This year's Oscar nominations for Best Animated Short Film - a genre perpetually overlooked by the general public - are quite the underdogs. Despite their limited budgets, these films offer a diverse range of international animations that have rather unusual and engaging storylines and achieve a great deal in terms of their visual quality.
When the word "animation" is uttered this year with reference to the Oscars, the first thing it is most likely to bring to mind is no other than Cameron's excessively expensive movie Avatar.
However, this film is not even nominated for the best animated feature and Cameron himself does not consider it truly to be a work of "animation." Although it is true that no production we have come across this year beats Avatar in terms of animation technology and quality, there are many animations out there that reach far beyond the confined, predictable and banal storyline of Avatar.
Unlike what most might think, the nomination is not principally intended to be an advertising opportunity for these animated shorts. There are certain criteria through which these shorts have to pass before they are considered for a nomination, such as having been featured in New York City and Los Angeles, which makes the animations known among the followers of the genre.
This year, out of the 16 animated shorts that caught the attention of the Academy, five were nominated for Oscars and three were highly commended.
All of these can now be seen in the few movie theaters (including Baltimore's own Charles Theatre) which screen the Shorts International's compilation, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010. The compilation also includes the short live-action films, which are screened separately from the animated shorts.
The program starts with French Roast (France), a 3-D animation in which a businessman in a Parisian café tries to find a way to pay his bill after realizing that he has no money on him. While he keeps ordering more cups of coffee to avoid paying the bill, he encounters a beggar, a drunk policeman and an old lady who turns out to be not as innocent as she seems.
La Dama Y La Muerte (The Lady and the Reaper) (Spain) is a funny contemplation on the hour of death of an old lady who is ready to finally reunite with her deceased husband. However, just as the reaper is ready to claim her soul a doctor brings her back to life, starting a race between him and the reaper over the life of the poor lady.
The longest animation of the program is A Matter of Loaf and Death (UK) with more than half an hour of running time and which features the popular British characters Wallace and Gromit. In this start-stop motion clay animation, Wallace and Gromit start a new bread-baking business which is threatened by Wallace's blooming relationship.
As always, the loyal Gromit comes to the rescue and saves the business. Wallace & Gromit features have received two of the three Oscar nominations for the best animated shorts thus far, and this highly entertaining animated short - even though it becomes rather weary towards the end - is a strong candidate again this year for the Oscar.
In Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Ireland), an old granny tells a highly modified version of the well-known tale "Sleeping Beauty" to her terrified granddaughter. 2-D scenes are used to depict the fairy tale as it is told by the granny whereas the remaining scenes are portrayed in 3-D to create a distinction between reality and the fairy tale world. As the story unfolds, the granny introduces the evil old fairy into the tale. This evil fairy is very angry at the young fairies for not having been invited her to the baby shower, and she crashes the party with her curses. The producers cleverly use sound effects, lighting and colors to make this simple story into a very entertaining animated short.
A warning of offensive language and violence precedes the last feature in the program, Logorama (France), which draws upon the highly materialized modern society. The story takes place in a world made up of trademarks - of US companies for the most part - and other common logos and symbols encountered frequently in daily life. Even the people on the streets resemble the yellow AIM figure, the Wendy's cowboy or M&M peanuts. Michelin Men are the policemen in this world, trying to catch the McDonald's clown, who is terrorizing the city with his RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) rifles. In the midst of all the chaos, an earthquake begins to shake the world, causing oil to spurt out from cracks everywhere. In the end, the whole world is submerged under oil except for a tiny piece of land on which the only two survivors are BigBoy and a waitress in an Esso t-shirt. Perhaps using trademarks that are protected under the law without permission is not such a big deal when they are used in the context of satire, but McDonald's probably won't be among the fans of this animation.
The animated shorts nominees represent a diverse range of film-making talents that should not be missed. Catch them while you can as they play at select times and dates at the Charles until March 4. Additionally, individual features will be available for download from the iTunes Store beginning March 2nd.
