The Great Oscar Baiter

I honestly can’t believe we’re here. The final week of our Year in Shorts. There were times when I didn’t think I could keep it up, but I’m very glad I did. And I’m very grateful for everyone who’s been here for their journey, either from the very beginning or just stumbling upon it today. Just as a film isn’t really a film without an audience, a blog without readers isn’t worth much of anything. Anyway, enough of that nonsense. Since our last week of shorts is ALSO the week leading up to Halloween, we’re gonna spend the next seven days having some fun by watching some seasonally appropriate shorts. And we’re kicking it off with one of the spookiest shorts I’ve ever seen- Paul Berry’s The Sandman. (via IMDb) Released in 1991, The Sandman has nothing to do with either Neil Gaiman's epic comic series (which began two years earlier) OR the badass Metallica song (which, coincidentally, was released that same year). Instead it is inspired by a short story by E.T.A. Hoffman, aka the guy...

Fellow Oscar Baiters, I have a confession to make. Despite proclaiming myself as a big fan of animator Don Hertzfedlt, there are many of his films which I haven’t seen. And that, unfortunately, includes the final two entries in his World of Tomorrow trilogy. I meant to fill in that blind spot when the time came to cover him again, but no matter how much I pushed this day back, time and money would not permit me. So it is with a heavy heart that I admit defeat and will only be covering the first chapter in his trilogy, released in 2015, in order to make sure I give it the proper coverage it deserves. After all, it IS the only entry in the series to receive an Oscar nomination, and this is the Great Oscar Baiter, not the Great Whatever the Hell I Feel Like Watching Baiter. Why the other two failed to get one is a topic we may discuss another day. But for now, let’s look at the wonderful weird world that is Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow. (via Wikipedia) World of Tomorrow is simult...

Well, it’s finally time. I’ve been teasing it since the beginning of the year. As you may remember, the 72nd Academy Awards had an unusually strong lineup for Best Animated Short, with one major exception. We’ve covered a quirky piece of history, an artsy film about the connectivity of humanity, a side-splittingly funny bit of creative stop motion, and one of the most visually stunning films we’ve watched to date. But today we cover the exception. So let’s look at 3 Misses. This is going to be a rough one folks. (via IMDb) Directed by Paul Driesen and released in 1998, 3 Misses is another fairly obscure short for us, and for good reason! It tells the stories of three damsels in distress (the titular misses), and the hapless men who try to save them. Said damsels consist of a woman falling off of a skyscraper, a lady in the Old West tied to the railroad tracks, and none other than princess Snow White. All the men rush to the rescue, only to be beset by all manner of obstacles in an ir...

Over the course of our Year in Shorts, we’ve covered a great many Disney films. As a matter of fact, we’ve looked at nearly every Oscar-nominated short produced by the studio. Yes, there have been a few blind spots and omissions (notice how we haven’t talked Winnie-the-Pooh yet), but it’s safe to say that ANOTHER Year in Shorts will be decidedly less filled with Disney. At any rate, Rugged Bear is the last Disney short we’ll be talking about this year. And isn’t it lucky that we’re going out with a Donald Duck cartoon? (via Wikipedia) Jack Hannah's Rugged Bear has a lot in common with one of the first Donald Duck shorts we covered, No Hunting. Both shorts were 50s releases, ( Rugged Bear came out in 1953), which means they both utilize that 1950s Disney aesthetic which regular readers will remember I'm a huge fan of. Both films revolve around hunting season, with Donald taking the role of the hunter. And both shorts take a somewhat atypical approach to a Donald Duck cartoo...

Back in December, we covered Jimmy Picker’s Sundae in New York , a pretty terrible short about Ed Koch singing “New York, New York”, redeemed only by its decent claymation. Well today we’re talking about Jimmy the C, another claymation short, this time about Jimmy Carter singing “Georgia on My Mind.” And guess what? It's ALSO directed by Jimmy Picker. Say what you will about the man, he certainly has a consistent vision! (via TV Tropes) Released in 1977, Jimmy the C is... well, it's pretty much exactly how I described it in the opening paragraph. There's not really a lot to explain regarding this short, nor is there much to set it apart from Sundae in New York. I guess the animation is slightly worse, but that's not really a surprise; it would make sense for Picker's animation to improve after six years, right? Nevertheless, that's a point against it. But in Jimmy the C' s favor, it must be said that at least this film just uses an already existing versi...

We’ve discussed a lot of bad animated shorts from the 1930s, and they’ve typically been bad for one of two reasons- overly cutesy animation that’s just obnoxious or horrible, horrible racism. Well, I’m glad(?) to say that today’s short, the 1938 film Hunky and Spunky, has neither of those problems. No one could call the film cutesy, and it’s not going to offend anyone. No, Hunky and Spunky manages to be completely unique in how utterly terrible and unwatchable it is. Which is not much of an achievement, but it’s something! (via TV Tropes) Directed by Dave Fleischer, Hunky and Spunky is NOT, despite what the title might lead you to believe, a cartoon about a kind-hearted himbo and a free-spirited gal going on adventures together, nor is it about two muscular gay gentlemen having some sort of erotic romance while going on adventure together. Sorry to disappoint you. Instead, it is the first entry in a series of cartoons about two donkeys, a mother (Hunky) and her son (Spunky). Presuma...

We’ve gone on quite a journey with Pete Smith, haven’t we? From the first month in our Year in Shorts, Pete Smith has been that extra set of footprints in the sand. Like all journeys, there have been some wonderful highs and unfortunate lows. But all good things must come to an end, and so it must go for us the Pete Smith Specialties. (Well, for this Year in Shorts at least.) So let’s bid farewell to our favorite Smith named Pete with his 1948 short, You Can’t Win. (via IMDb) One has to feel bad for the directors of the Pete Smith Specialties, right? Talk about a thankless job. I guess you really can't win with that gig. Still, of all the Specialties directors, I think David O'Brien probably had the best go of it. For starters, he was also an actor so he got to cast himself in his own shorts , as he does here. Although for whatever reason his director credit reads as David Barclay, presumably to avoid accusations of self-nepotism from the moviegoing public. (He also had an un...