Oscar shorts spotlight varied animation styles

There are awards given out both for the less sexy aspects of movies — which are usually the most interesting — and for short-form films. These latter awards tend to be more conceptual and artistically focused; They are a brief medium, and the creators can express themselves with an energy equal to that mobilized for a feature length film.

Short films are remarkable works of art. I am telling you this so that I do not sound like a sad husk of a man when I tell you that, this weekend, I went to the Charles Theater to see the Oscar Nominated animated shorts.

Entering the theater, I had never heard of any of the films, but it seemed likely that neither had most people, film studies majors and industry professionals aside. Indeed, my naive enthusiasm may have been dampened slightly had I known that one of the nominated films came from the most evil of empires: Disney. Nonetheless, each of the five nominees proved worth seeing in its own right.

Borrowed Time:

The first film on the roll was Borrowed Time, the pet project of Pixar animators Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats. The short tells the story of an old-west sheriff’s turbulent trip down a very bloody, nihilistic memory lane. Being a Pixar movie, Borrowed Time is incredibly beautiful; the visual realism makes an unrealistic world seem tangible while still maintaining the caricatured elements of animation.

Plot-wise, Borrowed Time is extremely dark for a Pixar film, but I was not completely enamored with the story. It had substance, but it was not as compelling as I would have hoped, although this may have to do with the fact that I have the emotional depth of a contact lens. Regardless, Borrowed Time is an incredibly stunning visual achievement.

Pearl:

It is possible that this film did not air second, but we shall press on. Pearl was directed and written by Patrick Osborne, a Disney animator who won Best Animated Short Film in 2014 with Feast. Apparently, Pearl was created within the format of Google’s 360-degree witchcraft, but it is not possible to tilt a movie theater around, so I did not notice that.

With regards to animation, Pearl was perhaps the least astounding, although it was far from ugly. The entirety of the film is set in a small car, which hosts a father-daughter duo through the years.

Somehow, using the car as a fixed setting makes the film more interesting. It leaves questions unanswered by placing some distance between the viewer and characters but maintains vulnerability through spatial intimacy. Pearl is steeped in music, and the soundtrack works with the story to wondrous effect.

Blind Vaysha:

Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada and Bulgarian animator and artist Theodore Ushev, Blind Vaysha is likely the most visually unique of the nominees. The animation is done in the style of linoleum block-cut, meaning the lines are sharp and errant, with a deep contrast between shadow and light. The film is like a moving piece of Fauvism: immensely colorful and nonsensical shapes consume the screen.

Blind Vaysha is based on a fable by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. It is about a girl, Vaysha, who can see the past out of her left eye and the future out of her right. As a result, Vaysha has no perception of the present, which, when you really think about it, is pretty terrifying. Blind Vaysha certainly wins points for having an original story, but at the end of the film the viewer is beaten over the head with the story’s moral. That put a damper on the film’s metaphoric value, but Blind Vaysha is good nonetheless.

Piper:

The empire has struck back. Disney, obviously not content with the vice-grip their evil tentacles hold on so much of the film industry, helped produced this Pixar short. Their efforts seem to have paid off since it’s up for an Oscar. Evilness aside, Piper is yet another impressive work by Pixar. This short stays true to Pixar form, starring a cute bird and an equally adorable hermit crab.

Piper, which was written and directed by Pixar animator Alan Barillaro, follows a sanderling chick as it navigates the perils of hunting for food between the fluctuations of the surf. In case you don’t know — and why would you — a sanderling is a type of bird that feeds by plucking aquatic invertebrates out of the sand on a beach. Piper probably would have been more enjoyable for someone in possession of a soul. Still, the animation is stunning; The animals and their environment are represented in vivid detail, down to the minute movements of their feathers.

Pear Cider and Cigarettes:

Despite the fairly innocuous title, this short animated documentary is equal parts Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Stand By Me. Directed by Canadian animator and graphic artist Robert Valley, the plot recounts Valley’s relationship with his friend Techno Stypes. Techno is a charismatic individual with a unique ability to cause himself extreme physical harm. The plot of Pear Cider is probably the most compelling. It lacks any of the romantic or saccharine frills of the others, focusing instead on hard-drinking, sexually explicit and drug-abusing truth.

Valley’s animation stands with Ushev’s as one of the more unique amongst the nominees. Stylistically, Valley is influenced by Gorillaz animator Jamie Hewlett. The influence is evident — characters have a similar long, shadowy quality — but Valley’s style is his own. Being that Pear Cider already won an Annie, an award given out by the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, it seems to be the most likely to win an Oscar. Then again, I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about.