Round up: Oscars for 'Best Animated Short'

As someone with a degree in Animation, I certainly should know a lot more about it than I do. I've always been fascinated by traditionally drawn animations as well as the magical world of stop motion, and despite a few exceptions not quite as much when it comes to contemporary 3D work.

Towards the end of 2013, I had decided that in the following year I was going to watch all of the Academy Award 'Best Picture' winners. The outcome of that particular journey will be the subject of a subsequent post, however, I also felt a desire to watch all of the animated short winners. I didn't want to overwhelm myself with lists upon lists of films to take a look at, but I knew that most of the shorts would probably only stretch to around 30 minutes at the most.

The Oscar for 'Best Animated Short' was first awarded in 1932, and in every year of that 30s decade the prize went to the same man; Walt Disney. Not surprisingly, most of the other nominees were made up of his other productions. Ultimately, he still holds the record for the most Academy Award wins and nominations by some considerable margin.

 

The Films

In order to keep this post concise and free of blubber, I will simply just mention what I felt were some of the high and low points over the past 90 or so Oscar winners. In chronical order, they are as follows:

'Winners'

'Mouse Trouble' - Fred Quimby, 1944.

'The Little Orphan' - Fred Quimby, 1948.

'Johann Mouse' - Fred Quimby, 1952.

'Speedy Gonzales' - Edward Selzer, 1955.

'Birds Anonymous' - Edward Selzer, 1957.

'Special Delivery' - Eunice Macauley & John Weldon, 1978.

'Tango' - Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1982.

'The Man Who Planted Trees' - Frederic Back, 1987.

'The Wrong Trousers' - Nick Park, 1993.

'Logorama' - Nicolas Schmerkin, 2009. 

'Binners'

'Moonbird' - John Hubley & Faith Elliott Hubley, 1959.

'Is it Always Right to be Right?' - Lee Mishkin, 1970.

'Frank Film' - Frank Mouris, 1973.

'Bunny' - Chris Wedge, 1998.

'Peter & the Wolf' - Suzie Templeton & Hugh Welchman, 2007.

With regards to the above film 'Peter & the Wolf', I really have to say that it is probably one of the most amazing and best looking stop motion sets that it's ever seen. However, for me it was vastly outweighed by the poor telling of its story. Beauty alone can't tame the hearts of the audience, the Academy Awards judging panel; maybe.

Special mentions should go to Bob Godfrey's 'Great' (1975) and John Canemaker & Peggy Stern's 'The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation' (2005) as these two films in particular inspired me as an animator in terms of what animation can really be used for in a more personalised but meaningful way.

I'll admit I was disappointed that the two animated shorts I usually consider to be my favourites were not even nominated for an Academy Award, but this is par for the course with many things. I would certainly recommened seeking them out; should you be in need for inspiration. They are William Hanna & Joseph Barbera's 'Mouse in Manhattan' (1945) and David Fleischer's 'Big Bad Sinbad' (1957), truly great animated shorts.

I shall leave you with the most recent animated short that I really enjoyed, Nina Paley's 'This Land is Mine' (2012). I happened to catch a screening of it at the Berlin Pictoplasma festival in 2013, and unlike the vast majority of animations on show there I was moved by its message; despite it being carried through a satire that had the audience in stitches.