7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Papillon (Butterfly)
Forevergreen
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
This year's Animated Short Film nominees are:
1 nomination
- Animated Short
Cast: Fayçal Zafi, Jessica Jaouiche, Yassine Mestaoui, Alexandre Liebe, Johannes Oliver Hamm, Hocine Ben, Olivier Peissel, Foued Kemeche
This is a beautifully animated film about a North African swimmer who swims for France at the Olympics but then is also imprisoned as a Jew during the genocide of European Jews under the Nazi regime. The film is dreamy and beautiful, and I quite liked it. I think it will be this year's winner. Because of the way this is animated, though, facial features, and indeed occasional entire human bodies lack a definition I wished for as I watched; I found this a bit frustrating, but as I say, I liked this.
Will win: Animated Short
Could win: N/A
My rating: #3 out of 5
1 nomination
My thoughts here involve spoilers, so be warned. The animation for this movie is cool—really cool, actually—but Forevergreen is trite. In the first place, it's about parenting, though it behaves as if it's about coming of age (in the tradition of any Pixar movie). In the second place, the film transposes the issues of the anthropocene onto a baby bear, as if this little bear cub's selfishness and youthful lack of care for the environment are somehow responsible for human damage to the forest. In the third place, the film seems to say that trees are like Jesus because they die and come back to life. Sure, I suppose that's true, but I might point out to the filmmakers of Evergreen that trees existed long before the Bible did, and so in fact, the idea of Jesus dying and coming back to life is actually modeled on plant life—not the other way around. The movie has a title card quoting the Biblical passage John 15.13 at the end: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (I can't remember if the directors use this translation or not.) But I don't actually understand what this quotation has to do with the film. It seems to make the film less trite and more meaningful by quoting the Christian scriptures, but it's not as if the film illustrates the passage in some way. What the Bible verse actually seems to do—and this is what annoys me about the whole thing—is to reimagine parenthood as "laying down one's life", which isn't actually what parenthood is, although of course it can sometimes be that. And even this is abstracted because the parent and child here are a tree and a bear. In short, I think this short is confused. I expect Academy voters will love it.
Will win: N/A
Could win: Animated Short
My rating: #5 out of 5
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
1 nomination
Cast: Colm Feore, Gabrielle Dallaire
I really liked the animation in this, and the story is clever. It's nothing truly groundbreaking, but I liked it. What's sort of great about The Girl Who Cried Pearls is that this is a film about a con artist, and in a very clever move, this short uses the conceit of the fantasy–animated film to con the viewers with its story. It took me in, and I was glad it did. I think this probably deserves to win the Oscar, honestly, but I don't think it can. I think the animation itself is not beautiful enough to win the trophy. I'm a little sorry about that.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #2 out of 5
1 nomination
- Animated Short
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson
In this short, a man tells us what he will do when he retires. This is very funny. The script is witty and clever, and Domhnall Gleeson delivers it with perfect pitch. Retirement Plan was easily my favorite of the five animated shorts, although I know very well that this is territory that has been covered many times before—even by previously nominated animated short films—but I think a lot about retirement, and this film felt made for me. The animation is simple and unassuming, but that doesn't stop Retirement Plan from being emotionally powerful.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #1 out of 5
1 nomination
- Animated Short
Cast: Bronzit
An ode to the virtues and redemptive powers of heterosexual sex. If I'm being generous I might say to sex in general—which would have made me like the film a whole lot better—but The Three Sisters reuses a whole series of tropes about sisters squabbling* over a man who isn't worth their time. Still, the animation is gorgeous, and the film itself isn't really objectionable; it's just a bit too easy. Konstantin Bronzit has been nominated in this category before for his absolutely gorgeous movie We Can't Live without Cosmos, and I really wanted him to win ten years ago—he was robbed—but I don't think he should win for The Three Sisters.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #4 out of 5
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