From Frog Parties to Packing: This Year’s Animated Oscar-Nominated Shorts

Dear Basketball

Dir. Glen Keane

On November of 2015, Kobe Bryant released a letter to the Players’ Tribune announcing his retirement from basketball. “Dear Basketball” is animated version of this love letter and goodbye, narrated by Bryant himself. After an illustrious career, he focuses on his childhood love for basketball and how his dream has manifested into reality. The sentiment is there, but paired with hand-drawn animations by Disney artist Glen Keane and a stirring score by John Williams (both of which would be beautiful alone), the film appears cheesy and almost self-absorbed. Keane’s drawings swiftly capture Bryant’s movement and facial expressions, but Bryant’s different jerseys are the only color among black and white sketches, emphasizing renowned team names rather than his story. The instrumentals, which crescendo when Bryant takes a shot (or makes a sentimental remark), over-dramatize already poignant moments—Bryant’s voice is powerful enough to stand on its own. There are only seconds of simplicity, like when young Kobe Bryant and old Kobe Bryant play on the court at the same time, unfettered by cinematic flair—something the rest of the film should have emulated.

"Garden Party" is an animated, Oscar-nominated short, directed by Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, and Lucas Navarro. By Courtesy of the Academy Awards

Garden Party

Dir. Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Navarro

Frogs navigate a humanless world in “Garden Party.” As they follow their primal instincts, four amphibians slowly reveal details about the tropical villa scene: a debris-filled pool, a kitchen littered with rotten food, a cracked security camera, bullet holes in the doors and windows, and a ransacked safe. Aside from the ribbets and buzzing insects, the film is eerily silent. That is, until one frog finds the house’s control pad and jumps from button to button, illuminating rooms, setting off pool fountains, and cueing upbeat jazz music, all of which set the stage for a final reveal.

A self-proclaimed “dark comedy,” “Garden Party” is a flawlessly executed three dimensional animation. The team behind the film took extra care to seamlessly integrate the frogs into the scene—the patter of their footsteps and marks of their footprints, the glossy reflections in their eyes, the texture of their skin, and the weight of their bodies as they move across different fabrics—and each scene is as crisp and beautiful as the next. Dramatic camera angles from above remind viewers of the frogs’ small size as they discover the unoccupied villa, from ostentatious bedrooms to gargantuan lion fountains. Even with an amphibian romance, gone is the overly saccharine animal animation. This party has a dark subplot, one that is artfully revealed in just seven minutes.

"Lou" is an animated Oscar-nominated short, directed by Dave Mullins. By Courtesy of the Academy Awards

Lou

Dir. Dave Mullins

Fresh off their win for Best Animated Short Film at 89th Oscars ceremony, Pixar is back to defend its title with “Lou.” A story that campaigns against bullying and for friendships, “Lou” follows a boy who, after bullying his fellow classmates, must return their lost toys to them in exchange for his own treasure, a long-lost teddy bear he can obtain only from the toy-automaton that is trying to teach him a lesson. As is the norm with Pixar, the film’s animation is pristine, and its message is sweet. Unfortunately, the short film fails to transcend any basic level of emotion. Though the boy ultimately learns from his mistake—he bullied others to cope with his own bullying—“Lou” lacks a certain subtlety in its storytelling that keeps Pixar from rising to the heights it is well known for.

"Negative Space" is an animated, Oscar-nominated short, directed by Max Porter and Ru Kuwuhata. By Courtesy of the Academy Awards

Negative Space

Dir. Max Porter and Ru Kuwuhata

This year’s only stop-motion nominee, “Negative Space” is an exploration of the age-old father-son relationship that defies tropes with its unique storytelling. Adapted from a poem by Ron Koertge, the main character narrates his childhood growing up and bonding with his traveling father by packing his suitcases for him. The packing is always “perfect,” as his father praises him, approval the boy yearns for.

As it turns out, it is less that the boy packs the clothes as it is the clothes that pack themselves, and even the boy himself at one point. As the clothes come to life—a belt imitates a snake, socks become and seaweed, t-shirts swim across the screen—the short animated film becomes Koertge’s poetry, which it is based on. Indeed, “Negative Space” is a son’s ode to his father, and though the narrator’s monotonous voice betrays no emotion, Porter and Kuwuhata insert it into the movie slowly and carefully, ensnaring an unknowing audience into its quiet but lyrical world.

"Revolting Rhymes" is an animated, Oscar-nominated short, directed by Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer By Courtesy of the Academy Awards

Revolting Rhymes

Dir. Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer

A wolf in a trench coat joins a woman in a café who is waiting to babysit. He flips through the pages of her children’s fairytale book, scoffing—“Happily ever after?”—before embarking on his own tale describing the deaths of his two nephews. Based on the book by Roald Dahl, the animated short “Revolting Rhymes” presents a fairytale within a fairytale. The wolf’s story, which intertwines the lives of the Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and the Three Little Pigs, doesn’t diverge much from the original, but it does add some grit—and in Little Red’s case, a gun. The two girls meet when Snow White’s mother passes away, and the intricacies of their respective stories start to complicate their friendship as they navigate unstable families, greedy pigs, and voracious wolves. Overall, “Revolting Rhymes” skillfully integrates a twisted subplot within an animation children will love.

As the name “Revolting Rhymes” implies, the wolf narrates in rhymes, but they often carry a morbid gravitas: “The small girl smiles, one eye flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers. She aims it at the poor boy’s head, and BANG, BANG, BANG—she shoots him dead.” What’s more, the characters sometimes deviate from their expected script. When Little Red finds a wolf in her grandmother’s place, she strokes his snout as she says, “What a lovely great big furry coat you have on,” to which he yells, “That’s wrong! That’s wrong! Have you forgot to tell me what big teeth I’ve got?”

This story of revenge, veiled by idiosyncratic characters and fluorescent animation, is seamlessly multifaceted and full of surprises. Little Red and Snow White become independent women that the classic tales never gave room for. It also ends with a final twist, one that asserts the wolf and woman’s story as its own.

—Staff writer Kaylee S. Kim can be reached at kaylee.kim@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Mila Gauvin II can be reached at mila.gauvin@thecrimson.com.