Gonna keep these next posts short to catch up. So, scattered impressions of this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts:
- "Get a Horse!" An incredibly well made homage to the black-and-white Disney cartoons of Steam-boat Willy vintage. This short combines the lovingly detailed feel of a 1933 cartoon with a fourth-wall breaking leap into Pixar-level 3D animations of the same characters. A cartoon-lover's cartoon with precise, disciplined visual story-telling.
- "Mr Hublot" Charming, wordless comedy about a man and his robot-dog set in a kind of retro-future world that looks a lot like indie adventure game "Machinarium." Doesn't do anything dazzling, but tells a good, simple story in an entertaining way with subtle shades of pathos and affection for its characters.
- "Feral" The story of a boy who's grown up in the wild adopted by a traveler who wants to give him a home in the civilized world isn't anything at all original. But the grace of the black-and-white animation and the rather lovely way it exaggerates human and animal forms is something special.
- "Possessions" The tale of a samurai-like tinker who encounters a hut full of living and overlooked tools and clothes. Beautiful cell-shaded animation makes each frame look hand-drawn while allowing for 3-dimensional camera moves both sweeping and subtle. A truly satisfying narrative that is unlike anything I'd seen before.
- "Room on the Broom" Narrated by Simon Pegg and starring Gillian Anderson and Timothy Spall and with sky-high production value, this one feels like the 'over-dog' to me (though the Academy may be more likely to go with Disney). But damn it all, it's perfectly paced, utterly loveable and beautifully crafted in a faux-Claymation style that really succeeds in feeling as wonderfully tactile as any Wallace and Gromit adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment