Academy Award nominations: Animated short films

Every year, the works chosen for the three Academy Award categories for short films are among the most overlooked of the year’s Oscar selections. Aside from those usually coupled with Pixar films and the rare popular YouTube short, the majorityof pieces go on unseen and unheard of by the general public. Yet, for each of the shorts chosen as selections for the highest honor available in the field of films less than 40 minutes in length, the recognition alone puts their extremely varied storylines and styles into history.

This year’s nominees don’t come up short, with a wide array of talent on display from countries around the world. For those fortunate enough to see them, the nominees for Best Live Action Short Film and Best Animated Short Film will be released for packaged viewing on Friday, with the nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject to follow on Feb. 14. Daily Bruin A&E;’s Tony Huang and Sebastian Torrelio look at the shorts nominated for the two former categories, analyzing each piece’s shot at a big victory come the Academy Awards on March 2.

‘Feral’
Directed by Daniel Sousa

One of two animated shorts from the United States to make the cut this year, “Feral,” is also the most artistic of the five. Done in a dark-toned, sketched style, “Feral” follows a young boy who has lived his life among wolves in the forest until a hunter brings him back to civilization. The boy, uncomfortable in this environment, keeps to his feral instincts to survive, winding up displaced in the structured school environment where other children see him as untamed and humorous.

“Feral” relies more on its beauty than its plot, making it the most avant-garde choice for the category this year by default. Visually, “Feral” succeeds in creating a haunting feeling of abandonment and connection to the wilderness with its animalistic adult themes and creeping score. It presents, in a helpful way, similarities to 2010’s Best Animated Short Film Academy Award-winner “The Lost Thing” – it’s all very poetic, and a positive indication of how inspired choices can help films go a long way.

‘Get a Horse!’
Directed by Lauren MacMullan

Coupled with the theatrical release of Disney’s “Frozen,” “Get a Horse!” is easily the most viewed of the short film nominees, and the likely front-runner for the Academy Award. The first Mickey Mouse short to run in theaters in nearly a decade, “Get a Horse!” creatively takes Walt Disney’s old black-and-white animation style and adjusts it for a modern audience with 3D computer-animated effects that throw Mickey and friends triumphantly into a new generation.

When classic characters Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow are interrupted on their musical wagon ride by Peg-Leg Pete, they break the fourth wall in the most dazzling way, linking the silliness of Disney’s imagination with the fun of 21st-century storytelling. “Get a Horse!,” aside from being one of the most inventive works of animation in years, is a purely fun six-minute ride, with the heart and appeal that Disney himself was always striving for and, ultimately, achieving.

‘Mr. Hublot’
Directed by Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares

Meant for children, but with a mature tinge to it, French short “Mr. Hublot” is a cute, heartfelt story told in a less-than-perfect manner. Its title character, a robotic figure in a world run by gears and machines, is an idiosyncratic fellow, sheltered from the outside world, keeping his quiet life and clearly displayed OCD to himself. When Mr. Hublot befriends a small robot puppy that’s been sleeping outside in the rain, he must face change, or fear being run out by his growingly invasive pet.

Like many past shorts, it clings to comedy with an emotional backing, hoping to ride happy feelings to an audience’s heart. Unfortunately, much of the purpose behind “Mr. Hublot” seems forced, going a little too far with its mechanical world, attempting to be more inventive than pleasant to watch at times. “Mr. Hublot” and its intriguing characters work anyway, finding some success in being whimsical to a charming fault.

‘Possessions’
Directed by Shuhei Morita

Japanese piece “Possessions” strives for meaning and positive morals through an overdone amount of fantasy, but can’t help being likeable regardless. With a blend of computer-generated characters and traditional anime inspiration, “Possessions” follows a man who seeks shelter from a storm in a small, cluttered cabin. When the shed transports him to a mystical room of abandoned objects with possessed souls, he uses his artisanal abilities to make the best of an eerie situation.

More strange than truly fulfilling, “Possessions” starts off slow and stiff, eventually becoming odd and somewhat amusing. Its lead character, a grunting muscleman with a silly talent for arts and crafts, never fulfills a true purpose, functioning mostly as a surrogate for friendliness and respectful values without being very engaging. Other ghostly personalities he meets, including a singing Warner Bros.-esque frog, are too cartoony to make the plot work on a serious level. Yet “Possessions” keeps a degree of fun in mind throughout its adventure, presenting a quirky piece to accompany the other, more convincing shorts of this year.

‘Room on the Broom’
Directed by Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Based on a children’s book by Julia Donaldson, United Kingdom entry “Room on the Broom” is the most child-friendly of the five animated selections, with talking animals and magical geniality aplenty. The tale follows a witch and her cat as she travels about, occasionally losing things on her broom-driven flights. As other creatures assist in helping to find these items, the witch lets them on board her increasingly crowded ride, much to her cat’s discontent.

Narrated by Simon Pegg, “Room on the Broom” is told as if directly from a storybook, rhyming each character’s successive lyrical lines with appropriate claylike computer animation to boot. A big-name cast of voice actors, among them Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall and Sally Hawkins – an Academy Award nominee herself this year – goes terribly underutilized, left with only a few short phrases and animal sounds to make. The short film winds up a bit long and overreaching for too little a reward, but “Room on the Broom” wins with simplicity, satisfying the needs of kids in a category of deeper works.