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2017 Oscar Nominees for Short Film (Animated) Review

By David Kempler

In the Animated Shorts category for this year's Academy Awards, I'm sorry to say that the best just aren't all that exceptional. These are this year's nominees:

  • Borrowed Time - (Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj)
  • Pearl - (Patrick Osborne)
  • Piper - (Alan Barillaro)
  • Blind Vaysha - (Theodore Ushev)
  • Pear Cider  and Cigarettes - (Robert Valley)

At the high level, "Pearl" or "Pear Cider and Cigarettes" perhaps deserve the win a bit more than the competition, but as we all know, never count out Pixar, whether they deserve it or not. All ratings below are out of a maximum of four stars.

Borrowed Time

A weathered sheriff returns to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget. With each step forward, the memories come flooding back. Faced with his mistake once again, he must find the strength to carry on. Feels incredibly familiar. Manages to elicit a small amount of feeling from the viewer, but not much. Overall Rating: 2 Stars

Pearl

Set inside their home, a beloved hatchback, PEARL follows a girl and her dad as they crisscross the country chasing their dreams. It's a story about the gifts we hand down and their power to carry love, and finding grace in the unlikeliest of places. After a slow beginning, it manages to touch your heart as it unveils a common bond between a father and his daughter Overall Rating:2.5 Stars

Piper

Directed by Alan Barillaro and produced by Marc Sondheimer, PIPER, the new short from Pixar Animation Studios, tells the story of a hungry sandpiper hatchling who ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline. The only problem is, the food is buried beneath the sand where scary waves roll up onto the shore. As often happens, the Pixar entry is clean and beautiful to look at, but otherwise unexceptional. Overall Rating: 2 Stars

Blind Vaysha

Vaysha is not like other young girls; she was born with one green eye and one brown eye. But her odd eyes aren't the only thing that's special about her gaze. Her left eye sees only the past. Her right, only the future. Like a terrible curse, Vaysha's split vision prevents her from living in the present. Blinded by what was and tormented by what will be, she remains trapped between two irreconcilable temporalities. The message here is so in-your-face deep that it it's annoying. I'm honestly surprised this made the top five. Overall Rating: 1.5 Stars

Pear_Cider_and_Cigarettes.jpg

Pear Cider and Cigarettes

I'm always impressed when a film can develop a rich backstory within the timeline of what's considered a "short." But then at 35 minutes, "Pear Cider and Cigarettes" pushes up close to the Academy's 40-minute limit, and therein lies its main weakness: the pacing. But we hear what we need to hear from the narrator in fairly short order.

Drink and smoke...that's what Techno Stypes really liked to do. And fight. But he was in no condition to fight. He was sick, really sick. His disease had whittled him down to a shadow of his former self. He was crippled from a car accident when he was 17 but that's not how he lost his big toe. He lost that in a motorbike accident. Yeah, he was broken alright... what the hell was he fighting for anyway and what was he still doing in China? His father had given me two clear instructions: 1. Get Techno to stop drinking long enough to receive the liver transplant, and 2. Get him back home to Vancouver. This was not going to be easy.

This one should easily be the winner because it has a marvelous look and a fun story. But at 35 minutes, it actually feels really long - about 20 minutes too long - turning it into a pretentious blob that makes you wish Techno would just hurry up and drop dead. Overall Rating: 2.5 Stars

What did you think?

Movie title An Unanimated Bunch
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Summary In Animated Shorts, there's nothing particular to recommend this year, though a couple stand out slightly from the rest .
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