Everybody knows this year’s animated feature Oscar nominees are less than useless because the The Lego Movie was removed from consideration on a technicality. The good news is that the animated short film category displays all the diversity, artistry, and intellect that the full-length animated feature category failed to represent.
From The Bigger Picture, a beautiful painted stop-motion film about two brothers, one selfish and one not, who battle over how to care for their elderly mother, to Me and My Moulton, a literary-minded Norwegian film about a girl who hates being from an abnormal family, the films are all roundly entertaining (but do be advised that “animation” is not shorthand for “kids’ stuff”—young children will not likely enjoy themselves at this program.)
The worst of the five short films is The Dam Keeper, a gorgeous-but-manipulative parable about a little pig who is picked on at school. The best is A Single Life, a two-minute slapstick film about a woman who discovers a record that can control the passage of time.
The one that will probably win the Oscar is Feast, a cutesy Disney movie about a puppy that screened before Big Hero 6, which will probably win the Oscar, too. It’s just a fact of life: The most deserving film almost never takes the prize. 