From Rugrats to The Simpsons, at some point in our lives we’ve devoted time to watching cartoons. Whether you have been depriving your inner child of animation for who-knows-how long or are an active Disney/Nickelodeon/comic strip-phile like I am, this is an inside look into something you may not know about animation. Enjoy this free issue of the Toon Times.
The Oscars are coming up. But this is not your ordinary insight into the Oscars. There will be no discussion of errors in the system causing doubt in the authenticity of the Academy’s voting system, nor will there be any insights on the designers who will be dressing the stars. There will be no mention of stars at all, actually. Unless you count those animated in lines and paint.
Animation is a category that is not chief among people’s concerns when the Academy Awards are approaching. We focus on the live action, the actors and actresses, the screenplays, the directors. Maybe by chance we’ll have seen one or two of the nominated animated feature films. If there’s a Pixar film up, then definitely. But care about what’s up for Best Animated Feature or Best Animated Short? Please. We have other things to worry about – like how Seth MacFarlane will fare as a host or whether Anne Hathaway will have any more wardrobe malfunctions.
But take a step back for a second, take a breather from your frantic searches for illegal downloads of the Best Picture contenders and enjoy this little insight into a less-appreciated category that deserves as much praise as any.
Adam and Dog
Unless you are someone with a vested interest in animation or short film production, it’s likely that you have not seen nor heard of Adam and Dog. This simple 2-D animated short follows a dog through the vast yet unexplored territory that functions as a figurative Garden of Eden. When the dog encounters Adam – an unkempt, unshaven and unclothed caveman-type figure – the two become fast friends, enjoying each other’s company after a few games of fetch. In accordance with the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, however, Adam is enticed away by a beautiful young woman and abandons the dog until they are reunited under more melancholy circumstances toward the end of the short.
It has been speculated that the dog represents a God figure – man’s best friend who must let go when Adam partakes of the “forbidden fruit” that is his female companion, and that certainly makes the film resonate more. This is a unique spin on a well-known story, and even without dialogue it carries a lot of emotional depth.
The animation, written, directed and produced by Minkyu Lee, was created with consultation by Walt Disney Animation legend Glen Keane, who is perhaps best known for designing and supervising animation for Ariel in The Little Mermaid and many other Walt Disney Feature Animation characters. The animation itself has a bit of a Disney-esque flair to it: The characters have very full and rounded features and the backgrounds they are set against are incredibly beautiful and dynamic. At one point, the dog stands atop a rock that almost resembles Pride Rock from The Lion King. These small aspects come together to form a really interesting animated short, certainly a top contender for the Academy Award.
Fresh Guacamole
This short became known to me a few months back when it was posted on YouTube and went viral. The stop-motion animation by director PES (Adam Pesapane) has now garnered over seven million views since March 2012 and continues to gain attention in the wake of its nomination.
While it doesn’t follow much of a narrative arc, Fresh Guacamole features a surrealist take on, as the name would suggest, a recipe for making guacamole. That might not sound so interesting upon first inspection, but the animation features a hand grenade doubling as an avocado with a billiard ball in place of the pit. A baseball is cut up and turns into dice, which are then added to the mashed “avocado." And by the end of the short, these various items come together to form a guacamole recipe with some added poker chips on the side, culminating in a fascinating display of creative artistry.
The feat of this animation, other than its unique way of approaching something seemingly mundane, is its use of Foley sound. Foley sound, for those who don't know, consists of audio tracks made in post-production when it was not possible to create the sound during the actual filming process; it is a common technique in the making of animated films. From knife sharpening to slicing to mixing all the ingredients up within a molcajete, there’s something incredibly exciting about the seemingly ordinary sounds that have been concocted for Fresh Guacamole.
Head Over Heels
In the press kit for this animated short, writer and director Timothy Reckart described his inspiration for Head Over Heels as coming from the Rembrandt painting "The Philosopher in Meditation." “There’s a spiral staircase in the corner that is symmetrical, as if it could also be used by someone living on the ceiling,” Reckart said. The animation he created out of this idea tells the story of a couple that has grown apart over the years. They live separately in the same house – one on the floor and one on the ceiling. When the husband, Walter, finds a pair of shoes his wife Madge wore on their wedding day, he repairs them with the hope that the gift might renew their relationship.
Unbeknownst to me, and as a testament to its success, this animation was the product of a student project at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and has since gone on to win several prizes. The story itself is a truly heart-wrenching one: In simple and artistic terms, it details the story of two people who were once in love, driven apart by the literal obstacle of living in two separate worlds. The artwork is also something to be marveled at; the amount of detail within the home is astounding, as are the creative efforts of turning the world upside down (and then right side up again).
Head Over Heels' greatest asset, however, is its heart. The story alone is a beautiful example of the power that animation can possess. In the same way the 2012 Oscar-winning animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore tugged at the heartstrings, this twisted look into a very realistic relationship feels authentic and sweet.
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare
The Simpson baby who never grows up gets her moment to shine in The Longest Daycare, a short that appeared in theaters prior to Ice Age: Continental Drift. In the animated short directed by David Silverman, Maggie Simpson goes to daycare and takes it upon herself to ensure the safety of a butterfly who is at risk of being maimed by Baby Gerald.
This is an atypical insight into the world of The Simpsons in that it is seen only from the eyes of Maggie and completed without dialogue. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the series showrunner Al Jean compared Maggie to Charlie Chaplin, functioning as a silent comedian in the four-minute short.
The short is overall palatable for audiences young and old and provides an unusual and cute look into a different side of The Simpsons. Among the nominees, it distinguishes itself as, strangely enough, the most kid-friendly of the shorts.
Paperman
The final film up for the Best Animated Short Oscar is Paperman, a Disney Animation project that recently made the rounds on social media once it became available on YouTube. Originally appearing in theaters before the film Wreck-It Ralph, Paperman depicts a young man working at an office who has a "meet-cute” with a beautiful young woman at a train platform before losing track of her. Later, from his office he spots her in the building across the street and proceeds to try to send paper airplanes from his desk through the window to the room she’s sitting in.
A simple concept becomes a beautiful artistic venture in this black-and-white animated short. Paperman utilizes a new technology called “Meander” to combine 2D and CGI animation which brings together the stylized figure rendering that is indicative of Disney 2D with a more interactive and dynamic CGI environment. In an interview with Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew, director John Kahrs said, “We have to push the processes and techniques and see where we can take them.” Paperman takes the audience through a truly vibrant world. In one scene where the male protagonist runs into the street to search for the woman, cars drive past him and seem to nearly come in contact with the viewer in such a way that gives insight into just how Meander works. It’s a truly beautiful concept, to combine the artistry of the traditional animated style with the technological capabilities of newer techniques.
A Final Verdict?
Rather than concluding with a prediction as to which film will win the Oscar for Best Animated Short, I have decided to hold this article to a higher purpose. The idea behind sharing a synopsis and a gentle critique of each of these films was to hopefully entice anyone who might be reading this into learning about animated films on their own. In the process, perhaps, new animated short film fans may be born.
Animation might not be what the Academy Awards are all about. They might not even be on the radar of most people attending the ceremony or watching it on television. But for those who are interested, and those who could potentially be interested, there are tremendously interesting facts to be learned by taking just a quick peek into a world of film production that is much less often explored than that of the multi-million dollar blockbusters that dominate film culture. And for those people, I hope this was an enjoyable take on each of the animated shorts nominated for an Oscar in 2013.