Brightest Young Things

The Academy Awards may be two and a half weeks away, but we’re starting our coverage early. In addition to the whiskey-soaked Oscar live-blog you know and love, BYT is reviewing all the short film nominees. I’m handling the animated shorts, and Logan and Zach is handling live action. And starting this Friday, all the shorts will be screening at Landmark’s E Street Cinema.

As usual, this year’s animated shorts are an odd bunch. There is polished CGI at its finest, as well as messy illustration. Even the happiest short has a tinge of melancholy, and two of them feature beautifully-rendered apocalyptic imagery. This crop is less successful than last year's, yet there is no denying the creativity of these varied animation styles. So without further ado, to the shorts, onward!

Dimanche, directed by Patrick Doyon

Dimanche is the French word for Sunday, and with modest ambition, Doyon tells the story of one boy's low-key day. He plays at the railroad tracks, goes to church, eats a late lunch with his family, then plays some more. Grotesque adults alienate the boy; his only pleasure is to place a coin on the tracks so a train may flatten it. The animation is similar to Nickelodeon cartoons from the early 1990s - particularly in terms of the simplistic characters - except the palette is nowhere near as eye-popping. Like the above picture, Doyon prefers drab colors and simple perspectives. There are fleeting moments where the animation is abstractly noteworthy: he exaggerates the shape of trains, and there are enough dead animals to preserve macabre curiosity. But like the boy, Doyon's short meanders throughout the day, never quite finding a pace or purpose. Aside from a grotesque surprise, this is the sort of animation that leaves me wondering why the director did not aspire for more.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

Of all the shorts, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is the longest and has the most developed story. It's strange and beautiful, reminiscent of a children's story that's more heartbreaking for adults than its intended audience. Morris is a young man when a hurricane unexpectedly takes him into another world. He remains stoic throughout this ordeal, and he's quick to accept his surroundings. This new world is also drab and grey. Taking a page from Pleasantville - pun intended - books are what give the world a splash of vibrant color. Soon Morris becomes a librarian for a mansion of anthropomorphized books, who grow to love him.

This short is all about how books are imagination fuel, and preserving them is a reward unto itself. Joyce and Oldernburg handle this material with grace and visual wit. Morris' assistant is a hardcover of Humpty Dumpty, for example, and the book flips through pages to show how his expression changes. There are also fantastical sequences, such as when typefaces flies around Morris, and he must deal with a house twirling through space. By the time the directors reach their bittersweet ending, their expressive imagination managed to win me over.

La Luna, directed by Enrico Casarosa

This year's Academy Awards marks the first time a Pixar feature gets a snub in the Best Animated Film category, but their preceding short, La Luna, still gets a nod. This one is less ambition than the typical Pixar short - it's definitely less visually interesting than last year's Day & Night - but it's cute and does not overstay its welcome. A young boy joins two old men on a large body of water. This is his first time out with them, and the exact purpose of they voyage is unclear until the last shot. Until we get there, La Luna succeeds through its ultra-cute hero and its lateral cartoon logic. This is the sort of short that is more sweet than anything else, the kind of cartoon you might send to your grandma who just discovered the internet.

A Morning Stroll, directed by Grant Orchard

This short is like Aronofsky's The Fountain, except funnier and more coherent. Orchard uses three time periods (1959, 2009, and 2059) to reexamine the same incident: in New York City, a tall man walks down the sidewalk, collides with a shorter man, then happens upon a chicken. The chicken knocks on an anonymous door, then enters it. With each iteration, Orchard's animation and subtle jokes reflect the sensibilities of its corresponding time period. The 1959 incident is crudely-drawn, with clever abstractions and a vintage feel. Fifty years later, the incident is far more colorful. The tall man is no longer a business in a sharp suit; instead, he's a young slacker with a short attention span (I won't dare reveal the vision of 2059, as it's the best surprise of A Morning Stroll). Only the chicken remains the same.

By its conclusion, Orchard comments on the growth/decline of America, and even includes a lovely denouement. Whereas the meaning of several other shorts is obscure, this message of this one is clear and unexpectedly thought-provoking.

Wild Life, directed by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Among this year's crop of shorts, Wild Life is noteworthy simply because it has dialogue. It tells the story of a young Englishman who seeks his fortune in the Canadian countryside. In his letters to home, he lies about his progress , letting his parents think he's a rancher while he wastes his time. Meanwhile, title cards describe the existence of a comet, drawing parallels between it and the Englishman. The style of this short is interesting, though not especially eye-catching. Globs of paint show movement in a stark environment, and the characters look grotesque in a Wild Thornberrys kind of way. Like Dimanche, the another Canadian nominee, Wild Life meanders before it finds a downbeat, unsatisfactory conclusion. It's as if the filmmakers mistake obtuse storytelling for an otherworldly fable. The Englishman has enough personality so we may care a little about what happens to him, in spite of the filmmaker's lackadaisical approach toward him and his world.

This year is a tough choice because there are two clear front-runners: A Morning Stroll and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The former lacks polish, but compensates with varied styles and dark humor. The latter is a lovely fairy tale, complete with Pixar-esque animation and nods to family-friendly classics. Even though it's rough around the edges, I'm going with A Morning Stroll as the year's Best Animated Short. In the beginning, I loved its vintage look, and within minutes, it kept me curious about how it would end. None of the shorts were nearly as gripping.

Previously in Another Movie Guy?:

• 3/30: Movie Review: "The Deep Blue Sea."
• 3/23: Movie Review: "Delicacy."
• 3/23: Movie Review: "Jiro Dreams of Sushi."
• 3/23: Movie Review: "The Hunger Games."
• 3/16: Movie Review: "21 Jump Street."
• 3/16: Movie Review: "Casa de mi Padre."
• 3/2: Movie Review: "Undefeated."
• 3/2: Movie Review: "Project X."
• 2/24: Movie Review: "Bullhead."
• 2/24: Movie Review: "Wanderlust."