An Animated Dissection: My thoughts on the 2023 Oscar nominations for Best Animated Short
It’s been awhile since I got the chance to see all of the nominees for the Academy Awards‘ Best Animated Short category. Thanks to a recent showing at the Music Box Theatre and presented by Shorts.TV, I was able to see this years nominees on the big-screen.
Below you’ll find information on the nominees, and my thoughts on them.
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Country of origin: Australia; Time: 11 Mins
Synopsis: An office-worker begins to notice some unusual things happening at his sales job. When he sleeps past working hours, an ostrich in the elevator makes him begin to question his reality.
My thoughts: The presentation of the short from the start may throw one for a loop, but once things get going, the short becomes fascinating, in both comedic and horrifying ways. Told via stop-motion and replacement animation, director Lachlan Pendragon’s short wants one to focus on the central portion of the screen, but adds extra stuff blurred around the edges that soon has one wondering just how/where this will all end.
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Country of origin: Canada; Time: 7 Mins
Synopsis: After a freak accident, a sailor in its vicinity ends up being affected in an unexpected way.
My thoughts: Based on a true story from Halifax, Nova Scotia, this piece from NFB (aka The National Film Review Board of Canada) starts one thinking they know where it will go…and then sends the viewer on an unexpected journey that contemplates one’s life under extraordinary circumstances. Canada has often brought about unexpected work from the north, and the audience I was with definitely wasn’t prepared for where things went, let alone just what the conclusion would be.
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Country of origin: Portugal; Time: 14 Mins
Synopsis: A father and son have a most unusual way of making money from a nearby village, but their tranquil lifestyle is soon put upon by forces beyond their control.
My thoughts: The first animated short to be nominated from Portugal, director Joao Gonzalez uses simple shapes and colors, but plays with the ability for animation to shift size, shapes, and distance in such a dynamic way. The story of the family unfolds in numerous ways as it builds to an unexpected conclusion.
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Country of origin: United Kingdom; Time: 34 Mins
Synopsis: On a snow-covered landscape, a young boy is in search of home. Before long, several animals join him on his journey, and each come to several revelations about life, and themselves.
My thoughts: Based on the best-selling book of the same name (and whose author is also co-director of the short), the story feels almost like a 21st century Winnie the Pooh (the moles design kept reminding me of Piglet), as each character makes subtle observations on life and themselves. At 34 minutes, it is the longest nominated short this year, and definitely feels like it is willing to take its time.
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Country of origin: United States of America; Time: 25 Mins
Synopsis: A five-part story where a teenage girl is looking to lose her virginity over the course of a year.
My thoughts: The one short that came with a disclaimer before it started. Despite the title you won’t find any full-frontal nudity, but there are some moments that may make some people uncomfortable, including one that make make one cringe and laugh at the same time. The short also serves as a time capsule of the 90’s.
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Which one I would like to win: The Ice Merchants
In studying animation, I have often been a fan of the simpler, and oftentimes emotional pieces. The short also plays with scale in a way that I was not expecting as the story went on. This one ended up being full of surprises, to the point where I soon wondered just where things were going to go. The colors also serve a specific purpose. This is notable at one point with the subtle inclusion of the color yellow, which we soon find out has special significance.
One could almost see this being a picture book, but there’s a stronger emotional power to the piece in just seeing it move, rather than reading words to go along with the imagery. In a way, it reminded me a little of one of my favorite Oscar winning shorts, Anna and Bella by Danish animator, Borge Ring. His short also used a simplicity in line and colors and an exaggeration of elements, that made the emotional story of two sisters a piece of art that still haunts me to this day.
Ice Merchants also has a pretty good awards pedigree. It won the Best Animated Short Subject award at this year’s Annie Awards, and has even been nominated and awarded at numerous film festivals around the world, including Cannes.
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Which one will most likely win: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse
As of now, this short has taken home a number of top prizes, from the Bafta Awards in Britain, to four Annie Awards.
Given the last few years, the story’s premise of finding others who will support and accept you in a time of great uncertainty, will probably make it speak moreso to Academy voters as the world seeks to return to some semblance of normalcy over the last few years of the pandemic.
I originally thought the short was fully computer-generated art with shaders and special tools to make the character animation look hand-drawn…and was surprised to find that what I was seeing were actual uses of pencil, ink, and paint! While I did feel that the films message was a bit blunt at times and that maybe the short could have been a bit “tighter” in its storytelling, it’s still one of the top nominees in my book.
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Final Thoughts: Overall, I was largely entertained by the five shorts. This was one of the few years where the likes of Disney or PIXAR did not receive a nomination, leaving only The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse as the only “studio piece,” given its release as an Apple TV production.
Even the stories contained in An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It and My Year of Dicks soon had me yearning to know what would happen next. In fact, one could also feel like there could be a continuing series of animated stories for My Year of Dicks.
The Flying Sailor ended up being my least-favorite out of the nominees. An intriguing concept expanding on a real-world situation, it feels a bit more like an idea compared to the others that tell stories that are a bit deeper in tone.
The Entertainment Nut 