Bear Story is a wordless, computer-generated
animated film about a bear who fixes a mechanical toy that he takes to the town
square in order to earn money. When someone gives him money, he cranks up the
toy and we learn about his own life. He was apparently kidnapped and forced to
perform in the circus, leaving behind his wife and child. This film is
essentially wordless, but the tale depicted by the mechanical toy is very clear
in its sequence of events. To make such a toy in real life would be nearly
impossible, I think, but the depth of the action and the range of characters it
includes are just spectacular. This film has a melancholy tone for much of its
running time, but that doesn’t detract from the emotional impact that this
sentimental and moving film has.
During
the screening of the Animated Short Film nominees that I attended, a disclaimer
appeared about Prologue, warning that due to violence and nudity it would
inappropriate for children and they should be taken out of the theater before
it began. That message left me puzzled over what to expect, a feeling that
didn’t necessarily leave after watching the film. The violence is indeed
graphic, and there’s a lot of it since the story primarily involves a battle
between two sets of warriors. The film is drawn in black and white, almost like
pencil drawings, similar in some ways to the ones in a-ha’s famous “Take on Me”
video. The artwork is well executed overall, the men’s bodies are nicely
detailed (and two of them are nude and rather realistic), and the use of bright
red to depict profuse amounts of blood is effective. However, the point of the
story was lost on me. It feels almost like this was a sketch made to be a part
of a longer narrative. We’re never told in this wordless film why these men are
fighting or what different sides they represent. It’s too much of an enigma to
enjoy, so you wind up just admiring the talents of the artists but little more.
Sanjay’s Super Team is a charming little
tale of a young boy (the Sanjay of the title) trying to watch his
favorite cartoon superheroes. However, his father wants to worship, and they
struggle over who gets his way. The tension between popular culture and
religion is somewhat downplayed here in favor of a story about the boy’s
imaginative melding of the deities of his family’s religious faith with the
adventure of the cartoon shows that he prefers. This is another wordless film
that works best when the three figures from his father’s small altar become, in
Sanjay’s fantasies, superheroes taking on evil in the world. It’s good to see
Pixar, one of the giants in animation for decades now, taking on different
cultures in their short films. Sanjay’s Super Team displays the
typical look of a Pixar film with its bright, glossy colors, and it only takes
about seven minutes to ground us in a captivating narrative.
We Can’t Live without Cosmos features two
Russian cosmonauts who are competing to be shot into space. As the film
progresses, we learn that they have wanted to be astronauts for most of their
lives, and they have been together as friends—or perhaps more?—for many years.
This is yet another wordless short, but the story is very clear and easy to
follow. (By the way, what is going on with the short films without dialogue?
This is getting to be quite the trend among nominees.) We get to see what kinds
of tests they endure and how easily they can perform the tasks. They have such
a sense of joy and giddiness that you come to root for them to succeed. It
appears to me that the two men who are the central characters are in love with
each other, and there are several homoerotic elements to the film, not the
least of which is when the men share a bed together while fantasizing about
traveling through space. There’s also an undercurrent of melancholy to this
film as well, given its focus on the dangers of space travel, but I found it to
be very charming overall. It’s not a spoiler to tell you that the title of the
movie is also the title of a book that the two men have shared throughout their
lives, and while I was watching the short, which clocks in at a brisk sixteen
minutes, I kept wondering whether the filmmakers were hoping that the different
meanings of cosmos (space, yes, but also the cocktail) would be on anyone’s
mind.
World of Tomorrow is the one film
among the 2015 nominees that involves characters talking, and they are very
chatty, particularly one of them. It’s tough to explain quickly what the plot
addresses, but here goes: A clone from a dystopian future contacts the girl
from whom she has descended, Emily Prime. The “prime” designation, of course,
refers to the fact that Emily was the first in a line of Emilys. The clone then
transports the first Emily to the future so that she can learn about the
horrific events that will occur in the future and about the dangers of such
things as time travel. It’s all delivered in a rather flat, emotionless tone
that doesn’t particularly suit the subject matter, and honestly, this short’s
characters are rather crudely drawn—little more than stick figures, really—and
they interact with (act in front of?) a lot of computer-generated backgrounds
that float behind them. I suppose the message of the film, something about how
much we desire to hold on to memories because they provide us comfort during difficult
times, is admirable, but it’s tough to appreciate or enjoy much other than the
comic statements by Emily Prime, who doesn’t fully understand what her clone
descendant tries to tell her but who does comprehend sadness and loss in
others.
Winner: Bear
Story, a solid choice given the accomplished style of the film.
My Choice: We
Can’t Live without Cosmos, a charming and offbeat tale with a richness
of mostly unexpressed emotion.
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