to see what Daria Kashceeva does next!

Sister

Directed by Siqi Song, the story revolves around a man remembering his life with his little sister when he was a child. I want to say more, but unless you know about an infamous policy China had until a few years ago, then I don’t want to spoil what happens. What’s kind of fun about this one is that it’s one of three stop-motion shorts that got nominated. The story itself is very misleading as it starts very cute and wholesome until the twist drops, and it ends up being a much more mature and sad experience. The stop-motion reminds me of what Wes Anderson would do on a smaller scale and budget, and I dug the overall story of this one. It’s a touching animated short that I thought was fantastic.

Memorable

Directed by Bruno Collet, the third stop-motion short of the five nominees focuses on an elderly artist who starts going through dementia as his world and memories become more abstract. While the topic of dementia hits a little too close to home for me on a personal level, this is a somber, but creative look at the topic. Due to the main character being an artist, they take advantage of that with some of the year’s best visual sequences. Seriously, the designs for the way the main character sees certain items and people are so beautiful. There is even a slight bit of dark humor that I don’t think fully mixes well with the drama of being with someone who suffers dementia, but I know this short has been popular among the festival circuit, and I can see why. Memorable is, well, memorable!

Kitbull

Directed by Rosana Sullivan, this short from Pixar’s Sparkshorts program focuses on the bond between a small black cat and a pit bull. It’s not shocking why this one was another crowd-pleaser. The 2D animation was also unique for this short, but the heart and soul was the dialogue-less chemistry between the kitten and the pit bull. Sure, we can jab (be respectful about it please) at Pixar for films like Brave and Cars 2, but when the artists, animators, writers, and such there get to do what they are good at, they put out stuff that’s cute, charming, and endearing on a very personal emotional level. Everyone at my theater was crying at the end, and it has a slight advantage over some of the more challenging shorts because it was free to watch online for months. It’s obvious to see why this is also a major front-runner and not just because it’s from Pixar.

Now we will move on to the shorts that didn’t get nominated but were Highly Commendable.

Henrietta Bulkowski

Directed by Rachel Johnson, the short follows the journey of a woman named Henrietta Bulkowski, voiced by Christina Hendrix, a woman with a large bone mass fused to her back that results in her being hunch-backed. Due to this, she can’t pass the physical exam needed to be a pilot. She finds a newspaper article that talks about a crashed plane in the dump, and she decides to take life into her own hands and repair it herself. Life won’t get in her way, and even if she has to avoid the grasp of a police officer she meets during this repair, she is going to be a pilot. Yeah, this is very much a modern-day fairy tale. It plays out like one, and the twist, which I won’t spoil here, unravels like something with fairy tale logic. If you watch this short with that in mind, then you will probably enjoy it more. The stop-motion animation is very pleasant, as Lift Animation’s work reminds me of films like Anomalisa. The only nitpick I have about this short is the narrator felt unnecessary, but if you can find this short when it’s more widely available, I recommend it.

The Bird and the Whale 

Directed by Carol Freeman, it tells the story of a baby whale who gets separated from his family, and encounters a caged bird that was the survivor of a shipwreck. This short is a technical beauty. The 2D painting animation, and yes, it is animated like Loving Vincent, gives you such a gorgeous experience that it slightly overshadows the story. The story itself is not the reason you watch this short, but the animation is. It’s not that the story is bad, but it’s a bit simple. I think the short runtime also hindered the story’s emotional core, but it’s a downright beautiful short, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Hors Piste

Directed by Loris Cavalier, Camille Jalabert, Oscar Malet, and Leo Brunel, this comedic story follows two rescuers who help get an injured skier off the mountain, and shenanigans ensue. Out of all of the shorts, this is the most outwardly comedic. It’s full of visual and physical jokes that we all kind of needed after so many of the shorts were more mature in their storytelling. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and that’s okay! It needed to be funny, and it was very amusing. I honestly wish this one was nominated instead of some of the other ones because it’s so clever with its comedy. This is a no-brainer on being a recommended short to check out.

Maestro

Directed by Florian Baikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Theophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, and Lucas Navarro, the same team behind 2017’s nominated Garden Party, this short, and I do mean short, is about a squirrel hosting an operatic orchestra with animals. Since it’s the same people behind Garden Party, the animation is realistic enough to look impressive, but also cartoony enough to not be in the uncanny valley. If I had to pick a short that was my least favorite of the ones I saw, it would be this one. Not that it’s a bad short, but it was really short, and felt tacked on to the end. It’s good, but I don’t know if my life would have been changed if I didn’t see this one. On its own, it’s cute and funny, but being the last short in this batch was disappointing. Check it out if you want, but I wish this series of shorts ended with Hors Piste.

There you have it! My quick little reviews of all of the nominated and Highly Commendable shorts! I hope you all have a good day, and good luck to the nominated shorts this Sunday!

Thanks for reading the review! I hope you all enjoyed reading it! If you would like to support my work, make sure to share it out, and if you want to become a Patreon supporter, then you can go to patreon.com/camseyeview. I will see you all next time!

Animation Tidbits #5: Oscar-nominated Shorts 2017

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this editorial!)

With the Oscars coming soon, I decided to do one last little editorial, talking about a section of the Oscars I honestly haven’t thought about covering, animated shorts. Not that I don’t watch them, because I do. I simply feel like they need a different mindset to tackle. However, I have had the opportunity to see all the nominated shorts in theaters. They were distributed by Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures, and it made making this editorial very easy. I’m going to go through the five nominated shorts, and the three additional shorts that were going to could have been chosen, but didn’t make it. They are going to be quick little paragraph reviews. I will also be going in the order they were presented. Let’s get started.

Dear Basketball

Narrated/produced by Kobe Bryant, and directed by Glen Keane, this is essentially an animated version of Kobe Bryant’s retirement letter, done in a pencil sketch style similar to the classic Christmas short, The Snowman. I was concerned about this one, since something about it always felt off. The letter itself and how it is narrated by Kobe himself is touching, and the pencil sketch style is really impressive, and it’s a solid short about dreams and passion. However, I find myself feeling cynical about it. It’s touching, but forgettable. I also found it to be a bit too manipulative for the emotional side of things. Not to say it’s a horrible short, because it’s not. Like I said, the speech itself is well-worded, John William’s score is great, as usual, and the animation stands out. I just didn’t like it as much as others. I also feel like the current movements in Hollywood will hold this short back, and might alienate non-fans of basketball. It’s a good short, but I personally won’t be rooting for it.

Negative Space

Directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Negative Space is about the bond the lead in the short had with his father over the fine art of packing clothes into suitcases. The stop-motion style has its charm with the doll-like character designs. It’s a cute little short about the ins and outs of making sure there is no negative space within the suitcase. It ends a bit abruptly for me, and maybe could have been a bit longer, but the short is well-made, and I understand why it’s being nominated for an Oscar.

LOU

It wouldn’t be the Oscars if Pixar didn’t have a short to contribute to the competition. Directed by Dave Mullins and produced by Dana Murray, LOU is about a Lost and Found Box that loves giving everyone the possessions they lost. When I went to the theater to see the shorts, this was one of the two that got the biggest reactions from the audience, in terms of enjoyment. Lou himself is a very creative character. Being made of all the apparel and items resulted in some very creative visuals. Seeing Lou shapeshift through different forms made by all the toys and clothes was the highlight of the short. The only problem I have with the film is that, while it is probably one of my favorites among the five nominated, it’s fairly Pixar. It has a lot of the typical story beats that you would see in most Pixar films. It’s not a super terrible thing, but you know what’s going to happen. Still, LOU is a fantastic short, and should have been in front of Coco instead of Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.

Revolting Rhymes

This first part of a two-part special based on the Roald Dahl book of fairy tales was easily the crowd favorite from my viewings, and is the short I am rooting for to win. I want to do a full review of part one and two, but I definitely want to do a small summary here. The first part is creative, the art style made the CGI look like stop-motion. While it might have dumbed down the darker tones of the book, it still has a lot of really dark jokes that made me, my friends, and the audience members in the theater laugh out loud. It’s a charming first part of the special, and I found how they handled the mixing of fairy tales creative.

Garden Party

Directed by Illogic Collective, a group of six 3D artists, Garden Party is a simple story about a bunch of frogs that explore a deserted house. The best thing about this short is the animation and characterization of the frogs. The almost photo-realistic look of the short is incredibly impressive. Sure, you can kind of tell it’s CGI, but some areas look fairly realistic. I liked that they gave the frogs little quirks, and found it cute as they explore the house and interact with one another. Now, while it is subtly told through environmental storytelling, I didn’t like the ending. I won’t say what it is, but it felt too dark for a short about some frogs exploring a house. It also has the moment when you can tell it’s CGI, since what is in the pool looks more cartoonish than realistic. I know some are saying this is going to win, but I think the ending is going to turn some people off. Even with my complaints, I still love the short.

We now will move on to the three shorts that were “Highly Commended”

Lost Property Office

Directed and written by Daniel Agdad, Lost Property Office is about an older gentleman who works at what is essentially a lost and found office. The drab color tones, and sly bits of humor is definitely why this one was close to being nominated. The stop-motion work was also well done. I think for me, this was one of the weaker shorts. The entire plot of the short is done with no dialogue, and I’m sure there is a deeper meaning to this short, but I have seen it twice now, and I don’t fully get it. It’s a pretty-looking short, but its story rang hollow. Maybe it’s more of a “not my cup of tea” situation, and the overall story is symbolic of the man and his job, but I didn’t quite get the appeal of this one. It felt more like it was chosen for its artistry than its story.

Weeds

Directed by Kevin Hudson, this short is about a dandelion flower that yearns for a better life on a lively field of grass. While the CGI is good, the message is what I liked about the film, and how it’s about the many people that go through challenges every day to make and find a better life. The CGI is good, but I didn’t find anything super remarkable about it. However, I felt like the story was more important. It was simple and to the point. I definitely liked this one.

Achoo

Finally, our last short is Achoo, a French-animated short about a Chinese dragon who wants to win a contest to be cherished by the humans. While this one is definitely the most cartoonish with the humor and designs, the CGI and textures are incredible. I have been vocal about how European CGI films have had issues with their lack of quality-looking CGI, and while this is a short, it looks great. The lighting looks impressive, the textures look marvelous with lots of little details, and the designs are cute. It has a few jokes that I didn’t care for, but for a harmless short, I enjoyed it. If I had to choose which one of the three I liked the most, it would probably be Achoo for visuals and WEEDS for story.

Thanks for reading! What short did you like the most? I’ll see you all next time!