ANIMATED SHORTS 2014

We went to a screening of all the Oscar nominated animated short films. Here they are:

Get A Horse! – 2013

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

• Best Animated Short Film (Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim)

Christopher

I really enjoyed this short but I think the downfall to me was the CG color part of the film. I just wasn’t really into the art style. It reminded me too much of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I think that’s the name of the show. All the characters are just bright and shiny, not as interesting as the black and white drawn style.

Elizabeth

I really liked the idea behind Get A Horse!. It opens with a classic-looking Mickey Mouse cartoon, complete with a small aspect ratio that almost makes it looks like we’re watching through a nickelodeon. The characters break out of the screen, though, and end up on a stage as 3D characters, interacting with the characters inside the screen. While I really liked how they played with different styles of animation and layered them on top of each other, I just wasn’t really into how the 3D characters looked. But overall, it was fun and I liked the idea of old Disney interacting with new Disney.

MR HUBLOT – 2013

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

• Best Animated Short Film (Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares)

Christopher

I thought the animation was impressive but I found the story to be boring. We get that he has some form of OCD and we know that he’s eventually going to get the dog. I mostly found this short boring.

Elizabeth

I think the biggest fault with Mr Hublot for me was there was a lot going on with little time to tell the story. It takes place in a mechanical world, and I’m not sure if Mr. Hublot is an android or what, but he’s definitely endearing and definitely has OCD. He saves a mechanical dog, who grows bigger until Mr. Hublot has to move to accommodate him. It’s a cute story and it looks cool, but I just didn’t really feel a connection to it.

FERAL – 2012

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

• Best Animated Short Film (Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden)

Christopher

I really liked the animation style but the story just remind me of The Croods haha. Honestly I think this was one of the better ones ’cause I paid attention the whole time.

Elizabeth

I think Feral was my least favorite of the animated shorts. It wasn’t bad and it wasn’t uninteresting, I just sort of didn’t like it? It was so stylized that I actually found it sort of difficult to pay attention and follow the story. I do think it’s worth seeing because it looks so different, but it just wasn’t really my cup of tea.

POSSESSIONS – 2012

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

• Best Animated Short Film (Shuhei Morita)

Christopher

This one was pretty good. The biggest thing I didn’t liked was that the protagonist’s animation made him look like he stepped out of a video game. Other than that I found the story to be interesting and the background animation to be beautiful. I have always been super into Japanese culture and I am currently reading Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki, one of the greatest comic writer and artist I have ever seen, and this short was in the same vein of most of his stories. Focused on an individual but full of Japanese folklore.

Elizabeth

I loved Possessions. The story was interesting and crazy, but it was also just so beautiful. There’s a ton of color and textures, and the way the different objects react with the character and the environment looked real cool. It was also sort of creepy, which I liked, and also not totally tragic, which I loved. If I were to just look at screenshots of all the shorts, I probably would think Possessions would be my least favorite because I really have no interest in anime. And maybe I wouldn’t want to watch a 90 minute version of Possessions, but as a short it was fantastic.

ROOM ON THE BROOM – 2012

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

• Best Animated Short Film (Max Lang and Jan Lachauer)

Christopher

This was by far the best animated short. The animation was the best and even though the story was simple and basically a kids book come to life, it still had the best story. Watch this if you haven’t!

Elizabeth

Maybe it’s lame of me, but Room on the Broom was my favorite of the animated shorts. I say it’s lame of me because it’s probably the most traditional out of all the shorts, basically telling a cute fairytale. But I loved it! It was cute and funny enough that it wasn’t boring. I loved how it looked; I guess it was claymation? But it all looked very clean and sweet. And I loved that it had cute animals in it, but nothing bad happened to any of them and it wasn’t sad. This is a short I would watch with my 4 year old niece. So sweet!