A few weeks back I watched the Oscar Nominated Shorts (Live Action & Animation), which cost me a butt-load because I took my brother along and he's broke.
(Very minor spoilers ahead)
ANIMATION SHORTS
LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES
This was possibly my favorite of the whole animation bunch. A great cautionary tale without being on the nose and preachy. Beautifully hand-drawn animation, to boot.
LAVATORY - LOVESTORY
This is the first one we all saw. It was cute and I lol'd while watching it but it didn't completely capture me as much as I wanted it to.
OKTAPODI
This was the shortest one of the shorts, rounding out to a simple two minutes, and that was for the better. It had a quick laughs and quick beats and a great ending.
PRESTO
This wonderful short by Pixar probably had the best comedic timing but I felt it went on for too long. It was too clever. Great joke after great gag after great quip but I needed a break. Maybe there was just too much slapstick.
THIS WAY UP
A lot of people are really eatin' this one up. I liked it but it wasn't fantastic for me and I'm not sure why. It was fun and entertaining though.
Note: They even showed some of the honorable mention, which were all good but I could see how they didn't get nominated. My brother's favorite was one of these though but I felt it was a really preaching cautionary tale, unlike La Maison En Petits Cubes which didn't beat its message over my head at all.
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
AUF DER STRECKE (ON THE LINE)
I love this short so much but it's ending annoys me very much. I'm so glad that this got nominated! I first saw it at the Student Academy Awards, which is like the Oscars for student films, and it was certainly the best (it won for best foreign student film). Besides its ending the constant fade out and fade ins annoyed me as well but it's a great tale about guilt. MUST SEE!
MANON ON ASPHALT
This was my favorite by far! Great great great! It's about a young woman who dies and recounts all the things she has done and hasn't done and how her death would affect her friends and family. So great!
NEW BOY
The weakest of the bunch. Not bad, but not great. I'm not even sure how this got nominated. It's entirely mediocre.
THE PIG
The funniest of the bunch but I felt bored by it at times and I don't feel the ending with the blind patient was explored enough but maybe it didn't need to be.
SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
I didn't find this to be that special, although I hear critics are eating it up like candy. It's okay, it's good, but it really isn't all that great and while I didn't expect the ending I found it very predictable. Plus, this World War II story has been told before. Everything about the Jews during WWII was done best in Schindler's List. I didn't feel I needed this film anymore.
I definitely enjoyed this and I will be going next year. I love living in Los Angeles. This was only in select theaters and if I lived in the Midwest somewhere I would never have gotten the chance to see some very beautiful films, both animated and not.
The animations were definitely better than the live action but I loved them all.
Peace!
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