Best Animated Shorts: Just in Time for Oscar Night!

Oscar night is upon us!  Film nerds rejoice, for finally it’s completely acceptable and valued to know what the heck the assistant gaffer’s job it. This is our Superbowl – and man, am I excited!

Most of us saw the best picture nominees and can easily form an opinion for our Oscar predictions. But how many of us saw the less commercially visible films?  The documentaries?  The shorts?

For the benefit of the MDP community I’ve been charged to review and predict one of my favorite (and most fun!) category at the Academy Awards:  Best animated shorts.  So who’s nominated?

French Roast (France) – 8 minutes

A 3D animated short that finishes the joke: “a nun, a pickpocket and a bum walk into a bar…” (and no, the punch line isn’t ‘ouch’). The film takes place in a coffee shop where a slightly unscrupulous man is enjoying a cup of coffee and comes into contact with a cast of colorful characters who aren’t at all what you’d expect. The animation is very polished; I was particularly impressed with the attention to detail – like I could clearly see bits of detritus in the bum’s hair. Overall, the film is fun, quirky and oh so very French.

La Dama y la Muerte [The Lady and the Reaper] (Spain) – 8 minutes

For the first minute or so of La Dama y la Muerte I thought I was in for a 3D animated tearjerker.  A little old lady goes dies in her sleep in her ominously creaking farmhouse.  Her spirit leaves her body and is greeted by the Grim Reaper.  She happily meets and walks with him towards the light – only to be ripped back to earth by a macho doctor and his buxom nurses.  A comical, breakneck battle for the woman’s soul ensues.  The colors and pacing of this film are fantastic. The imagery of both ‘real life’ and death were handled in a wonderfully lighthearted way, and the film was a successfully cheeky interpretation of a normally heavy topic.

A Matter of Loaf and Death (United Kingdom) – 30 minutes

The iconic British pair, Wallace and Gromit, are back with an Oscar nominated claymation short! The film begins with the duo getting into a new business – bread – but there’s a new serial killer in town killing bakers by the dozen.   The film has everything that makes a Wallace and Gromit short great, like the character’s trademark overbites, silly movie references (this one has an homage to Ghost!), crazy breakfast making, Rube Goldberg machines and delightfully dry British humor.

Granny O’ Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Ireland) – 6 minutes

We all know that crazy grandmother who would tell us bedtime stories that would scare the bejezus out of us.  Granny O’ Grimm is a bitter Irish Grandmother who reinterprets the story of Sleeping Beauty to such an scary extreme that it terrifies her granddaughter.   Half of this film is done in 3D with the other half in traditional 2D animation.  The 3D component is a real testament to how spot on human models and fabric can get, and the 2D looks exactly like a twisted storybook (with plenty of humor sprinkled in). The last line of the film is a real winner – “I’ll see you in the morning, with the help of GOD!”  The film was also completely relatable, which really kicked up the funny factor.  I’ll admit, it took me way back to my Norwegian grandmother’s terrifying stories about child eating trolls. ::shiver::

Logorama (France) – 16 minutes

The copy of “Logorama” that I received started with the following:  “WARNING: Strong language and violence”.  What followed was the most creative, out-of the box, vulgar, and thought-provoking film of the bunch.  Logorama’s characters, buildings, and landscapes are built out of popular brand logos.  For a branding dork such as myself I could not help but fall in love with every frame of this movie – so much to look at! From the zoo filled with Republican Party elephants, Lacoste alligators and Playboy bunnies to a homicidal Ronald McDonald… I was in love. Shootouts, F-bombs flying though the air and brand character brains all over the streets made for a satirical look at our commercialized (and cinematic!) world that left me blown away.  The film has caught a little flack for being unsuitable for younger viewers, but who says an animated short has to be suitable for children?  Just look at late night Cartoon Network – competently acceptable and potentially brilliant!

Personally, my pick this year is Logorama.  The decision probably boils down to my love of irony, over-the-top crude and comic action sequences and my Tarentino-eque aesthetic.  But seriously… Logorama is completely innovative and unlike anything I’ve seen before.

Film geeks, pirates, and the like, best of luck on your Oscar Pools!