Oscar Nominated Shorts 2010 - Animated

The five nominated films are:

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage - a wonderful and lovingly eclectic travelogue of Madagascar. No deep meanings here -- just an astounding array of visual techniques, from photo-realistic faces to charmingly cinematic landscapes. Probably my pick for Oscar winner. In French with subtitles. You can find it here.

Let’s Pollute - In the spirit of 1950s educational films, this is a totally sarcastic and spottily humorous guide on how to be a good mega-connsumer. I like its message, but I wish it didn't hammer you over the head with it.

The Gruffalo - Based on a children's book, it's quite long (almost 30 minutes!) and voiced by enough famous British actors to fill a "Harry Potter" movie. Cute, but nothing special.

Day & Night - The Disney/Pixar short shown before "Toy Story 3" last summer. With no dialog, it features the two title characters, at odds with each other. I liked this better the second time. A couple pics and some background are at Pixar's website.

The Lost Thing - An Australian film about a teen finding something rather unusual at the beach, filmed against what the New York Times calls "an intriguing steam-punk aesthetic wrapped around a melancholy allegory of consumerism and urban anomie". See its website here.

Along with the five nominated films above, there were two other "Highly Recommended" films:

URS - A wordless German film featuring a theme of aging. CGI humans against a desolately beautiful matte background. Its webite is here.

The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger - A Plimpton studios film. Has the classic Plimpton cartoon look, with wildly vivid colors and a funny yet cautionary tale about where hamburgers come from, and the ultimate test of a mother's love. See the first 60 seconds here.