Best Documentary Short Highlights - Man Alive! (1952)

Well, well. Who knew that I still have stuff to review that didn't require me to travel all the way to Miami? As you know there have been a handful of animated shorts that competed in the Best Documentary Short category instead of the more traditional Best Animated Short category that I've spent the past two years reviewing. I've really tried to pick out the ones that were animated, but it's been a challenge since the Best Documentary Short is the ugly stepsister of the short categories, and most of the nominees fade away to obscurity. I've tried searching which of the nominated films had been animated, but there's just been such a dearth of information about each nominee that I really have no idea which ones are animated or not.

Well, as it turned out there was one animated documentary out there. And it was none other than Steve Segal, my old History of Animation professor, that clued me in about it.

Best Animated Short Make-Up Review: This Changing World Volume I Chapter I (aka How War Came) (1941)

So the longtime readers of my blog (all two of you) have probably heard of me talking about the Missing Seven, the seven Oscar nominated films I haven't seen yet. Of course, it hasn't always been the Missing Seven. It was the Missing Two Hundred when I first started trying to watch all of the nominated films back in 2007. Since then I whittled it down to the Missing Ten by the beginning of 2012. Then I watched The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam on February 27, 2012 and it became the Missing Nine. Then the UPA Jolly Frolics DVD came out in late March 2012 and I was able to watch Trees and Jamaica Daddy on March 22, 2012 and it became the Missing Eight. And finally on May 21, 2012, Steve Moore was finally able to release a copy of his infamous film Redux Riding Hood online and it became the Missing Seven. That was almost two whole years ago. And while I was able to locate two of the Missing Seven, I haven't had a chance to acquire a 16mm projector and make a trip down to Miami to watch Hypothese Beta and The Shepherd. I had no idea where to find the other five films, so I was seriously thinking that I may never be get the Missing Seven down to a smaller number. At least...until today.