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Definitely not my Saturday morning cartoons

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Oscar Nominees: Animated Short Films

I can’t help but begin my musings about the 2025 Oscar nominees with those I’ve seen most recently, mainly because I’m still thinking about them. My husband and I saw 10 short films in one afternoon – 5 animated/5 live-action – and it was a lot to process in a short time (roughly three hours).

Especially since we started with the live-action shorts. I quickly realized that filmmakers are likely creating short films to make an intense, emotional, gut-wrenching point. It was quite an experience to watch five of those in a row before lunchtime. I was glad we had some time to go outside and walk around a bit before our next set of films. Happily, the animated shorts were generally easier on the emotions. but they were definitely nothing like Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo or any of the other cartoons I grew up with.

I know nothing about filmmaking, but I assume that there are skills and tools needed for animation that are very different from those needed for live-action films. And simply because I’ve been watching animated films for 60+ years, I recognize that they have been dramatically changed by use of computers – just like everything else in the world. And honestly, using the word “computers” for what I mean doesn’t really sound right anymore. Sounds old-fashioned and too limited to suit the range of technology utilized in modern animation. But that’s just me fussing over linguistics. Let’s just say I find modern animation astounding and fascinating. I have grown accustomed to being surprised by something each time I see a new animated film.

For the most part, we watch animated films for the same reason we watch live-action films – a good story. We’ll likely have different expectations for animation compared with live-action, but whether we’re looking for laughs, for frights, for romance, for adventure, or for a good cry, we can find it all in films that have moved far beyond the Saturday morning fare of my childhood.

I’ve listed the five nominees for Animated Short Film in the order they were shown in the theater.

[Spoiler alert: I am famous in my family for inadvertantly providing too much information for shows they haven’t seen yet, potentially spoiling surprises. So if that matters to you, beware!]

Japan: Magic Candies

A little gem of a film. We meet a young boy named Dong-Dong playing marbles in a park. He plays alone with a dozing dog for company, and claims to be content that none of the other kids ask him to join in their games. On his way home he picks up a bag of what looks like more marbles, but is actually a bag of magic candies. When he gets home and tries one, he finds that as long as the candy is in his mouth, he is able to have conversations that are definitely magical. But once the candy melts, the magic is done.

These magical candy-fueled conversations are funny, heart-warming, bittersweet and beautiful. Dong-Dong takes it all in stride and seeks to make the most of the experiences. There is a good balance of silliness and humor, a bit of melancholy and plenty of warm and fuzzy sentiment. The stop-motion animation is clever, colorful and fun to watch. In terms of sheer enjoyment, this would be my top choice for an award.

Iran: In the Shadow of the Cypress

Compelling and sometimes tough to watch. This wordless story introduces us to a man and his adult daughter, clearly at a crisis point. We see evidence of regular violent outbursts and sorrow. The weeping young woman has prepared dinner for her father and has packed her bags to leave, clearly unable to cope any longer. She opens the door. He hangs his head and does not try to stop her. And on the beach in front of their house they see a stranded whale.

Both run to the whale to try to help it, digging sand from beneath it, tying a rope to the tale and trying to use a small motorboat to pull it back into the water. When that fails, the father continues out to an offshore shipwreck and stays while the daughter tries to keep the whale wet and cool as the day heats up. On board the shipwreck, we share in flashbacks to an aerial attack, gunshots, explosion, a drowning woman and a small child. Both father and daughter continue to work to rescue the whale – the daughter struggling on her own, the father forming a daring plan between his devastating flashbacks.

The animation makes effective use of simple lines and movements and soft, pale colors. The story’s conclusion is both triumphant and heartrending. A well-told tale, definitely not light entertainment.

France/Belgium/UK/Netherlands: Wander to Wonder

For me, this is the film that lingers. It opens with a clearly worn-out recording of a children’s TV show. We see an older man talking with small furry creatures living in a miniature woodland setting. Think of Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers talking with their puppet friends about their activities and what they’re learning. Flies often buzz past the screen as the show plays.

We meet three very small aging characters wearing scraps of clothing, including remnants of the furry costumes seen in the old video. One male character runs around in no pants, quoting Shakespeare. The female reads old letters from children who wrote in to the TV show and tries to record new shows. The other male bumbles around and smiles vaguely, looking like a lost street performer. They work hard to break open a pickle jar and then share a pickle for dinner. Flies are present in most scenes. We eventually see a pair of shoes on the floor, still on the feet of a motionless body. Among their various activities, a crisis arises which brings about devastation and, just maybe, new possibilities.

This short film evidently took 8 years to make. The animation is incredible. I’ve never seen such lifelike movement in a stop-motion film. It was hard to shake the notion that I was watching actual tiny people. I came away unsure whether the story was about aging, coping with death and/or change, pursuing one’s purpose in life, imagination and reality – or all of that and more. It was mesmerizing, disturbing, wistful, hopeful. I found it powerful and unforgettable, even though I’m still not exactly sure why. If I had to choose which film I thought was the best, it would be this one.

France: Yuck!

This film was cute and easy to watch. More like a traditional cartoon than any of the others. Young kids at a very crowded campground, playing together and getting grossed out by anyone engaging in public displays of affection – especially kissing.

Not surprisingly, a couple of the kids are secretly not so grossed out by the idea of kissing and much of the film is about how and when they’re going to get together to try it out. Throughout the film, lips glow pink whenever someone feels the urge. Again, it’s cute.

Not much more to say about this one. It was cute, colorful, mildly entertaining. As far as I could see, the message is that people love love and it’s not gross.

Belgium/France/Netherlands: Beautiful Men

Interesting and unusual topic for an animated film. Three European brothers are in Turkey for hair transplants. There’s a mixup and it looks like only one will be able to get the surgery done.

In the meantime there are some brotherly discussions and some arguments about relationships, about health scares, but not really much discussion about the reasons for wanting hair transplants. They mostly spend their time waiting and talking. But we do get to see the eventual outcome of their trip.

Another excellent use of stop-motion animation, in a very real-looking setting. Facial expressions, emotions and activities come across as natural and genuine. Very well done, but again, seems an unusual topic for animation.

While I enjoyed these short animated films, I couldn’t help wondering about the reasons behind choosing animation to tell these stories, especially stop-motion, which can take a long, long time to complete. It seems unlikely that these films will become widely known or commercially successful. Is it the artistic challenge? A chance to advance filmmaking in general? A simple love of the art form? Or just the best way to tell the stories the filmmakers wanted to tell?

I’m not sure, but I’m glad I saw them. May the best film win.

My private Oscar race

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I love movies. I grew up watching a lot of movies, probably because my mom loved watching them. When we were little, I think kids’ matinee tickets cost 25 cents, so Mom would pile all four of us into the car and we’d go to see pretty much any Disney film that was playing. She’d carry in a big knitting bag like it was her purse, filled with popcorn in a Tupperware container and bottles of Pepsi. It was great fun.

Before multiplexes were the norm, we watched our Disney films in style at a fancy old-style theater with a balcony, velvet curtains across the screen and big pipe organ that rose up out of the floor. A man in a uniform stood at the door to gather our tickets. He would tear them in half and hand the ticket stubs to my younger brother saying, “The gentleman always carries the stubs.”

Now it’s hard to even imagine that up until my late 20s, the only way I could watch movies was in a theater or on one of the broadcast television stations, which could only show movies that had been around for a while. We basically had five channels to choose from: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS. Cable TV existed, but I don’t think we had it till our son was in middle school. If you couldn’t go to the theater when a film was showing or you missed it when it was on TV, you just missed it.

When video rental became a thing and VCRs were easy to buy, I was in heaven. We could watch movies at home when we wanted, go back to old films that we’d always wanted to see, with no need for a babysitter. Perfect. I bought a big movie guide to help me find quality films to rent and would bring home a stack of videos each weekend – many of them in black and white and/or with subtitles. My husband and son jokingly called it my “film school.” Then Netflix appeared and I could have DVDs mailed to me with no due dates, just mail them back when we were done with them. No more late fees and no need to chase my toddler daughter around Blockbuster anymore. Even more perfect.

Now that streaming is so readily available it’s easier than ever to watch almost any movie we can think of – which is amazing – but as soon as we became empty-nesters, free to go out to the movies whenever, we found outselves a nice theater with a wait staff that brings food and drinks to our seats. (Usually the same seats every time – on the end of the first row behind wheelchair accessible seating – kind of like first row balcony.) We go often enough that we get a lot of free tickets through the theater’s rewards program, plus some staff members recognize us and ask what we’re seeing. I’d say it’s a fun night out, but hey, we don’t like staying out late so it’s more like a fun afternoon out.

We’ve always enjoyed watching the Oscars, and decided it would be more fun and interesting if we were actually familiar with more of the nominated movies. So over the past several years, my husband and I have made an effort to see as many likely Oscar nominees as we can before the presentation of the awards. I follow the buzz about likely contenders, we assess the films for ourselves, try to predict nominees and winners, as well as choose who we think should win.

We usually don’t go out of our way to see all of the animated feature films, and we don’t bother with documentaries. We don’t really care about films that are nominated simply because they have one good new song, though we do care about original score. And if there are any films that we just don’t want to see for whatever reason, we skip them. We used to ignore all of the short films, but I recently discovered that for the past 20 years, ShortsTV has packaged the Oscar-nominated short films for release in theaters, so this year we decided to check them out. We attended two showings – five animated short films and five live-action short films.

This year the Oscar nominations are spread across 50 films, which includes 15 short films. (And not including whatever science and tech awards they give out ahead of time.) So, how many films did we watch to get ready for the 2025 Oscar ceremony?

  • We’ve seen 35 of the nominated films
  • We skipped 5 films due to lack of interest, as well as all 10 documentary films
  • Plus prior to the nominations, we watched 23 films that we thought might be considered

So after putting in all that time, my own private Oscar race will take place over this coming week, as I work to gather my thoughts and post some observations about the nominated films before the awards are handed out at the Dolby Theater – which is housed in the Hollywood Boulevard shopping mall pictured below.

It’s likely the whole block presently looks a lot more like my pre-Oscars photo from a few years ago as they glam things up for the big night:

I’ll close this intro to my Oscar observations (Oscarvations?) with my favorite fact learned during a tour of the Dolby Theater. A lot of the nominees – especially those favored to win or who are at least sure to be on camera lot – get ready at the theater. So they get dressed, get hair and makeup done, get in a limo at the back of the mall and drive around the block to be dropped off at the red carpet.

And the nominees are….. (to be continued)