I heard the Animated Shorts were better than the Live-Action Shorts, so why not check them out? I love animation, but, unfortunately, the selections were seldom my cup of whatever. The bulk (and by that I mean “all but two”) were computer-generated, which is something I don’t flat-out dislike but get really tired of. Animation presents so many possibilities, and yet most of these squander the opportunities. Why even bother if you just want to make it look like real life?
Likewise, many of the jokes come from a slight exaggeration of real-world physics. For example, in Nullarbor (not nominated, but on the program), one character’s car is destroyed. We see him sitting in the chassis. Pause. The motor comes crashing down. Full stop when it hits the ground. Next!
Similarly, many of the shorts are just ugly (but we’ll get to Mr. Morris Lessmore in a moment). Ugly can be great, but I don’t think it’s intentional, from the plodding dreariness of Dimanche to the utter banality of Mr. Morris. Only one short seems to make fun of that, and it’s not even nominated. But yap, yap, yap. Let’s move on.
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