Oscar Nominated Short Films – Animated

Let's look at the films nominated for Best Animated Short:

Day and Night (USA – 6 minutes)

I was surprised that I had already seen this film. It's a Pixar short and I believe played before Toy Story 3. Day and Night meet and are initially wary of each other but soon learn to appreciate their differences.

The Gruffalo (UK – 27 minutes)

This film is based on a children's book. A mouse is walking through the woods looking for a nut and must use his wits to escape the hungry predators he encounters along the way.

Let's Pollute (USA – 6 minutes)

A satire of the 1950s educational films, this films instructs us on how to be better polluters.

The Lost Thing (Austrailia/UK – 15 minutes)

A boy finds a bizarre looking creature on the beach. After he realizes it's lost, he sets out to find out where it belongs.

Madagasgar, Carnet de Voyage (France – 11 minutes)

A travel journey about a vacation in Madagasgar.

Day and Night was a fun short that appeals to both adults and children. The Gruffalo was a fun fable that I can see my boys loving and wanting to watch over and over. Let's Pollute was hilarious – it was my personal favorite. I felt like The Lost Thing had a message about belonging or something that I wasn't quite grasping. Travis (who works with animation) said there was no message, that the filmmakers had probably created the cool looking creature and then crafted a weak story around it just to showcase the creature. Madagasgar was the most visually interesting but even with the subtitles I had trouble understanding what was going on in it.

This is a tough one to predict. I'm kind of thinking that Day and Night will win just because it's a Pixar production and they tend to win in the feature length best animation category. But Hollywood is full of environmentalists who would love the humor in Let's Pollute. I'll go with Let's Pollute as my predicted winner in this category.