Brad Schrieber handicaps the animated shorts competing for an Academy Award.
... French writer-director Bastian Dubois creates a lyrical picture postcard come to life in Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage. With indigenous, French-influenced zouk music and watercolors animated to reflect the people and landscape, Dubois captures us fully ...
The only contending short that I've seen is Pixar's Day and Night, which I found amusing. Mr. Schrieber, however, is less pleased by the cartoon than I am.
... [W]hile pleasant enough, Day and Night really has nowhere to go in story, as two outlined figures, looking like ghosts, reveal images of day versus night. ...
Even so, I keep wondering if D and N won't have the inside track simply because this appears to be lining up as a Pixar year.
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11 comments:
No-it's because Day and Night is the best short nominated--followed closely by Geefwee Boedoe's "Let's Pollute."
I'm quite sure the artists of ALL Of these films (even at Pixar) struggled quite a lot to see their ideas reach the screen--but it's the end result that matters.
I've seen Day and Night, and Madagascar,
and felt Madagascar was far more interesting.
Pixar hasn't won an oscar for Best Animated Short in a long time. I don't see Day and Night reversing that trend.
(Not a knock at Day and Night, which is a terrific short, but the academy likes to let the little guy, instead of the corporate behemoth, win in the Animated Short category.)
So the award goes to Rotoscoping?
Hey, "Logorama" won last year, so anything's possible.
Going to see all five on Friday at Ron Diamond's Oscar tour in the Bay Area. Can't wait - it's always a good show, with some of the nominees in attendance.
I really liked The Lost Thing. It was beautiful and original. Madagascar felt like a nicely crafted rotoscope movie, Night and Day was good, very clever, funny and well made. Let's Pollute was patronizing and old-fashioned in terms of design (enough with the retro 50s and 60s please!). The Gruffalo was boring and cheap looking. For me it is either The Lost Thing or Night and Day.
I saw them this weekend. My two favorites were The Gruffalo and The Lost Thing. I have no idea how to call a winner, the Academy always surprises me. I really enjoyed the whole group this year, however. I thought they were all well crafted and it was nice to see the variety.
GRUFFALO!!!
Rotoscoping is a valid animation technique. Anyway there's a lot more going on in "Madagascar" than just tracing footage. Day & Night's okay but a bit too long and not really very fresh or inventive once you get past the contour thing.
Gruffalo looked great...but the story was too "on the nose," and it continually talked about what it was showing--very amateurish. Loved the Madagascar film--and it may win. I don't think Pixar has won an Oscar for short film since For the Birds in 2001.
I agree that Gruffalo was "on the nose", but it stayed true to its origins as a children's story and has a valid excuse.
Day and Night has no such excuse for the incredibly awkward scene at the end where the theme of the movie is literally handed to the audience via convenient radio broadcast. I cringed in the theater and slid down in my seat... up until that point, D&N was extremely visually clever and humorous (if sophomoric), but having the theme shoved down my throat was awkward storytelling at best. I wish Pixar treated their short film stories with the same respect they give to their features.
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