Once again, we make a pilgrimage to an indie theater (this time in Santa Cruz), to see the nominees for Best Animated Short. This was, by far, the most depressing year I’ve ever seen.
Like, it was really grim. The least depressing is about school girls in Iran.
They are all *good* examples of animation. I won’t be sad for any of them to win - nor am I thrilled for any to win. Spoilers, of course, ahead.
Our Uniform
I’m not
sure why this was made. It was showing that students who had to wear the hijab
when in school in Tehran didn’t like it, and wanted to be known as more that
just female. Which… we knew already, right? It’s a neat idea, doing it on
clothing, but it was my least favorite.
Letter to a Pig
A Holocaust
survivor tells his story to a bored classroom in Israel. He tells of hiding in
a pigsty, but turns to a story of vengeance to reengage his audience. In the
end, of course, that’s bad. The style, blending simple lines and colors with film
footage, works nicely.
Pachyderm
With
picture-book imagery, we see a girl suffer trauma from abuse at the hands of her family. The
visuals are beautiful. The story is heart-breaking. Of the options, this might
be the one I want most to win, since it's the most subtle, and perhaps the most visually striking.
Ninety-Five Senses
A
prisoner on death row reflects on his five senses – each one animated in a
different style. It’s a nice story, and the styles are all well-done. Its message
is on bad choices and fatal mistakes. Of course, like all the others, it is, in the end, depressing.
War is Over
War is
pointless – underscored by WWI-style trench warfare, a dead dove (well, carrier pigeon), and generals treating people like chess pieces. The classic
song plays at the end, which is a sort-of feel good coda to a really grim
series of shorts, I guess? This had the most conventional animation, and was the safest choice.
Highly
Commended
After
the main nominees, this year the Highly Commended films were back. We got two, this year:
Wild Summon
What if
women were salmon? Their life would be thrown into a grim perspective, that’s
what.
I’m Hip
This
was sort of funny and fun, with a nice animation style, but the ending (people throwing stuff at the cat and eventually, presumably, crushing it) sucked.
There you go! Another year down, with a lot of very depressing shorts. Hopefully next year's crop will be less consistently grim.
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