Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

I saw this on February 10 at Coolidge Corner

I'm not going to rates these individually or as a group but I will discuss them all. I will say up front that they didn't need to include the honorable mentions in my opinion. Maybe I just think this because the showing I went to started at 10 PM.

Oscar nominated

Lavatory - Lovestory: This was pretty good and amusing but the animation made me feel as if I was watching and animated New Yorker or funny paper cartoon. It was stylistic yes but at the end of the day it was just too simplistic. The search for love as a lavatory attendant was kind of cute but a little boring. I think this one could have been shorter and done just as much.

Oktapodi: This was short but really cute. The animation was cool. It had a Pixar meets Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" music video feel. I really liked the animation and I think choosing Octopi as the creatures trying to help/save one another was a great choice. Very few people seem to use sea creatures but I think this worked really well and was funny and interesting.

La Maison en Petit Cubes: This is my vote for boring/kind of lame heart warming movie that the academy might love to give the Oscar to cause it's the "right kind" of movie but I found it only ok. The animation seemed old/dated like that British Christmas movie (about a snowman I believe). The concept was ok. Old man can trace his life through the rising water levels and keeps building his house up. Overall though I thought this was overly sentimental without much of a purpose.

Presto: I thought this was hilarious and Pixar does a great job. Maybe simplistic in its story but extremely well animated and hilarious. It's like a new age looney tune. For those who don't know this is the cartoon shown at the beginning of Wall-E.

This Way Up: This was great but it started to lose it near the end for me. I love the animation (similar to Oktapodi) and I think the beginning of the journey with the casket is quite amusing and the two funeral home guys are really funny characters. The hell scene was well done but that's when it seemed to start getting a little out there for me. The animation was still great but it was a strange turn for the story that would've been fine if they'd have led into it better.

I bet the old man cartoon will win but I like better/ground breaking animation and better stories so I hope Presto, Oktapodi, or This Way Up wins.

Honorable Mentions

Varmints: A great story about urban sprawl, destroying the environment, etc. but entirely too long. It could've been more focused and better and half as long.

John and Karen: Funny idea (A penguin and a polar bear dating and working out their relationship problems) but not executed well. Boring and not that funny or interesting.

Gopher Broke: This was really funny and animated well. Could have done more with the gopher temper tantrums. I think Blur Studio may be one to watch in the future. With good stories they have what it takes to make feature lengths. They'll probably get bought by Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks though.

Skhizein: Really neat idea (man struck by meteorite and now appears 91 centimeters away from where he "actually" is). I thought the blocky/clay looking animation was really cool and unique to this years class and it was just a neat, well done concept.

Hot Dog: This was terrible. Dated, kitchy animation and an uninteresting story about a dog who wants to work for the fire department. Just below the curve in story arch and animation. Truly irritating.