The 2013 Oscar Nominated ANIMATED Shorts – The Review

ShortsHD™ The Short Movie Channel (www.shorts.tv), working with Magnolia Pictures, released The Oscar® Nominated Short Films 2013 in over 260 theatres across the United States, Canada and Europe on Friday, February 1, 2013. This is the 8th year of the Oscar Nominated Short Film Theatrical Release. Since its debut in 2005, the Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release program has grown 800%.

A key fixture of the awards season, the theatrical release featuring Live Action, Animation and Documentary short films is the only opportunity for audiences around the country to watch the nominated shorts prior to the 85th Academy Awards® ceremony on February 24, 2013.

Here’s my look at the Animated Shorts.

ADAM AND DOG, directed by Minku Lee

The biblical story of Paradise is retold through the eyes of man’s best friend. But when Adam meets Eve, Adam and Dog’s relationship becomes complicated. It’s a remarkable short film, lusciously animated and deceptively simple, with the humanity’s Biblical fall from grace told entirely from the perspective of the world’s first dog. Directed by Disney animator Minkyu Lee, the film paints a graceful, contemplative portrait of nature and the various roles of living beings within it beautifully realized in a style evoking the best works of Studio Ghibli. ADAM AND DOG truly is a powerful movie that sticks with you long after the credits run.

FRESH GUACOMOLE, directed by Adam Pesapane

A delicious-looking dish of guacamole is made through an array of unusual ingredients, ranging from rolling dice to hand grenades. Adam Pesapane (also known as PES) was inspired by the work of Czech stop-motion animator Jan Svankmejer, and that influence is palpably on display here. Fresh Guacamole looks remarkable, but if there’s any deeper meaning to this non-narrative, it’s a very abstract one but it is very whimsical and perhaps the most clever on the list.

HEAD OVER HEELS, directed by Timothy Reckart

A couple has grown so far apart over the years that they have each taken on different gravitational fields within the household in which the husband lives on the floor of the house and the wife lives on the roof; or maybe it’s the other way around, and when one last attempt to rekindle their relationship goes awry, the couple’s whole world comes literally crashing down. Directed by Timothy Reckart who illustrates this divide with an exciting metaphor and an attention to detail that is quite staggering, particularly for a stop-motion animated movie, with the subtle day-to-day motions of this unusual living situation coming across in every frame. The result is a surprisingly complex look at the enduring process of forgiveness and compromise necessary to sustain a long-term relationship.

MAGGIE SIMPSON IN “THE LONGEST DAYCARE,” directed by David Silverman

Maggie is dropped off by Marge at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, a heavily policed but completely unsupervised institution where she quickly adapts to its survival-of-the-fittest mentality and makes it her day’s goal to rescue a cocoon from an unwieldy butterfly-smoosher and arch-nemesis, the unibrowed Baby Gerald. Boasting a Saturday-morning-flavored sense of hyperactive humor, it is easily the funniest of this year’s nominees and quite possibly the best thing to come out of THE SIMPSONS in many, many years, with tiny, hilarious jokes littering every shot and impressively silent, coherent and emotional storytelling throughout and ends with one of the cutest moments of this year’s lineup.

PAPERMAN, directed by John Kars

PAPERMAN is about a young man happens upon a pretty woman at a train station, but right when he thinks he’s lost sight of her forever, he spies her in a building opposite his oppressive office complex. To get her attention, he starts using every piece of soul-sucking paperwork available to build paper airplanes to fly through her window. PAPERMAN is a solid and necessary reminder of Disney’s ability to tell simple and involving stories that carry quite a bit of emotional resonance. With its sweeping score by Christopher Beck (THE MUPPETS) and a beautiful blend of artistry, emotion and charm while combining both 2-D and 3-D elements in impressive black and white animation, with just a sprinkle of color, it tells a ’50s-flavored story in which love prevails over the pressures of modern life. Truly a moving and accomplished short.