Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation
IFC Film Center, March 16, 2012
Movie #12 for 2012
An indie cinema in Manhattan runs programs of all the Oscar nominated shorts - what an awesome idea!!
Honestly, I wouldn’t have liked to be judge of this batch - they were all so, so good. And because it’s not a glamour category that is completely contentious (like best animated feature) or a waste of time category that nobody cares about (like best sound editing), the field was unheralded and really really strong.
Sunday (Canada) had a beautiful, scratchy hand-drawn feel, all cartoony lines and 2D - and a grey and brown palette that spoke to the dejectness of the main character, a little boy drudging his way through his Sunday - visits to church and grandma - despite a few eventful and somewhat miraculous things along the way.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessman (USA) was a stunningly made and executed film, although perhaps a little bit saccharine for my taste. Won the Oscar though, so clearly not too saccharine for the academy. In a Hurricane (Katrina via the Wizard of Oz), Morris Lessman’s life, and the lives of others, are blown to a land of despair without stories or color. Gradually, he and the others re-engage with story, get their color back and live fulfilled lives. Also, the books can fly? Sounds a bit weird, writing it out, but honestly, it’s a neat idea and the animation was kick arse.
La Luna (USA) - the Pixar entry - is a cracker. All the things you expect from Pixar - it’s imaginative, it’s funny, it has a cute main character with massive eyes (pictured), it has charmingly off-beat side characters, it has a journey and some wonderful effects. It’s a bit of a shame that the most magical part of it was ripped off wholesale from Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics without acknowledgement, but it is still seriously cool.
A Morning Stroll (UK) is a neat experiment in the passing of time and the development of technology. The same story - of a man walking down the street who is stopped short by the sight of a chicken, coming around the corner, tapping at a door and being let in - is told three times, in 1959, 2009 and 2059. The animation style changes each time from old timey to modern to futuristic, and the setting and the story changes too. By 2059 (post zombie apocalypse), the animation has a sick humor and visual style that put me very much in mind of happy dance. It’s neat and the repetition is handled well.
Wild Life (Canada) is the story of a naifish Englishman who moves to Canada in 1910 to be a rancher, he tells his parents, but really not to do much at all. Interestingly, the only non-wordless (what’s the opposite of wordless? worded? talky?) film in the bunch. The animation style is lovely - all oil painting that must have been incredibly laborious to make and very difficult to animate well (which they certainly do). It reminded me a little of the wild and organic feeling animation – and deadpan sense of humor - of the late, great Sarah Watt.
