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Best Animated Short Film Nominees for the 91st Academy Awards (2019, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

So continues a proud tradition on this blog. This is the first of hopefully three omnibus write-ups on this year’s Oscar-nominated short films. We begin with this year’s slate for Animated Short Film. The category – once the domain of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Paramount, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – is now one of the most democratic of all Academy Award categories, with so many smaller independent studios nominated in recent decades. This year, four of the five nominees are about child-parent relationships – from the beginning to the end of life; showing parents who can be overbearing, bad influences, supportive. Here now are the Oscar-nominated animated short films.

Bao (2018)

Armed with an awards campaign war chest from Pixar and Disney, Domee Shi’s Bao is the prohibitive favorite on paper. For Bao, Shi – a Chinese-Canadian storyboard artist for Pixar – was influenced by her father’s artwork (he was an art professor) as well as two anime films in My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) and Spirited Away (2001). The film opens with a Chinese-Canadian woman cooking baozi dumplings for herself and her husband. Once he goes to work, one of the dumplings sprouts limbs and begins acting like a human. She takes care of the dumpling as if it was her child. This relationship between the mother and the dumpling child is actually an allegory for her inability to let her real-life child go – empty nest syndrome, if you will, playing alongside Toby Chu’s beautiful score.

The film should be lauded for its display on how the Chinese mother in the film expresses how much she cares for her dumpling child/actual child – through food and other smaller acts of love across time. Bao nevertheless runs into trouble when its twist first appears (far too late and far too abruptly). The moment – though steeped in allegory – is such a tonal departure from the rest of the film, that it is impossible to know whether a gasp of disbelief or belly laughter is the appropriate response. It calls into question why even use the dumpling child as a stand-in for the mother’s actual child in the first place. And, as one of very few Asian-American persons who personally dislikes Bao, if the relationship problems between mother and son is concentrated on the mother’s inability to let her child grow into adulthood, then why is it incumbent upon the son to come to her to reconcile (the fact the father literally shoves his son to do so is nearing emotional abuse)? It is unclear if the mother has learned from her behavior, acknowledging what damage she has done to the relationship. As valuable as Bao is in its depiction of an Asian expatriate family, its mixed messaging continues to vex me.

My rating: 7/10

^ I saw Bao last year in front of Incredibles 2 as part of the 2018 Movie Odyssey. I enjoyed it more the second time around, lifting it from a 6/10.

Late Afternoon (2017)

From Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, Late Afternoon is directed by Louise Bagnall. Bagnall served as character designer and animator on Song of the Sea (2014) and The Breadwinner (2017). An elderly woman named Emily (voiced by Fionnula Flanagan) lives at home with dementia. On this titular afternoon – the title perhaps also referring to Emily’s stage in life – Emily is recalling experiences from the past, not entirely living in the present. Also in Emily’s home is another woman who is seen packing Emily’s personal belongings. This woman seems familiar to Emily, somehow. For anyone who has ever had a loved one with dementia, what is represented in the film will be familiar: a reliving of scenes from one’s past (whether real, murky, exaggerated, or imagined) at any and all parts of life. Their speech, rooted in those flashbacks, make little sense in the moment.

But with Bagnall’s direction, Emily’s utterances become comprehensible. Awash in and playing with simple colors, Bagnall takes us inside Emily’s mind – breaking geometric reality whenever she is reliving her expressionistic memories. Though Emily may find joy in these reflections, there is melancholy in her inability to understand all that she is going through. Emily’s dementia breaks through in the final seconds of the film, but we suspect that when the day or the hour is new, she again will be frolicking on the beach as a child or playing with her teenage friends or something else that may cause nightmares. Late Afternoon will probably play best to those who have been close to those with dementia, but the film will still move those who have not.

My rating: 8/10

Animal Behaviour (2018)

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has been responsible for many memorable animated short films, and Alison Snowden and David Fine’s Animal Behaviour is the newest addition to that lineup. Snowden is a long-time NFB figure who also helped develop the Shaun the Sheep television series for Aardman Animation and the BBC; Fine is married to Snowden and, together, created the adult animation series Bob and Margaret. For Animal Behaviour, we sit in on a therapy session. The catch is that this very human situation is comprised entirely of animals. Dr. Clement is a pitbull who has repressed the urge to sniff another dog’s butt when meeting them for the first time, Lorraine the leech has a problem about being clingy in a relationship; Cheryl the praying mantis keeps cannibalizing her significant others; Todd the pig had a chocolate addiction but remains gluttonous; Jeffrey the bird says nothing about a past trauma; and newcomer Victor the ape has many things to sort out himself. There is also a cat whose reasons for attending the therapy group session are unclear.

Animal Behaviour’s jokes are tonally uneven and it almost wears out its welcome after Victor the ape has been present at the session for a few minutes. Many of the behavioral issues found among the therapy session participants are grounded in each animal’s typical behavior. Animal Behaviour romps around in its darkly comedic dialogue – from the animals sniping at each other’s behavior in direct and passive-aggressive ways. The humor is not the most inappropriate for children, but it is dependent on one’s acceptance of biting zingers that never descend into demeaning exchanges (a comedic balancing act that is difficult for humans to master, let alone through the medium of animation via animal characters).

My rating: 7/10

Weekends (2017)

Trevor Jimenez has been a storyboard artist for Blue Sky Studios, Pixar, and Walt Disney Animation Studios. With Weekends, Jimenez presents a semiautobiographical story about a six- or seven-year-old boy who splits his time between divorced parents – drawn from his own life going to his father’s residence on the weekends and staying with his mother during the week (in Jimenez’s own words, a, “fractured family”). The film is without dialogue, set in 1980s Toronto, and shows a boy in near-constant emotional anxiety (overt and otherwise). Unable to express to his parents the turmoil their divorce is having on his mentality, Jimenez instead uses music (Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1 when with his mother; Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” when with his father) and especially surrealistic dream sequences reflect the boy’s sense of displacement. Using a charcoal background with hand-drawn animation, Weekends is gorgeously animated – with the assistance from Jimenez’s Pixar colleagues – and it would not be surprising if Jimenez was influenced by Bill Plympton’s (2008′s Idiots and Angels, 2013′s Cheatin’) angular, pencillike lifestyle.

Few divorce narratives ever adopt a child’s perspective. We see the mother attempting to adjust to her new life, as well as the father living in a way more befitting of an undergraduate student in a dorm room rather than an independent adult. But Weekends always draws back to the boy, allowing the audience to see how he feels about his parents’ attempts to move on from the other (he is terrified of his parents forming new relationships; because Weekends is not seen through the adults, much is suggested, left off-screen) and his evolving relationship between both his parents. Weekends takes a meditative pace, but never feels overly ponderous in delivering its message. A sense of belonging and togetherness is essential to being human. In times of distress, it can be difficult to understand what role one plays in another’s life. All that doubt and the comforting revelations that eventually arrive are on full display in Weekends.

My rating: 8.5/10

One Small Step (2018)

Fledgling animation studio Taiko Studios has made their first film in One Small Step – a co-production between the United States and China. Directed by Andrew Chesworth (former Disney animator) and Bobby Pontillas (formerly with Disney and Blue Sky), One Small Step is about a Chinese-American girl named Luna Chu, who is inspired to become an astronaut after watching television coverage of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission. She lives with only her father, a shoemaker and footwear repairman. Mr. Chu helps support her fascination with spaceflight and her dreams as best he can, even on the days when Luna is in a dire mood, believing that becoming an astronaut is out of reach.

If this story and this parent-child bond sounds rote, One Small Step handles one aspect of this narrative differently (the film, however, could benefit with more time due to its packed plot). On Luna’s darkest of days, she forgets to remember how important it is to treat herself and others with grace and kindness. Her academic failures are not an indication of who she is as a person. Her changing relationship with her father demonstrates how Luna loses sight of what is important as she struggles with schoolwork. Things as simple as her father’s offering of extra food before and after she heads off to university for the day or his repairing her shoes are taken for granted. Deliberately or otherwise (perhaps incidentally because there is no dialogue in this film), the film intuits that many parents of Asian descent express love through their actions, not with words. That includes Mr. Chu. As we see Luna in the film’s closing scene, she is of an age where she knows there are many things she wishes she could have expressed to her father. The tenacity she has shown in pursuing her dreams is enough.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

Two other films also played with this package: Wishing Box (2017) and Tweet Tweet (2018, Russia).

Okay, so I don’t know how much time I have, so I’ll be brief:

EVERY SINGLE SHORT on the shortlist of the 2019 Oscars Animated Shorts category is currently online. I just want to make this post so everyone here can know you can watch them RIGHT NOW!

𝟏𝟖 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐁𝐁𝐂!!! 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑

A Personal History of the British Record Industry 85 – Maurice Oberstein Pt.5 and conclusion.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by JM Enternational/Shutterstock (10223154d) Maurice Oberstein, BRIT Awards Chairman 12th BRIT Awards, Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK – 12 Feb 1992

Maurice is now Chairman of CBS, and his insight into corporate structure which dominates this final piece, makes fascinating read.

The business of my becoming chairman was a very simple thing. The company grew. I was…

That’s right, Sneakers! Not only did we have a big party to celebrate the 400th Episode of Sneaky Dragon, we also filmed it for possible display at the Smithsonian in the near future.

Thrill as Ian and David talk to their guests! Chill while you watch each segment in easy bite-sized chunks. (Don’t) Spill your drink on your keyboard or laptop! (In fact, it’s best if you don’t have your drink near your computer!)

First up, Ian and Dave talk to Louise Moon – writer, comedian, and frequent correspondent!

Second up, one of our favourite comic book creators and Jello enthusiasts, Kathleen Gros!

Three for three! That is to say, Ian and David speak with Oscar winners and all-round brilliant animators, Alison Snowden and David Fine, creators of Bob and Margaret, and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park! (David’s very broken microphone makes a surprise appearance during this segment!)

Stepping fourth to the microphone is Ian’s wife and our guest, talented comic book, gag, and editorial cartoonist Pia Guerra!

A young Jason Dedrick takes time out from his own podcast, The Gentlemen of Elegant Leisure, to chat with Ian and David!

Up sixth is our friend David M. who makes his regular anniversary show appearance with some customized songs for Sneaky Dragon, and teaches Ian and Dave a musical lesson while he’s at it!

And last, but not leashed, it’s the Third Dragon – Nina Matsumoto – in disguise as a space coyote!

Thanks for watching! (And our apologies for making you look at Ian and Dave so much!)