I saw the Oscar Nominated Short Animated features that played this past weekend at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC. The show will also play at the Galaxy Theater in Cary, NC for one week starting Friday, March 5, 2010.
This year's features were interesting, as usual, with the highlights being a 30-minute (that's "short"?) Wallace & Gromit feature, and an astonishing feature called "Logorama" from a French studio.
You can watch a snippet of each of the five nominated films here at the official Oscar shorts website --
http://www.shortshd.com/theoscarshortsHere's a list of the nominations:
"French Roast" -- This one's a CGI from The Pumpkin Factory, a French animation studio. Nice but slow story about a wealthy man who enters a cafe, and -- well, I don't want to give anything away, but the ending is perfect. The film is basically a silent movie, with just a few lines in French, with no subtitles, but it's easy to figure out what's going on. The film's website is here and I found the entire film on YouTube here.
"The Lady and the Reaper" -- After the relative calm of "French Roast", this one is a wild CGI romp, in the manic style of Warner Bros. old Merrie Melodies cartoons. Yes, there is a lady, and yes, there is the reaper, but there's also a heroic, if self-absorbed, surgeon trying to help the lady. I thought it was way too frantic to be funny. This film is from Spain, and is co-produced by, of all people, Antonio Banderas! The film's website is here. And they have graciously put the entire film in wide-screen glory online here.
"A Matter of Loaf and Death" -- What, more death? Well, humorous deaths. This is the central attraction of the animiated films -- a new 30-minute Wallace & Gromit feature! This time Wallace & Gromit are bakers, and there's a mad fiend out there killing bakers. Why? Who cares? Its dazzling wit is so wildly entertaining, if a bit silly. Because of its length, you're probably not going to find this one online, but the Wallace & Gromit website is here.
"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" -- This Irish film was very clever and funny - a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale. Granny reads this bedtime story to her grand-child, and in doing so probably scars the child for life. I liked how the story-within-a-story had a different animation technique -- with whimsical hand-drawings -- while the main story was in pseudo-realistic CGI. The website of the film is rather amusing, since it includes Granny's reaction to being nominated for an Oscar. It's here. Oh, and the entire film is there too! Yay! Just follow "The Film" link there.
Yes, there are 5 nominated films, but after the 4th one, above, the film series took a break, and showed some of the 5 "highly recommended" films. There were films that made the Top Ten in the nomination process, but didn't make it to the Final Five.
"Partly Cloudy" -- You may have seen this Pixar release, since it played before the feature film "Up" last summer. Not my favorite Pixar short. Sure, it's big and colorful, but nothing much happens. Pixar's website for the film is here. But I doubt Disney/Pixar will allow a YouTube copy of this online.
"Runaway" -- This rather bizarre Canadian line-drawing cartoon is about a train that seems to be -- a runaway! There's some nice social satire here, as rich people are seen as obnoxious and uncaring, but ultimately get what's coming to them. The film isn't very successful, though, as there's no one to root for here. Everyone is twisted and ugly and distasteful, except for the cow. But the music (by Ben Charest, the composer of "The Triplets of Belleville" score) is certainly jaunty! The film's website, which has a short trailer is here.
"The Kinematograph" -- This Polish film is so stunningly beautiful, I wanted to like it more than I did. The story is of an inventor and his wife. The story is meant to have an emotional punch, but it's told in too clinical a way to be truly moving. Still, the graphics are wonderful. The website here has a trailer.
So, that's only 3 of the "Bottom 5". For some reason, perhaps time -- since the Wallace & Gromit film is so long -- or perhaps quality reasons, these two were left out:
"The Cat Piano" -- This hand-drawn Australian film is in mono-chromatic midnight blue. The beatnik-poem-style narration is interesting for a while, but if you own or like cats, you might not want to know how a Cat Piano works. You can see the full film here.
"Variété" -- I haven't seen this one. It's from the Netherlands, and is about a boy who spins plates -- and family members -- on top of long vertical sticks. I can see why it wasn't included. A film clip is here.
Finally, there was the last of the nominated films -- but it was preceded by a warning that the film you were about to watch was full of violence and profanity. Some folks in the audience cheered, for it was:
"Logorama" -- Directed by the H5 collective in France, this satiric send-up of Hollywood, rampant consumerism, "Pulp Fiction" style movies, and video games was the most astonishing film of all. Everything, and I mean everything, is represented by a corporate logo, in a city resembling Los Angeles. The police are Michelin men, and Ronald McDonald is a psychotic clown. So, is it an indictment against corporate world dominion, or does it revel in corporate culture? Who knows? That's the brilliance of it. It should win the Academy Award, but I think if it did, there might be legal battles over the inappropriate use of corporate logos. The film's website has the first 30 seconds or so (before all the swearing and mayhem starts) here. Warning: the preview automatically starts running.
No comments:
Post a Comment