After the Gruffalo didn’t win the Oscar after all, I took my little son to watch the Oscar Animation Shorts the other day. According to the judgment of my son the first short Madagascar was quite boring. Asking him for his favorite one, his vote fell for none of the nominated ones but for one of the additional award wining shorts: “The Cow Who Wanted to Be A Hamburger is a children’s fable about the power of advertising…” (Everything Burger blog). I am not sure if it was the story or the way the film was made, that intrigued him, but I found the film, with its intensely flickering pictures somewhat headache causing. The story though was quite reminiscent of what we go through as parents all the time. In short : Mom& Dad have no clue about anything and really don’t understand what their kids really want and desire. Despite what the parents try to tell them, kids have to go out into the world, do their own experiments and make mistakes and hopefully learn and grow by mastering them. So also the little calf in the movie. Reality forces it to wake up from its splendid dream of life and face the real world and make some real decisions.
Let’s Pollute seems like an instructional movie, yet is a satire which is initially somewhat confusing for kids. My little son needed some explanation, since he was startled by the movies apparent support of pollution. Yet, he thought it was quite funny.
Pixar’s entry Day & Night is cute and is typically Disney. Of all the shown shorts this is the one, let’s say most pleasing to the eye, since it is the animation what we are most used to watching. Gruffalo, the German/British entry, is a cute children short, in the sense of what one expects from a kid’s movie: pleasantly drawn and clear images, simple story . My son and I enjoyed watching it and the voices of the characters are captivating.
The Lost Thing , by Shaun Tan, in comparison, has extravagant drawings as well as a profound storyline. The movie appears to have a subliminal depressing tone in my opinion, but it has the most imaginative pictures and storyline; both reminiscent of Dali’s surreal paintings. The pictures are not as easy and clean to watch and understand as in Gruffalo, but very complex and full of little odd details. It’s definitely very artistic and deserves the Oscar.
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- Day & Night – Pixar – Teddy Newton
- The Gruffalo – Magic Light Pictures, Studio Soi, BBC – Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
- Let’s Pollute – Geefwee Boedoe
- Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) – Bastien Dubois
Related Articles
- The Lost Thing by Oscar winner, Shaun Tan. (Congratulations, Shaun!) (booktopia.com.au)
- Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts: A Bettor’s Guide (blogs.forbes.com)
- Shaun Tan wins Oscar for The Lost Thing (vancouverchildrenslitroundtable.wordpress.com)
- Writer-Artist Shaun Tan wins an Oscar (whisperinggums.wordpress.com)