Best of Animated Features, Shorts, and Voice Work
Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 10:25AM by Nathaniel R
Wagner Moura and Antonio Banderas do fine voice work in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish"
For today's installment of Oscar talk and our own Film Bitch Award nominations, let's discuss cartoons. Our nominations are up for Best Animated Feature which you can see here and include the thoughtful eccentricities of Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, the witty propulsivesness of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and the strangely undervalued hormonal marvel that is Turning Red. Three clear worthies that are difficult to choose between! It's a more mainstream list than we usually have but that's the way the year panned out (and we only have 3 nominees each year due to, well, sanity).
Apologies to the punk riot of Inu-Oh which is an intermittent thrill. As for Marcel the Shell...
Its fans are legions and might include you but sometimes everyone else's obsessions just aren't yours! I wish it hit me as hard emotionally as it hit others but there was a degree of calculation to its innocence that just didn't quite work for these eyes, or rather this heart. Marcel the Shell does find its place among the nominations for Best Voice Work or MoCap performance which are now up on the "Extra Acting Categories" page.
All in all 2022 felt like a weak year for animated features (at least with the titles we had access too) but the shorts were a different story. Oscar's animated short nominees are a strong batch and some of the films they left out were worthy too. It could actually be a five-way race within the Academy. Let's rank them by preference...
OSCAR'S BEST ANIMATED SHORT RACE, RANKED
05 THE BOY THE MOLE THE FOX AND THE HORSE
Streaming on Apple TV
Synopsis: Four new friends search for a home. But home is not always a place. Based on the book of the same name by Charlie Mackesy.
For it: Apple TV is visible and has money for campaigns. Being easily accessible is a plus in popularity contests. What's more it's also the longest nominated short in its categories and sometimes the Academy equates length with substance. At its best moments it feels like a well-loved picture book come to life.
Against it: We can't be the only ones who find it a hair too twee. Scratch that, a whole wig too twee! Being earnest isn't a crime but wearing it like a badge can feel like one. That said, I suspect i would have really loved this as a small child. The length doesn't help, though, given that it's going for simple profundity. The animation is at once gorgeous and sterile.
04 AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT
Streaming on Vimeo
Synopsis: An office worker meets an ostrich who opens his eyes to the rather obvious flaws of his world.
For it: A lot of people, and conceivably even more people in the film business, will be amused at its meta quality as an animated character realizes he's animated. Or, rather, that he lives in a fictional world. Think The Truman Show without the audience. In its best moments it mixes the conceptual gag with existential horror and comic absurdity. Plus the title is accurate and hilarious.
Against it: Stop motion can be endearing given that it feels more human than computer animation. But the Academy might want more polish given their typical aesthetic and this particular concept invites a kind of unfinished quality some of them will surely be averse to.
03 MY YEAR OF DICKS
Streaming on Hulu
Synopsis: A 15 year old girl recounts her efforts to lose her virginity. Based on Pamela Ribbon's memoir "Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn't Share In Public"
For it: It's profile sky-rocketed when everyone giggled about Riz Ahmed saying its title allowed during the Oscar nomination announcement. But people who'd seen it (including myself) were already fans. It is currently earning more devout fans of its colorful expressiveness via hodgepodge of animation techniques and the authenticity of its female confessions. What's more it's a fun nostalgia trip into the 1990s if you're into that.
Against it: Rotoscoped animation is a turn off for some. Despite this short's messy confessional charm, if you look through the past winners of this category, it would be a very atypical choice for them.
02 THE FLYING SAILOR
Streaming at The New Yorker
Synopsis: A meditation on a sailor's life.
For it: Artistically exciting, eccentrically imagined, and strange enough to haunt you days later. The latter "stickiness" can help in non-immediate voting situations. What's more Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (When the Day Breaks, Wild Life, Strings) are regulars in this category and have yet to win. "Overdue" doesn't often work in the non-high profile categories but they're crazy talented, so there's surely some built up good will among Academy voters.
Against it: Adventurous eccentricity is not easy for all voters. Some of them prefer the more corporate familiar approaches to this particular medium (though this particular shortlist is less corporate cgi than usual)
01 ICE MERCHANTS
Streaming at the New Yorker
Synopsis: A father and son parachute daily to sell ice in the village below their cliff-side home.
For it: This wordless family drama has everything you could hope for in an animated short: artistic expressiveness, a memorable visual identity, kinetic feeling, and a distilled purity to its emotional pull.
Against it: If they're looking for humor and laughs, and many voters are in their animated films (but again it's a medium not a genre!) this won't be the choice.
Which film do you think will win? What should win? Vote daily on the Oscar polls.
P.S. Of the finalists that didn't make the list we were saddest to see the omission of New Moon, based on an excerpt of a Colman Domingo play. It's beautifully realized and we'll definitely try to discuss that if/when it becomes available to the public.
Reader Comments (6)
MY YEAR OF DICKS for the win! ICE MERCHANTS is lovely, but can anyone explain why it's okay for the father and son to leave that heaping garbage pile of hats just sitting in the woods? Wasteful!
Bless you for posting this, I didn't know AN OSTRICH was available online! That's the only one we didn't catch yet. This is the first year I can remember that all 5 nominees were available online for free.
I too thought THE BOY THE MOLE etc was impossibly twee and I really hope it doesn't win (when the mole asked the boy what do you want to be when you grow up and the boy answered plaintively "Kind," I knew it was going to be a looong half hour). My vote for the Oscar Goes To would be for either MY YEAR OF DICKS or ICE MERCHANTS. I thought both were excellent in different ways. THE FLYING SAILOR is good but didn't quite hit me as strongly as the other two.
All five nominated animated shorts are rather tedious. I expect the Ostrich will win in a squeaker if only because it boasts an Everything Everywhere All at Once vibe.
Nathaniel.. you were way to kind to "The Boy The Mole.." I think instead of 'twee' the phrase you were looking for was "nauseating pablum". "Insipid aphorisms". I was proud of the person who booed at my screening.
The other 4 were all quite nice and enjoyable. Either humorous or visually inventive and memorable.
Wow. I loved all of these animated shorts (every single one of them was better than the best of this year's live action shorts, which were all uncharacteristically terrible), but by far my favorite was "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse." I cried like four different times. Some of the simplest and most poignant movie lines I can remember with the childlike wisdom of The Little Prince. "What's the bravest thing you've ever said?" "Help." I mean, get out of here with how much that punched me right in the gut. I loved it and am shocked by some of the cynical criticism in the comments.
After that, I'd rank them thus:
2. My Year of Dicks
3. An Ostrich Told Me the World Was Fake and I Think I Believe It
4. Ice Merchants
5. The Flying Sailor
I’ve reviewed every single Best Animated Short lineup on my blog, and I managed to get this year’s review out earlier in the week. I enjoyed the films for the most part.
My rankings (by quality)
5. The Flying Sailor
4. An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe it
3. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
2. My Year of Dicks
1. Ice Merchants
My rankings (by preference)
5. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
4. The Flying Sailor
3. Ice Merchants
2. An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
1. My Year of Dicks