Oscar Animated Short Films (2009)

The Oscars are now over and I have been able to watch all 5 nominees for animated short film, as well as two others that made the short list, e.g. the pool of 10 the 5 nominees were chosen from.

I have ranked the five nominations from my favorite to least favorite, then reserve comment on the other two until the end. The winner was Logorama, which I will boast was my prediction, yet I am still surprised the academy picked a film like this.

Film: French Roast
Director: Fabrice Joubert
Runtime: 8 min
Country: France
Vote: 9/10

This was my favorite of the nominees. The animation quality was excellent, the story was cute, and it was also funny. This is available on youtube and worth checking out.

Film: Logorama
Director: François Alaux, Herve de Crecy, & Ludovic Houplain
Runtime: 16 min
Country: France
Vote: 7/10

This is a very unique short film. Taking six years to create it uses thousands of logos to assemble a city which honestly is starting to look like most American cities. Overloaded with corporations and cookie cutter streets. There is a lot of vulgar language, and I'd be surprised if McDonald's doesn't make a stink of the representation of Ronald McDonald in this film.

Film: Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Director: Nick Park
Runtime: 30 min
Country: United Kingdom
Vote: 7/10

Nick Park has now won this category three times, twice with Wallace and Gromit, and also has an Animated Feature nomination from the same series. All of his awards have come from the same claymation style, and I personally feel this category is for showcasing new talent. This film just didn't fit for me. I love Wallace and Gromit, but this storyline was just not great. It was entertaining, and I would watch it again with my kids, but I can think of three better Wallace and Gromit films.

Film: The Lady and the Reaper: La dama y la muerte
Director: Javier Recio Gracia
Runtime: 8 min
Country: Spain
Vote: 6/10

This film is about a little old lady who goes to bed one night, ready to meet death and be reunited with her husband in the next life. Death comes and takes her away but a hero doctor comes along and brings her back. The film is a slapstick tug-o-war for the old lady between death and the doctor. It just didn't bring much of a storyline to the table. There was a lot of silly running around, yet not something necessarily for kids. Just ok for me...

Film: Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
Director: Nicky Phelan
Runtime: 6 min
Country: Ireland
Vote: 5/10

This is a film about a grandmother that changes up fairy tales and scares the crap out of her grandson right before bed. Not a big fan of the animation style, and for a such a short runtime I wanted her interpretation to at least be funny for the viewer. It just wasn't and I wouldn't watch it again, you can however find it on youtube in HD.

So these are the two films I felt should have received a nomination instead of the Wallace and Gromit and Granny O'Grimm shorts.

Film: Partly Cloudy
Director: Peter Sohn
Runtime: 6 min
Country: USA
Vote: 7/10

I don't want to contradict myself when I say a Pixar film should replace a Nick Park film because Park has too many nominations. The thing you have to understand is that just because it is Pixar does not mean the people involved in this film have been nominated before. Peter Sohn has been a production artist on an assortment of Pixar films, but this is his first as a director. The story was cute, but I could see how they could go either way on this.

Film: The Cat Piano
Directors: Ari Gibson & Eddie White
Runtime: 8 min
Country: Australia
Vote: 6/10

Once again, I'm not falling out of my chair because this wasn't nominated. It was however a favorite of many that watched all 10 on the short list. It is the artistic styling I expected the academy to like, and had it been nominated I would have picked it for the win. Especially since what I like the most is never the winner, e.g. French Roast and last years Presto. You can find this on youtube as well in very high quality.

So for a final note, I have seen all of the nominations from this category for the last 6 years, and all of the winners from the last 22 years. In my opinion this was a very strong year, all seven of these films got a 5/10 or higher and some pretty bad ones have snuck through in past years. With a little work anyone can find all of them on the internet. If I get any comments on this post or requests I will review some of the past years and winners.

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