In Part 1 we looked at the nominees from Best Live Action Short and Best Documentary Short one of which was animated. Here's Part 2 where all the animated films usually go.
Best Animated Short
Sanjay’s Super Team features a young Indian boy whose love of Western television and superheroes frustrates his traditional Hindu father. The film comes under the Disney/Pixar imprimatur and looks just like every short you see before a new Pixar full-length release. It has a sweet personal touch from the director, but it’s standard-issue short-form Pixar.
Pro: Pixar. Con: None.
four more films after the jump...
World of Tomorrow takes a small girl on a journey into her future by a cloned version of herself. By far the most ideologically ambitious piece, it covers the Big Profound Stuff like Death Is Inevitable and Why Are We Alive, and quite frankly it kind of blew my mind. But it has the crudest animation (literally, stick figures) and demands the most of the viewer.
Pro: Stays with you. Con: the child-like animation won't appeal to everyone.
Bear Story follows a bear who takes his extravagant diorama out to the street corner every day to show to young bear children. The story within that diorama is heartwarming, in the best sense. The animation is sumptuous and you can’t be mad at any movie that features a bear wearing trousers with a custom-made hole for his tail to stick out.
Pro: Ursine joyousness. Con: None.
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos details the friendship of two young Russian cosmonauts in training. The animation lives in a similar visual world to The Simpsons, and it has its own brand of subtle comedy in its wordless universe. The film is fast on its feet and surprisingly transporting in its final moments.
Pro: Funniest of the five. Con: Too light?
Prologue comes with a warning of “violence and nudity” before its screening, which is something you don’t see every day (but should?) in the animated world. The film is a ravishingly beautiful-looking battle between four warriors in the Spartan-Athenian wars. It’s an all-style-little-substance piece, but what style! Plus it is the only film in the category with animated balls, startling real animated balls, which goes a long way in my book.
Pro: Blood, balls. Con: Blood, balls.
Will win: Sanjay’s Super Team. It’s the weakest of the five, but the most mainstream, and it could be hard for any of the other titles to overcome that Pixar power.
Look out for: Bear Story. It looks like a million dollars and animated bears are irresistible.
The short films are playing through March 3rd at the IFC Center in New York. Which film are you rooting for?