Heya geeks, Big Eyes here! Who else would you expect to talk about the nominees for a Best Animated Short Oscar!? Let’s roll on through them in no particular order! We have the full short for some, and trailers for others. Sorry, that’s all I can legally put up on here.
I’m also throwing in one more animated short because the folks over at the Oscars must have been too busy smashing their own hands with hammers to miss it. In fact, I’m going to put this one front and center because it deserves it. Check out:
BEST FRIEND
“In a near future, a lonely man is addicted to a product called ‘’Best Friend” which offers him perfect virtual friends.”
Alright, so if you take the time to watch this, you will know it is freaking CRIMINAL that this isn’t on the list on nominees! It’s well directed, the animation is appealing, design: beautiful, the message: dark but something we really need to think about as technology progresses. Certainly, it has a bit of a BLACK MIRROR vibe. You should notice that the guy who steals the chip from our protagonist has multiple scars of where he has had his own stolen from him. It’s not just a few people that suffer the addiction to social media or technology. You guys at the Oscars, please stop huffing paint and ignoring true art.
Now, onto the actual nominees.
First up, ONE SMALL STEP!
I caught this video on YouTube a while ago, I didn’t realize that it was so new, let alone would be a future Academy Award nominee! This one is definitely worth a watch if you have a few minutes. The Taiko Studios, the animation is beautiful, and the message is touching.
BAO
Many of you already saw this short when you went to go see THE INCREDIBLES 2, which I feel gives it a leg up above the rest. They’re certainly not hiding the fact that it is the first Pixar short directed by a female. While of course the animation was great, it’s Pixar, the message in this was perhaps more touching to mothers who fear the impending empty nest, or are already dealing with it. Or the kids who feel like they don’t talk to their mom enough. Is this the best short? -Maybe- out of the selection available, but I can’t help but feel there is a bias toward Pixar these days.
WEEKENDS
Weekends (Trailer) from Trevor Jimenez on Vimeo.
This one has a sketchy artistic look to it, which I feel is a style that is underrated these days. I have an genuine appreciation for this look. "Weekends" is a film about a young boy shuffling between the homes of his recently divorced parents. Surreal, dream-like moments mix with the domestic realities of a broken up family in this hand-animated film set in 1980's Toronto
LATE AFTERNOON
“Late Afternoon, written and directed by Louise Bagnall, follows an elderly woman as she drifts back through her memories, existing between two states — the past and the present.”
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
While the anthropomorphized characters in the therapy session portrayed here may have more fur or more legs than we do, their many foibles and hang-ups will be uncomfortably familiar to the human viewers of this hilarious new comedy by the Oscar-winning animation team of Alison Snowden and David Fine.
That’s the whole list, thanks for reading!
~Eva Snail aka Big Eyes
Instagram: @artbysnail
