He's The Queen Of France

The Oscars are always fun (at least them handing out the awards are--the lengthy show surrounding this activity often leaves something to be desired), but they're a lot more fun if you've seen the nominees. I generally see most of the nominated features and performances, but not always the shorts.  But I did get a chance to see the five from the animated category.  Here they are.

Bear Story

Prologue

Sanjay's Super Team

We Can't Live Without Cosmos

World Of Tomorrow.

If you've seen any, it's probably Sanjay's Super Team, a Pixar short shown before The Good Dinosaur.  Pixar has been nominated--and won--before, but I don't think this is its year. That's because while all the films are well done (Bear Story is especially impressive in its technique and We Can't Live Without Cosmos has a solid story), one truly stands out--World Of Tomorrow.

It could be called a science fiction film, but that doesn't really give you the proper impression.  It's by Don Hertzfeldt, who's been doing his own hand-drawn work for a couple decades.  He started with short, funny films with an absurdist bent, such as Billy's Balloon, the film to first get him a lot of attention.  He followed it by a classic, Rejected, which was nominated in 2000 for an Oscar and (inexplicably in retrospect) didn't win.



Since then his films have gotten a little longer, and more serious, but are still filled with quirky humor.  World Of Tomorrow is a 17 minute film about a little girl being instructed by a woman of the future on what her life will be like.  But that bare bones description misses both how bizarre yet touching the story is, not to mention the look.

Here's a clip:



The Academy blew it last time.  Here's their chance to make it up.