A Look at the Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films

Fresh Guacamole

This is a fun bit of whimsical stop-motion animation.  In less than two minutes, we see a secret recipe for guacamole where some of the ingredients are a grenade, diced dice and of course chips on the side.  The perfect mix of bright colors and textures almost make that strange concoction good enough to eat.

Head Over Heels

Not since Up have we seen a more heartwarming story of an older couple.  In this stop-motion animation film, a couple keeps to their opposite sides of their house.  It seems that the couple has gravitational differences, they are always upside down from one another.  This causes friction in their lives together, from where the fridge is located, how a picture hangs.  It’s hard to see eye to eye when your partner is so upside down.  But things look up (or down maybe), when the man does a kind deed for his wife.  When she finally notices, her kindness in return is one of the sweetest thing a woman can do with her collection of shoes.

Adam and Dog

This is a beautiful film, that looks like a watercolor painting come to life.  The story shows a dog wandering alone in the lush garden of Eden, until he finds a man, Adam.  The two bond and form a happy casual pet relationship, complete with fetch.  The next day, the dog finds the man again, but he is more interested in a woman and plays fetch only to distract the dog while he and the woman leave.  Watching the dog wait patiently for so long for the man is heartbreaking, but the ending is a beautiful lesson in loyalty and forgiveness.

The Longest Daycare

Starring Maggie Simpson, The Longest Daycare depicts a day at what we assume to be an average daycare in Springfield.  After being dropped off, she is run through a metal detector, lice detector and some weird device that dubs her as average intelligence.  We see a quick glance at what she’s missing out on in the gifted room: babies using Macbooks and playing in a small orchestra.  Instead, she is put in the dreary normal room, where disgusting babies eat paste. There she finds her arch-nemesis, Gerald Samson (that mean baby with the unibrow), smashing butterflies.  When Maggie discovers a caterpillar, she tries to save it from Gerald’s hammer.  The short keeps to Simpson style laughs and pairs it with an unexpectedly whimsical heart at the end.

Paperman

Paperman is a sweet short film, reviving Disney’s 2D animation.  In black and white (except for that bit of lipstick) set in a windy mid-century city, we see two young people make a chance connection.  But the city has a fast pace, and before the young man realizes it, the young lady is on her train.  At his boring, monotonous job he sees her again, in the building across from his.  Like a last chance at destiny, he folds paper airplanes and desperately tries to get one to her.  With a bit of magic, love and beautiful music, this fantastic short may just bring a happy tear to your eye.

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