The Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films of 2016

[StevePulaski]

Bear Story (2014)
Directed by: Gabriel Osorio Vargas

Rating: ★★★

Gabriel Osorio Vargas's animated short Bear Story would be the perfect film to be embraced by the steampunk crowd. Its meticulous, mechanical, almost retrograde-style animation that simultaneously transports us back in time and in the future makes for an eye-catching affair, if those eyes don't well with tears while watching the story untold. The eleven-minute short concerns a lonesome bear, who tells his life story through a mechanical diorama he shows to passersby, as he collects tips while sharing a piece of his unfortunate life, hoping, if nothing else, to keep the memory of his family alive while he's doing what he loves.

While it has its fair share of mawkish sentiments, thanks to no dialog and a soft musical score, there's a commentary in Bear Story that didn't quite hit me until I began writing this review. The entire film's moral revolves around a bear continuing to work through heartbreak, sadness, and personal hardships by way of his passion. His meticulous, uncompromising craft keeps him going in many ways, and his zealous artistic ability is what keeps his gears turning like the gears in his many dioramas. The result produces two lofty morals: exhaust the pain away by fighting the tears by doing what you love and, for the umpteenth time, animation doesn't always correlate to being "for children."

Prologue (2015)
Directed by: Richard Williams

Rating: ★★★

Richard Williams' Prologue is a decidedly emptier short film in terms of plot, as its eight minutes showcase very elaborate and detailed sketches of warfare that are uncommonly violent and brutal, especially by the standards of animation. The battle takes place between Spartan and Athenian warriors, who find new and riveting ways to pierce the exposed fleshes of their enemies all while trying to win the war despite losing everything.

You can tell how little the short is about given my dramatic plot reiteration. As a whole, while there isn't much going on with Prologue, it's a strangely immersive short film. Its largely blank canvas, only decorated with simple pencil strokes of gray, black, and red that realize the ugliness of battle, strangely helps one get sucked into the world before being spit back out when the credits roll. On top of that, the violence here is immaculately conceptualized and the overall effect is strangely satisfying, almost servicing one's questionably human, carnal desires to see violence by way of such an innocent medium. If nothing else, use it as a cautionary tale for the horror of war.

World of Tomorrow (2015)
Directed by: Don Hertzfeldt

Rating: ★★★½

Don Hertzfeldt's seventeen-minute animated short World of Tomorrow, one of the Academy Awards' Best Animated Short frontrunners this year, does an amazing job of examining the flaw that most of us have as people and that's an inability to be satisfied or truly content with the present. We do not appreciate the present until it is the distant or the very-recent past, depending on how we deem the quality of our current situation. We look to the future as a relief or even a catalyst of the conditions we're currently facing, and we struggle to objectively define "self," especially in the age of the internet, where selves can be socially constructed or constructed in the lieu of the moment.

Read the full review here, stevethemovieman.proboards.com/thread/5041/world-tomorrow

NOTE: The following animated shorts are not included in the Oscar-nominated short film set that ShortsHD is soliciting on a variety of video-on-demand platforms. Only the five live action shorts and the preceding three animated shorts are included in the $14.99 set.

Sanjay's Super Team (2015)
Directed by: Sanjay Patel

Rating: ★★½

It's no disguise just how personal and close-to-home Sanjay's Super Team is for Pixar animator Sanjay Patel, who makes this his directorial debut, as well. The short is a vibrant burst of energy and color for seven minutes, as the story focuses around a small boy named Sanjay, who simply wants to watch his favorite cartoon Super Team in piece. His preoccupation with his show distracts him from the meticulous process of his father as he sets up a Hindu shrine for meditation. Wanting his son to witness such a peaceful, mind/body-cleansing experience, Sanjay's father pulls him away from the TV to meditate.

Sanjay simply isn't interested, to the point where he retrieves a toy in the middle of his father's meditation and almost completely corrupts the process. Eventually, Sanjay becomes immersed in his personal journey, to the point where he imagines Hindu gods as his own band of superheros. Before his very imagination can keep up, Vishnu and Durga transform from two-dimensional abstracts into elaborate and colorful heroes that tantalize the very sensibilities of Sanjay.

Sanjay's Super Team evokes neon colors to near perfection, as we watch this story unfold with no dialog and a very slow and steady pace, even for such a short runtime. The only issue is that the takeaway from this is pretty slight, even by the recent standards of Pixar shorts (let's just say, it's nice this one got the Oscar love instead of the momentarily sad but utterly frothy Lava). There's not a lot of emotional connection, despite this being a fairly emotional story, and while Patel's passion and heart is here, there's just very little to say, unfortunately.

We Can't Live Without Cosmos (2014)
Directed by: Konstantin Bronzit

Rating: ★★★½

Konstantin Bronzit's We Can't Live Without Cosmos is a heartbreaking short film, so much so that you might even chuckle when your eyes well with tears when you realize you're tearing up about characters you've known for only fourteen minutes. That's the power of the animation medium; at times, it has the ability to soften the look of reality, but often, mostly in contemporary times, doesn't lessen the blow of reality or the truly real struggles we face in life. We Can't Live Without Cosmos is a short with a core idea about friendship and its unfathomable, and in this case, literal power that transcends time and universes.

The short revolves around two unnamed astronauts, who do everything together; their playful relationship involving a great deal of touching and personal interaction even suggests they could be a couple. In fact, they're just tight-knit friends, who were raised in the crib together and went on to be astronauts in the same training facility. Due to their strong physical capabilities, the men, one code-named 1203 and the other 1204, are picked to go into space, with 1203 actually granted with the opportunity to go up into space and 1204 to sit in mission control as his assistant. What entails is a real showcase for the power of their friendship.

I'm a huge fan of the animation style Bronzit and his team of animators chose to work with here. It's simplistic, traditional animation, most likely hand-drawn, but is dramatically enhanced in sharpness and color, most likely with the use of computer technology. Consider the overhead shot of the astronauts in training swimming, each in their respective lane, with impeccable symmetry, vibrant ocean-blue colors, and verticality overtaking the screen in a strong way. This kind of animation only emphasizes light and darkness because, thanks to the illuminating color palette, we get a strong sense of the textured environment.

We Can't Live Without Cosmos reminds us one thing, at the end, and it's keep your friends close, and maybe in the end, they'll keep you closer, as well.