Best Animated Short Roundup

FYI to my fellow Milwaukee residents: The Times Cinema will once again be hosting the Academy Award nominated short films.

Unfortunately, the Live Action program starts on Friday, Feb. 23rd, and runs for a week. So they don't show the Animated shorts until March 1st, which is obviously after the awards ceremony.

But of Course, that's why we have YouTube. Four out of the five films are up in their entirety, so I here will link to them (some are in multiple parts, so embedding would be a little ridiculous), and post my reviews and thoughts.

I Met The Walrus -Trailer
link

This looks very cool in design, and originality is often a key factor. Last year The Danish Poet (Part I, Part II) was clearly the easiest film to animate, but far and away the best story of the five nominees and it won. I Met the Walrus is a 2D sort of animation show, set word by word to an interview with John Lennon conducted by a renegade 14 year-old in 1969. It is only five minutes long, though I have little clue if that counts against it. Josh Raskin, the director, has no previous awards pedigree either.

Peter And The Wolf
Part I Part II Part III

Excellently done in claymation, if a little slow developing. Suzie Templeton, a BAFTA winner for her short film Dog in 2002, adds a few subtle touches to the edges of the classical music piece (what's with the kid throwing Peter in a dumpster?), but it doesn't really set itself apart.

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven
link

A funny, wacky piece, in lieu of any Pixar shorts this year (wasn't there one attached to the Ratatouille DVD? What happened there?). A con-man priest tries to sell an old man a machine that will transport him to heaven in an eight minute entry that curiously never mentions pigeons. Director Samuel Tourneux is also a newcomer to the awards circuit.

Madame Tutli-Putli
Part I Part II

Our third claymation entry, and a weird one. A slow developing, silent piece about a woman who boards a train, and has progressively creepier things start happening to her. It has grating violin music, and tries a little too hard to be avante garde for me. It's kind of like if a David Lynch film were shortened to seventeen minutes, but still managed to be as slow-paced as it was to begin with.

My Love
Part I Part II Part III

I actually remember watching the Oscars in 2000, and seeing a short clip of Aleksandr Petrov's The Old Man and The Sea (Part I, Part II), and dropping my jaw in amazement for a second before saying "that has to win." And it did. His next film, eight years later, looks just as amazing as it tells a story of a young man confused about love. Or something- the subtitles on this copy are pretty wonky, and I'm relatively sure they're missing a lot of important lines, but the visual experience of this one is worth it. So much work went into this hand-painted film that it seems impossible to beat.

Thoughts on the Live Action Shorts right before the Oscars, if I have the time in the two days beforehand to see them. I'm still flying blind on Documentary Shorts, though- damn them.