The Great Oscar Baiter

While we at The Great Oscar Baiter believe strongly that art is in the eye of the beholder, there are some things in the world of cinema that are objectively true. Casablanca is a great movie. Crash is not. But above all else, we hold this to be true- Donald Duck is fucking hilarious. Which is why it hits especially hard when a Donald Duck short somehow manages to be bad. It feels like a betrayal on a cosmic scale. And so it gives me no pleasure to report that today’s film, the 1948 short Tea for Two Hundred , is kind of a dud. (via Wikipedia) Once again directed by Jack Hannah, the premise for Tea for Two Hundred is certainly promising enough. Donald is trying to enjoy a nice picnic in the woods when he makes the mistake of antagonizing an ant. Well, the ant doesn't take that lying down, and soon he has a whole army of them trying to steal his lunch. It's a fairly basic setup, but one can see where a lot of great bits can be spun out of it. And yet... Part of the problem i...

Unlike Warner Brothers, MGM and Disney, Universal Studios is not necessarily known for its animated characters. Aside from Woody Woodpecker, can you name one iconic Universal creation? And even then, Woody is not necessarily what I would call an A-Lister. Still, Universal tried their best, and even managed to attract some top tier talent for their short films. Case in point- the 1954 film Crazy Mixed Up Pup, directed by animation legend Tex Avery. (via MUBI) Crazy Mixed Up Pup is an odd short. It follows Sam and Rover, a mild-mannered man and his dog, who (due to a traffic accident and a cross-eyed EMT) accidentally receive injections of plasma from each other's species and begin to act more dog-like or man-like, respectively. As you do. Fans of SpongeBob SquarePants might remember an episode with a fairly similar premise, although I have to admit that SpongeBob did it better. And hey, there's no shame in that; "I Was a Teenage Gary" was a season one episode, afte...

A rather unfortunate side effect of 3-D animation’s current domination in the industry is the way in which traditional animation has fallen out of favor. There are still films being made in the classic hand-drawn style, certainly, but they’re few and far between, and received very little fanfare. Hell, even Studio Ghibli is going to be making a 3-D feature. I am not, of course, one of those people who thinks one style of animation is superior to the other, but am simply someone who thinks there’s more than enough room for both in today’s moviemaking business. Or, in the case of the 2010 short Day & Night, within the same film! (via TV Tropes) Released in theaters alongside Toy Story 3 and directed by Teddy Newton (who actually had a small role in that movie!), Day & Night is about as strange as we've come to expect from a 21st century Pixar short. The personification of Day meets the personification of Night; the two hate each other at first, but after a few minutes of c...

Construction sites are a popular site for animated hijinks. I’m pretty sure Popeye fought Bluto at a construction site once. The best segment of Fantasia 2000 featured a construction site heavily. Heck, one of the first shorts we covered here was set in one. So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mickey Mouse would get involved in the construction business too, with the 1933 short Building a Building. (via Wikipedia) The premise of Building a Building (directed by an uncredited David Hand) is pretty simple- Mickey's working construction, Minnie comes by selling sandwiches, Peg-Leg Pete tries to kidnap her, hilarity ensues. Between the sexual harassment and absurd level of cartoon violence, I wouldn't be surprised if this film and the aforementioned Popeye short have a lot in common. Still, Building a Building is a fun and entertaining short, and definitely captures the zany antics that I always associate with cartoons from the 1930s. It might not be the most "...

When someone says Looney Tunes, who comes to mind? Probably Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, right? Maybe the Tasmanian Devil if you’re stuck in the 90s, or Tweetie Bird if you’re a horrible monster. But outside of the characters we all know and Warner Brothers loves to merchandise, there’s a deep bench of characters that often gets ignored. And among those characters is Ralph Phillips, star of today’s short, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z-. (via Filmaffinity) Directed by Chuck Jones (who else, really?), From A to Z-Z-Z-Z is a 1953 short all about childhood boredom, which appears to be a theme with us lately. The child in this case is Ralph Phillips, who has a bad habit of daydreaming in class and going on various escapades in his mind. If you, like me, had an overactive imagination as a child (or if you're a fan of the hit sitcom Scrubs ), you'll find a lot to like here. While every short we'll be covering in our Year of Shorts is one I've seen prior to last November, I try my best to r...

We here at The Great Oscar Baiter are great fans of New Zealand triple threat Taika Waititi, and thankfully it seems the Oscars are following suit. Although it’s perhaps not surprising that the Academy didn’t nominate What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople or even Thor: Ragnarok (the Visual Effect category was pretty competitive in 2017!), it was still nice to see Waititi get the recognition he deserved last year with Jojo Rabbit. But although Best Adapted Screenplay may have gotten Waititi his first Oscar win, it wasn’t his first nomination. That came over a decade prior, with his 2004 short Two Cars, One Night. (via IMDb) Following the story of three kids left in the parking lot while their parents drink in a bar, Two Cars, One Night is certainly a lot more low key than Waititi's more recent work (with nary an imaginary Hitler or prancing Jeff Goldblum in sight). Still, the short definitely features a lot of his familiar staples, from the breezy, naturalistic d...

By 1948, Mickey Mouse had undergone a series of radical changes. He had lost the mischievous streak of his early years, his rough edges sanded down to make him a better role model for children. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had also slipped in popularity, with Donald Duck stealing the spotlight as everyone’s favorite Disney character. He even radically changed his appearance. Altogether, the classic story of a Hollywood star two decades into the business. And all of this is especially apparent with today’s short, Mickey and the Seal. (via Wikipedia) Directed by Charles Nichols, Mickey and the Seal is a fairly simple short with a bizarrely complicated setup. For reasons known only to himself, Mickey is visiting the zoo carrying a wicker basket containing two dead fish which he plans on throwing to the seals. I'm fairly certain that you couldn't do that even in the 1940s, but we'll let that go. It is a cartoon after all. Well wouldn't you know it, a baby seal goes and gets...