Was
man free in his original state of nature? Are we enslaved by our stuff? Several
of this year’s Oscar nominated animation shorts lend themselves to such Rousseauean
questions. There is also a Disney Film (not included in the media screenings) to
contend with. Regardless, all five
nominees and a few additional short films of note will screen as part of the
annual showcase of Academy Award nominated shorts, which opens tomorrow at the
IFC Center in New York.
Amid
the international field, the clear standout is Shuhei Morita’s Possessions, a lush supernatural fable
in the tradition of Kwaidan. It is a
dark and stormy night in Eighteenth Century Japan. A weary traveler seeks
shelter in shrine, only to find himself in a supernatural repository for broken
objects that hold a “grudge.” Fortunately, the man is both handy and
spiritually sensitive.
Morita’s
richly detailed animation is strikingly elegant, yet it has an appropriate
macabre undertone. Possessions evokes
scores of classic Japanese movies, but there is also something strangely moving
about it. Completely satisfying, it deserves the little gold statuette, but
other nominees might be more to the Academy’s tastes.
Clearly,
the BBC produced adaptations of Julia Donaldson’s children’s books appeal to
many Oscar voters’ sensibilities, since The
Gruffalo was nominated in 2011. In the case of Max Lang & Jan Lachauer’s
Room on the Broom (trailer here), a witch’s
broomstick and the freedom of movement it represents to a swelling menagerie of
forest creatures is the object driving the action. Given its wholesome quality
animation and brains-over-brawn themes, Broom
is likely to be most parents’ favorite of the showcase. It also boasts the
strongest celebrity interest, featuring the voice talent of Gillian Anderson,
Rob Brydon, and best supporting actress nominee, Sally Hawkins (festival review
here).
Parenting
is a more problematic proposition in Daniel Sousa’s Feral (trailer
here),
a dark Kaspar Hauser fable about a boy reintroduced into human society after
spending his formative years living with the wolves. Visually, Sousa’s
black-and-white animation is starkly powerful, but its extreme stylization
keeps viewers at arm’s length emotionally. Nevertheless, it is an accomplished
work that should make an impression on animation connoisseurs.
The
agoraphobic titular protagonist of Laurent Witz’s Mr. Hublot (co-directed by Alexandre Espigares, trailer
here)
might also learn something about nurture. Inspired by Belgian sculptor Stephane
Halleux’s figures, Hublot lives in a fantastical industrial world, where the
living and the mechanical are partially integrated. One fateful day, he takes
in an abandoned robotic puppy, but he never expects it to be such a handful.
While Witz’s narrative is pretty straight forward and conventional, he (and
Espigares) create a wonderfully distinctive environment, with a real lived-in
feel.
