Best Animated Short 2015 - The Shortlist

Well, the Academy screening committee has viewed all of the qualifying films for this year's Best Animated Short race, and they've put in their ratings. And the fine folks at PriceWaterhouse Cooper have tabulated all of the ratings, and from that they've figured out the ten films with the highest rating, which were announced last Thursday. These are the ten films that will be moving on, to face another round of showings to be seen by the nominating committee, who will put in their own rankings. The five films with the highest average score will become the nominees to be announced in January. Meanwhile the 50 films that have not made it into the shortlist will be there, either online or in somebody's collection, but largely forgotten.

But let's not concern ourselves about those fifty films. We're here to focus on the Best Animated Short category, so let's take a look at the ten films that still have a shot, first for a nomination and then for the win. One of these will be the winner. Which one will it be?

Apologies for the late entry, almost a week after the shortlist was announced. I'm sure I could have found time between interview and Ponyville Ciderfest, and dealing with a cold, but as it stands, I was far from being the first blogger to have a more detailed look at the shortlisted films. Tim from the Film Experience, a much more prolific animation historian, beat me to it, but hey, mine has trailers and stuff.

Here are the previous entries about the shortlist.
2012
2013
2014
Top 5 films 2009-2013 that were not nominated

Best Animated Short 2015 - The Longlist

Well, after several months of ignoring this blog, things have come to the point where I can no longer continue doing so. Yes, the Best Animated Short race for 2015 has begun. November is around the time when the Academy announces the shortlist of ten films that will be up for the nomination, but when checking Cartoon Brew I noticed that they had announced the longlist of all the films that qualify...a week ago. Yes, that means I am already a week behind.

So rather than wait for the shortlist, let's take a look at the 60 films that qualified, similar to what we did three years ago, with embeds to the film or  the trailer if possible. I would have more to say, but as somebody that doesn't go to film festivals there's really not much I can do. Here's a take from somebody that presumably has actually seen most of these films.

Best Animated Short Make-Up Review: Lorenzo (2004)

 

Well I didn't think it ever would, but it's finally happened. Walt Disney Corporations, one of the biggest and most powerful corporations has finally reached down into the dark depths of its mysterious vault and has unearthed one of the films that's been buried so deep, there were absolutely word about it for the past several years, leading some conspiracy theorists to postulate that the men in charge were planning on making it lost film a la Rippling Romance before finally coming to their senses.

No, I'm not talking about Song of the South. Instead it's another film that had been shoved deeper into animation purgatory. I'm talking about none other than the mysterious and legendary animated short form, Lorenzo.

It's Coming...

August 18...

Best Animated Short Make-Up Review: Dedalo (1976)

All right, I'll admit it. I've been completely ignoring this blog, leaving it fallow like abandoned buildings in a ghost town. I can't blame the lack of time, because even with my 60-80 hour a week job I still find time to play video games like Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Super Mario Galaxy (gotta love Rosalina). I can't blame the fact there's been nothing to post. Even if it's not time for the Best Animated Short race, there are numerous other posts that I've been planning, from my favorite animated TV shows or rankings of Studio Ghibli films...

...or, I don't know, one of the Missing Three?

Best Animated Short Make-Up Review: Hypothese Beta (1967) and The Shepherd (1970)

Gotta love procrastination!

It was a month ago that I made one of my most ambitious trips in an attempt to watch all of the Oscar nominated films. It was a trip that took me halfway around the country and saw me drive 6,000 miles in only two weeks. But it was well worth it because I got to knock two more films from the Missing Five, making it only the Missing Three.

And then of course I wait over a month before writing a review, but that's the way it goes.

FEAST wins Best Animated Short

Congratulations to Patrick Osborn and the rest of the staff at Disney Animation for winning the Best Animated Short Oscar for Feast. While I still felt The Dam Keeper was better, it's a lot more well deserved than Big Hero 6 winning for Best Animated Feature (but then again I'm obviously biased towards The Tale of the Princess Kaguya).

Best Animated Short - 2014

Well, it was almost a month ago that the Oscar nominations were announced, and sadly I wasn't able all of the nominated films until this past weekend, when they did the showings of the nominated short films in select theaters around the country. I had to drive overnight Thursday night to make it from Florida (where I had been to check out two of the Missing Five). And unfortunately I didn't have time to write the review until now*, almost a week after the showing, so you'll have to excuse the quality of these reviews. However, here it is, the review for the most recent batch of Best Animated Short nominees.

*it was mostly because I was driving all around the northeast visiting graves of 300-game winners. Yes, I sure have my priorities straight.

It's coming...

Rainbow Dash is excited! She's not the only one!

Best Animated Short 2014 - NOMINEES

The Oscar nominations were today, and while most of the Internet would be abuzz over some other major news such as The Lego Movie missing out on Best Animated Feature or Selma getting a Best Picture nomination despite its deplorably scathing portrayal of LBJ (seriously, is there a more BS film controversy this year?) but the main news for me and the main reason for why this blog exists (and has been lying dormant for the past several months) is for another reason entirely, one that most people would miss out.

The Best Animated Short category