2021 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
Bruce Steele: Last year’s program of the animated short films nominated for the Academy Award were four gut punches and one dose of levity. How would you characterize this year's batch?
Edwin Arnaudin: It’s a more varied bunch, featuring an impressive range of emotions and animation styles. It’s also an unusually strong batch of finalists, down to the three “highly commended” selections that round out the theatrical program. Typically, there’s one, often two “WTF?” nominees, but this year I was only thrown by France’s "Genius Loci,” a hallucinatory tale of a 20-something Black woman struggling to find her place in the world. And even then, the colorful, chalky, Ezra Jack Keats-like imagery kept me engaged, even if I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening.
Bruce: There were beautiful moments in the rather lengthy "Genius Loci," but you’re right that it’s wholly impressionistic, and its fragments of story don’t add up to a narrative that I could figure out. Also visually striking is "Opera," which is one long shot revealing the dozens of rooms inside a giant pyramid, where all the stages of human life are taking place at once, among its doll-like inhabitants. With so much going on at once, and in such minuscule detail, it demands to be seen on as big a screen as possible, and maybe more than once.
Edwin: I feel kind of bad for viewers who aren’t able to watch “Opera" a few times in a row, pausing and rewinding in order to catch the incredible interconnected specificity that former Pixar animator Erick Oh puts into this nine-minute opus. Oh has said that his film can be played on continuous loop, but even on a single viewing, his potent commentary on class struggles, history repeating itself, and humans as pawns in a greater game are evident. I’d love to see this astounding achievement — essentially what might result from a Dante and Hieronymus Bosch collaboration — win, but I have a feeling one of the other three nominees will go home victorious.
Bruce: I suspect you’re right, and I’d give the edge to Netflix's "If Anything Happens I Love You," written and directed by actors Michael Govier and Will McCormack and animated chiefly by Youngran Nho. It’s already racked up a shelf-full, and deservedly so. It’s about a couple facing a tough time in their marriage, but to say more would spoil the experience of seeing it. I loved the rounded design of the characters, contrasting with the angular shadow people used to express their darker emotions.
Edwin: It’s excellent, and easily the most wrenching of the five for me, though I did find the ultimate reveal a bit exploitative, despite its honest depiction of a major social issue. Speaking of Pixar, its Soul-accompanying short “Burrow” likewise speaks to the present day, though in warmer, lighthearted ways. The dialogue-free adventures of a loner rabbit who discovers the joys of community carry a special significance during these quarantined times when many of us crave the company of others, many of whom we haven’t seen in person for over a year.
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“Burrow” (courtesy of Shorts TV)
Bruce: Good point! I found "Burrow" enjoyable and visually clever — the designs of all the animals' underground homes are a hoot — and the "let's work together" theme is worthy, if a bit oversimplified in the actual telling. It’s quite a contrast with what might be the most adult of the nominees, the Icelandic "Yes People," in which the only dialogue is countless variations on the Icelandic word for "yes."
Edwin: It’s a weird one! But also quite funny while tackling some serious subjects, including alcoholism. The visuals somewhat reminded me of computer-aided claymation, especially with backgrounds that seem almost tactile, though I’m a bit surprised it and “Genius Loci” were nominated, especially with the gorgeous Hawaiian folk tale “Kapaemahu,” the adorable, “Geri’s Game”-like magician tale “To: Gerard,” and the delightful storybook adaptation "The Snail and the Whale” included as notable also-rans. Would you sub in any of these bonus selections?
Bruce: Totally. "To: Gerard" is DreamWorks Animation at its best, with great character development, fun gags, and a big emotional payoff, all turning on an older man’s happy memory of a magician he saw when he was a boy. In keeping with the five actual nominees, there's no real dialogue, but the storytelling is clear and immediately engaging. With such a uniformity of language-free narrative, I wonder if the wordiness of "Snail" and "Kapaemahu" is part of what shut them out of getting nominated.
Edwin: Perhaps Academy members have taken the relative quiet and solitude of the past year to heart and want this category to reflect that mood. Regardless, I don’t know that I’ve seen a better overall group of nominees, and if that mindset allowed for the inclusion of “Opera” — a stunning work that I might even put in the Top 10 overall films of the year if it didn’t feel like including a short story on a list of the year’s best novels — I’m all for it. A-minus for me.
Bruce: The shorts do seem appropriate to the past year, and I'm sure there's a pandemic pictured somewhere in the tiny rooms of "Opera," if we just look close enough. My overall grade for the actual Oscar nominees might be in the B range, but the three terrific also-ran additions pull up the average, so I'll concur with your A-minus.
Grade: A-minus. Rated PG-13. Showing at Grail Moviehouse and available for rental April 2 via the Fine Arts Theatre and Grail Moviehouse websites.
Top photo: “Yes-People,” courtesy of Shorts TV
“If Anything Happens I Love You” (courtesy of Shorts TV)
