The Great Oscar Baiter

The 13th Academy Awards marked a very important year in the history of animated shorts. Not only was it the first time a non-Disney film didn’t win the award, a Disney short wasn’t even nominated. The shorts recognized that year were even more important, marking the debut of icons such as Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry . But of course, the Academy Awards don’t always hand the award out to the most important or influential film. And nowhere is that more clear than with Rudolf Ising's The Milky Way, which the Academy inexplicably decided was the best animated short of 1940. Just… why? (via Wikipedia) Through some strange cosmic coincidence, The Milky Way is our second consecutive short about cats. And while The Cat Came Back was based on a popular song, The Milky Way is based on a nursery rhyme, in this case the three little kittens who lost their mittens. Furious about being sent to bed without supper, the kittens decide to hitch up some balloons to a basket and visit The Milk...

Oh, the National Film Board of Canada. Where would be without them? I don’t know for sure what the answer is, aside from some place which is infinitely poorer. (And, presumably, less Canadian.) We’ve covered a fair number of NFBC shorts over the past eight months ( eight months! ), and we will continue to do so for as long as our Year in Shorts continues. And I mean that sincerely, I’ve got the rest of the year planned out in advance and our second to last entry is going to be an NFBC short. Regardless, let’s take a look at 1988’s The Cat Came Back. (via Wikipedia) In many ways, The Cat Came Back almost functions as a "Greatest Hits" of sorts for the NFBC. It's directed by Cordell Barker, who brought us Strange Invaders , a film which also dealt with an invasive nuisance that wouldn't leave someone's home. In that short it was aliens who represented the protagonist's fear of fatherhood. In this short it's a yellow cat who represents cats. Much like Black...

When discussions of diversity and representation come up in regards to the Oscars, conversation is typically limited to the Acting and Directing categories. And to some extent, it makes sense; those are by far the most visible individual achievement categories after all. But if there’s one thing that I hope to have made clear by now in our Year in Shorts, it’s that people’s accomplishments deserve to be celebrated regardless of how high profile they may be. Are there any categories less widely celebrated than the Shorts categories? (Answer- yes. The sound categories. Now category. Moving on!) Still, celebrating shorts is what we do (on a good day), so let’s keep the party going with 2019’s Hair Love. (via Wikipedia) The story of how Hair Love went on to Oscar glory is pretty interesting in its own right. Director and co-writer Matthew A. Cherry (a former football player, which, after Dear Basketball, makes him the second former professional athlete to win an Oscar as well as the seco...

Happy Father’s Day, fellow Oscar Baiters! As I’ve said a few times by now, while films about father/son relationships can often leave me cold, I am a sucker for a good film about fathers and daughters . Why that is, I can not say, although I’m certain a psychologist could easily put their kid through college discovering the answer. In addition to that, regular readers of the blog may remember my love for the art style of Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit. So with all that in mind, it could easily be assumed that I would absolutely love de Wit’s Oscar-winning 2000 short, Father and Daughter. I mean come on! It’s in the name! But is that the case? There’s only one way to find out. (via TV Tropes) Much like The Monk and the Fish , Father and Daughter is a wordless short, its story told entirely in de Wit's lovely watercolor visuals. Un like The Monk and the Fish, Father and Daughter is a very serious short. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's incredibly depressing! ...

The Academy Awards' Documentary categories have somewhat confusing histories. The Academy awarded achievements in documentary filmmaking for the first time at the 14th Academy Awards with the category for Best Documentary. According to Wikipedia (always a reliable source, kids; try it on your essays!), the category’s first year was the equivalent to Best Documentary Short Subject. Whether this was the result of a conscious decision or merely a coincidence, I have no idea. If Wikipedia doesn’t say, there’s just no way of knowing. The following year, the Best Documentary category remained, this time honoring both short films and features, with a staggering twenty-five nominees, resulting in a four way tie for the win, which I believe has to be a record. Feature and short documentaries wouldn’t be awarded separately until the 16th Academy Awards (although considering how few feature documentaries would be nominated over the next two decades, they probably could have stayed toget...

You know what we haven’t talked about in a while? A Pete Smith Specialty. And yes, the last couple of ones we covered were a bit offensive. And yes, it certainly did make me reevaluate my fondness for them. But today’s short, Romance of Radium, certainly couldn’t offend anyone, right? It's a documentary about radiation! At worst it might just mildly bore them. And… you know, it could be worse! Right? (via TV Tropes) Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Romance of Radium is a 1937 short about the history of the discovery of radium and the uses of radiation in science and medicine. Narrated (as always) by Pete Smith, Romance of Radium follows the discoveries of scientists like Henri Becquerel and the Curies (who had their own Oscar-nominated movie released six years later in the film Madame Curie, reuniting Miss Miniver costars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon) as they discover both its destructive and medicinal properties. Of all the Pete Smith specialties we've covered, this is pr...

While their overall track record remains strong, Pixar has had its fair share of misses in the past decade. Brave was not very good. The Good Dinosaur was forgettable. And don’t get me STARTED on the Cars sequels. (No seriously, don’t. It’s pointless. I haven’t seen them so I’ve got nothing to add to the conversation.) But for my money few have been as disappointing as Finding Dory. A sequel to Finding Nemo, one of Pixar’s best movies, focused on its best character? How could it go wrong? And sure, Finding Dory wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great, or even that good. Still, seeing it in theaters in 2016 wasn’t a total loss. At least I got to see Piper. (via Wikipedia) Pixar may have a (well-earned) reputation for being a dominating force in the field of Best Animated Feature, but when Piper was released they were in a bit of a dry spell when it came to Best Animated Short. The studio hadn't won in that category since For the Birds, which was released alongside Monsters, Inc. ...