Completed Category: Animated Short

Well, I guess it wouldn't be the Animated Shorts if there weren't something totally bananas that makes you go, What in the what did I just watch? 

Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!

This is how it breaks down: two that you can watch with your sanity intact, one head-scratcher, and two why-jesus-and-all-the-gods-why. 

The two that you can watch with your sanity intact are Magic Candies and Yuck!  This is not to say there's nothing weird in Magic Candies -- talking inanimate objects really get the ball rolling here. But it's cute, follows a well-paced narrative, has clear and convincing animation, and delivers a good message. 

Yuck! has a lot of the same attributes, actually, with less surrealism (despite being French!)  This is simply a sweet story about the universal experience of being kids who are thisclose to outgrowing their "eww gross!" reaction to K-I-S-S-I-N-G.  Will either of those two short films that I liked win?  Well, I don't know.  What does the Academy want from an Animated Short?  Do they want things I want, like sharp, clear visuals and sensible narrative and reasonably intact sanity?  Or do they want - something else? 

Perhaps they want a whale - a very large and very square whale - washed up on a beach, and some fever dreamy attempts to save it interspersed with flashbacks and chaos and feelings of despair. If so, then In the Shadow of the Cypress is for them!  This is definitely a little film for people willing to puzzle out some layers of symbolism.  If you're the type who can't even get past things like the green light on Daisy's dock then this might not be the unpacking of symbols task for you. 

This year in the Oscars, we have a lot of men -- not just in the number of Acting nominees, but also in the titles of films nominated in Visual Effects, Makeup, Live Action Shorts - and here in the Animated Shorts, it's Beautiful Men time. Now, do you think that these men are, in fact, Beautiful, or might the title be wry and cynical in some way? Well... have I taught you nothing?  By the way you will get the chance to judge a whole lot of an animated's man's body to decide if he is beautiful. I mean it. There was a not-appropriate-for-children disclaimer and everything. 

And if you like naked men in your Animated Shorts and you're ready to go full wacko?  Well, have we got the Animated Short for you. It's time to Wander to Wonder, kids.  I really don't know what to say about this one - and I mean that in 100% earnest. I simply don't know what to say. This film is not for everybody, but I guess it's for somebody. That somebody is not me. 

Order I want them to win: Magic Candies, Yuck!, In the Shadow of the Cypress, [big gap], Beautiful Men, [bigger gap], cancel the Oscars, outlaw all animation forevermore, Wander to Wonder. 

Order I think they will win: Magic Candies, maybe In the Shadow of the Cypress, Beautiful Men, Yuck!, please-all-the-gods-forbid Wander to Wonder

Check out the Shorts in a cinema near you, now playing! But, don't say I didn't warn you about the weirdos and the naked men and the weirdo naked men!