FILM: Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts 2019

In recent years, we’ve discovered the pleasure of seeing the Oscar-nominated short films when the Academy Awards are coming around. Usually we’ll catch the live action and the animated shorts, but this year we didn’t have time to catch both, and some friends tipped us off that the live actions were brutally heavy this year. So animation is it was, and what a great crop this year! The first two shorts both, in the span of 10 minutes each, moved me to warm sweet tears. Bao, the Pixar entry, draws a poignant and humorous sketch of a Chinese mother who raises a son and then is reluctant to let him go when he’s grown up. Using food as a metaphor, it includes some beautifully rendered images of food and cooking. Late Afternoon (from Ireland), in simple hand-drawn lines and colors, shows the experience of an old woman whose memories are becoming slippery as she slides down memory holes like falling into water. Animal Behaviour wasn’t high art, but was an amusing gag about a counseling support group spanning the animal kingdom from a slug who can’t let go of a co-dependent relationship to an ape in denial about anger management issues. Then came the lushly painted Weekends, the subjective experience of a young boy being shuttled back and forth between separated parents, with gorgeous imagery that wordlessly brought emotions to life. One Small Step sweetly tells the story of a girl raised by a single father finding the determination to follow her dreams to the stars. Those were the five official nominees, but they usually throw in a couple of bonus shorts to fill out a feature-length program. Wishing Box was another gag offering stronger on amusement than artistry but certainly a good laugh. Tweet-Tweet, on the other hand, was more deserving of nomination – a CGI offering that entranced me with its simplicity and beautiful imagery, showing the cycle of life as a dance along a tightrope lead by a small bird.