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February 21, 2010
Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts, or “Are You Asleep… Love?”
Last night, I went to see all of this year’s Academy Award nominations in the Short Film (Animated) category in a special showing at The Little. The Little does this every year, bless their little hearts, and it was encouraging to see how many people were out to see the program.
The film that is going to win best animated short this year is called “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” and guess what? You, too, can be oddly informed about an Oscar category most people are completely unaware of and watch the cartoon here. And by suggesting you “can” watch the cartoon, what I mean is, “Go watch it now. It’s only six minutes long.” Just so we’re clear.
It’s hard to say what I like best about this piece: the two animation styles paralleling the two narratives, the writing and splendid voice work by Kathleen O’Rourke, the subtle but perfect music, the fact it made me laugh so hard the first time I watched it that I almost choked on my popcorn.
My second favorite in this category is “The Lady and the Reaper,” which you can also watch online. There are dead spouses in, I swear, just about everything I go to see these days (Shutter Island was a big ol’ sucker punch in this regard), but this made me feel better about the whole thing. Funny and brave and inventively animated.
Speaking of funny and brave, there’s “Logorama,” a cartoon in which Ronald McDonald is portrayed as someone who would be quite at home in a Quentin Tarantino film. “French Roast” is a solid cartoon with a moral that doesn’t make you want to gnash your teeth. (“French Roast” is available on YouTube, so I linked to it, although I suppose they could take it down at any moment.) Plus, there is the new Wallace and Gromit cartoon, “A Matter of Loaf and Death,” which I have been waiting FOREVER to see and was everything a Wallace and Gromit film should be (available on DVD).
All in all, it’s as excellent a year for animated shorts as it was for feature-length animation, a category I hope to get to talking about in the next couple days, but we’ll see.
Posted by adrienne at February 21, 2010 08:53 PM
Comments
Oh my, I love the die-die-die closing-credits song! I thought that was Jennifer Tilly the whole time, till I looked up the credits afterwards.
I don't have time to watch the rest now, but I look forward to doing so later. Thanks for the linkitude. Didn't I send you a link to "Alma"? (If I didn't, go here -- http://almashortfilm.com/ -- and scroll down to the Dec. 17 post to watch it.) I love that one, too. So creepy, and since I watched it with Ada next to me the first time someone sent it to me (thinking it wouldn't be, you know, a horror film and that it'd be okay for kids), I've single-handedly taken care of her nightmares for the next year or so. Mom of the Year here.
Posted by: Jules at February 22, 2010 12:50 PM
p.s. Loved "A Matter of Loaf and Death."
Posted by: Jules at February 22, 2010 12:54 PM
Oooooh.
See, I am spoiled because I can watch Shaun the Sheep and so I don't have as many AWS. (Aardman Withdrawal Symptoms.) Did A Matter of Loaf & Death just NOW come to the U.S.!? I would protest!!
Thanks for the update on all the rest; The Little is very cool for keeping you up to date on the animation shorts.
Posted by: tanita at February 22, 2010 01:25 PM
*Okay, happy dance moment*
The Glasgow Science Center has a show called A Cracking Good Idea coming April 2. ALL W&G, ALL the time.
Oh, the joy.
Posted by: tanita at February 22, 2010 01:41 PM
Jules, I thought you'd like Granny. Yes, I did watch "Alma," a couple times. Good stuff. Regarding appropriateness for the youths, I should probably mention that "Logorama" is packed-full of wild and wonderful and completely child-unfriendly cursing. I've been having an internal debate about whether or not I'm going to show Lucas any of the rest--aside from the W&G, which I have to get on DVD for him to see.
Tanita, The time it takes for some things to cross the Atlantic truly is unfair. It's just like back in the early Harry Potter days when everyone in the UK could read the books before us.
Posted by: adrienne at February 22, 2010 02:16 PM
We pretty much just cued up the short films to watch whilst eating.
There were moments of choking. I believe you mentioned popcorn. I should have paid attention.
I love Irish storytelling. Kills me. KILLS ME. I think it's partially a UK thing, though. Did you see this on my Facebook? CRAZY people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoiW5-uA3_E&feature=player_embedded
Posted by: tanita at February 22, 2010 03:32 PM
"If an old lady tried to knit that many, her hands would catch fire and she'd die."
HA! I did miss that--thanks for posting it here.
I do not condone choking, as a rule, but Granny is worth the risk, I think. I had to rewatch it about three times myself today.
Posted by: adrienne at February 22, 2010 10:21 PM