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Today, I’m here to help you win that office Oscar pool.  My old friend Ben and I sat down (metaphorically) and had a conversation about this years nominees for the Oscar for best animated short film. We both agree that the new Wallace and Grommit adventure is poised to win, but disagree on the most likely spoiler. Read the transcript below, and check out Ben’s blog, too!

Rebecca: I didn’t notice right away how much this year’s nominees are about death and violence, probably because the tone tended more towards dark humor and. ‘The Lady and the Reaper’ is about an old woman who wants to die, but is filmed as a slapstick battle for her soul between the grim reaper and a heroic doctor. ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ is a fairytale turned into a rant about old age. ‘Logorama’ features a murderous Ronald McDonald taking Big Boy as a hostage, as well as an earthquake ripping part of California off of the coast. ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ is about a serial killer who murders bakers, and Wallace might be the next target. ‘French Roast’ is the only short that doesn’t deal directly with death - it’s about a guy who forgot his wallet sitting in a cafe.

First things first: I love the look of stop-motion so much more than computer animation, it’s hard for me to be unbiased about ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death.’ There’s so much character and nuance that comes out of stop-motion, whereas the computer animation in ‘French Roast’, ‘The Lady and the Reaper’, and ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ starts to all look the same. ‘Logorama’ was an eyesore, but that’s part of the point, as everything is constructed out of corporate logos.

I enjoyed ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’, ‘French Roast’, and ‘The Lady and the Reaper’ (in descending order). In addition to the similar CG visual styles, they all consist of a simple concept made into a humorous short film of 6-8 minutes. The reason ‘Granny O’Grimm’ was my favorite of those three was the great vocal performance at the center of it, and the visual contrast in styles between the grandmother/child framework and the Sleeping Beauty story itself. ‘French Roast’ and ‘The Lady and the Reaper’ were enjoyable enough, but didn’t really stick with me.

Ben: I definitely noticed the death right away in the movies right away.  It’s interesting because I wouldn’t say that this year’s Best Picture nominees are any more interested in death than past nominees.  What’s with all the animators?
I completely feel your affection “A Matter of Loaf and Death.”  I loved the facial expressions of all the characters, especially the nervous love-interest poodle.  For me, my favorite was a tie between this and “The Lady and the Reaper.”  I thought it was pretty involving and clever.  How many other movies can make a suicide of an old woman into a funny and crowd-pleasing ending?  “Granny O’Grim’s” was also a lot of fun.  The vocal performance of the old woman was terrific, and I also liked the combination between the storybook animation and the computer animation.  “French Roast” was also pleasant to watch, but I didn’t think it was exceptionally special.
At first, I thought “Logorama” was going to be cool, but then it just sort of annoyed me.  It is fun to notice all the logs at first, but it gets old pretty quick.  After that, I was less impressed.  The movie didn’t really seem to have much of a point.  That we live in a corporate culture?  That it’s bad?  I also wondered how they were allowed to use all their logos without getting sued.
Did you get to see the 3 commended films as well?  I was frankly a little surprised that two of them weren’t nominated.  “Partly Cloudy” (which I had seen before “Up”), detailing a stork with a tough job, is a really charming Pixar short.  “The Kinematograph,” a story of a man obsessed with creating color film and his sick wife, was beautifully animated.  The characters’ skin seemed to have a sort of wood grain to it.  The story is fairly predicable, but it was touching and if it had been nominated I probably would have guessed it as the winner.  “Runaway,” on the other hand, I really disliked.  It’s story of a train and the people on it gradually being destroyed just seemed kind of mean-spirited to me.
What do you think will win?  “A Matter of Loaf and Death” definitely has the most (and by far the longest running time) going for it.

Rebecca: I agree about ‘Logorama.’ It was a fun concept, but stretched out for too long. If you have a concept for your movie, keep it short - like ‘The Lady and the Reaper.’ I also agree that ‘French Roast’ wasn’t particularly special, although I felt the same way about ‘The Lady and the Reaper’ - I think I liked it more up until the point where the symbolic battle for the lady’s soul turned into a physical chase, complete with crazy music and zany hijinks, like an old-school Warner Brothers cartoon. It redeemed itself when she took things into her own hands.

I did see the ‘highly commended’ shorts (I had also already seen ‘Partly Cloudy’). I’m surprised ‘Partly Cloudy’ didn’t make it, especially since I think it avoided the pitfalls of CG animation - Pixar really goes to great lengths to give their productions, both shorts and features, the kind of texture and detail that is lost with a lot of CG animation. ‘The Kinematograph’ was pretty good, I especially liked the first and last longer tracking shots through the streets. I liked the hand-drawn animation of ‘The Runaway’, but agree that it was mean-spirited.

As for ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’, I don’t like it quite as well as some of the other Wallace & Gromit shorts, but I don’t see it losing on Oscar night. First of all, if you look at the winners from the past few years, they tend to be stop-motion or hand-drawn, not computer animation, often leading to surprises in the awards. Whoever is going to those screenings and voting appreciates the hand-made touch. Secondly, although some folks have predicted that voters will feel that Nick Park has been awarded enough, there’s not a clear alternative that I think will pull enough votes away. Some people are predicting ‘Logorama’, but I think (and hope) that is not the case. I think it’s not the case because it’s computer animation, and not pleasant to look at, and also because, as I was leaving, I overheard some folks complaining that it was ‘too violent’. I hope it’s not winning because I think the concept of the film was played out well before it ended. However, it could end up winning if voters decide it’s edgy to point out that we live in a corporate culture.

I’m going to go with: will win - ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’, should win - ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’, and possible spoiler - ‘Logorama’.

Ben: You’re right about The Lady and the Reaper.  The chase scene was definitely not up to the beginning or end of the movie.  I guess I just liked the concept well enough overall that the movie impressed me.  I also agree that my favorite parts (at least animation-wise) of “the Kinematograph” were the tracking shots, although I’m a sucker for a good tracking shot in live-action films as well (Magnolia, Atonement, Children of Men). (Ed. note: Me too!)

It’s interesting to think about “Logorama” being “too violent.”  I myself am not too squeamish about violence in live-action films.  It did seem overly graphic to me in this movie, maybe because most animated films don’t really aim for quasi-realistic, blood and guts violence.  I think it can work in a movie like “Waltz with Bashir,” where the movie has a clear point, but otherwise I myself am a bit put off by it.
For me, I’m going to agree with you on the will win/should win for “A Matter of Loaf and Death.”  I do think they’ll reward Nick Park with his third award in this category.   I’ll break a little and say the possible spoiler is “The Lady and the Reaper.”

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.