The Pleasure of Short, Beautiful Tales

I’ve never managed to see all the Academy Award-nominated films or performances in any category — I make my calls on Oscar night based on personal bias, just like everyone else. But this year I was able to see every nominated film in one category, animated short, because they are playing as a bill at several theaters for a short run. As a teenager in Detroit, one of my favorite annual events was the showing of the The International Tournée of Animation, a collection of short animated films from all over the world. The combination of artistry, whimsy, wit and storytelling was intoxicating. In those days computer animation was in its infancy — most of the films were still hand-drawn or painted on cels. But it’s been decades since the Tournée ended, and animated shorts are never shown before movies as they were in the 1970s (anyone remember “The Crunch Bird?”). So I was curious about the state of the art in these days of Pixar, motion capture, of “Hugo” and “Tintin.” Now, as then, some of the most imaginative films come from Canada, where the National Film Board of Canada supports artists in a way we can only dream about in the United States. The NFB was behind two of the five nominees this year, both of which were throwbacks to earlier, hand-drawn or painted films. “Dimanche/Sunday,” by Patrick Doyon, done in a simple line style with muted colors, was about a small boy in a quiet town where the only interesting thing that happens is the huge freight train that speeds through daily, rattling the walls. His relatives chatter away like three crows on a wire, and his imagination fills, barely, in for the lack of joy in his daily surroundings. “Wild Life,” the other Canadian entry, is also hand-made, painted in thick brush strokes. It tells the odd and bleak story of an English gentleman circa 1917, who moves to Canada to make his fortune. He sips tea and writes his parents about his bountiful ranch, which is really only a shack on the prairie. An American film, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” is richly colored and magical. A mild-mannered man in suit and hat is caught in a powerful wind (more than an homage to “The Wizard of Oz” — shot for shot, it imitates the tornado scene.) Not only are the man’s books torn from his hands, but the letters are torn from books. When he finally lands, the world is black and white and the books are blank. He finds his way to a beautiful library and color returns to the world. Filmmakers William Joyce and Brandon Oldenberg created a charming vision in which books flutter like butterflies and Humpty Dumpty becomes Mr. Lessmore’s best friend, his expression changing as the pages turn like a flipbook. The funniest of the bunch is “A Morning Stroll,” based on a true story. The same  little tale is told three times. First, in 1959, with a jazzy soundtrack and energetic line drawings, a man walks down a city street and spots a chicken walking the other way. The chicken climbs a stoop, pecks on the door, and is let into the house by an unseen person. The same scene plays out in 2011, in bright colors, with a rap sound track. This time the man is focused on his iPod, and while he spots the chicken, he is diverted, hilariously, by a text message he receives and misses the best part of the chicken’s journey. Finally, in 2059, after the zombie apocalypse, the chicken has a whole new set of obstacles before it can reach safety behind that door. Ironically, the best of the five is the one created not by an independent artist but by one backed by that animation behemoth, Pixar. “La Luna” is about a boy, his father and grandfather, who climb up to the full moon to sweep sparkling golden stars from the surface. It’s funny, gorgeous and strangely enough, realistic. Even with such a fantastic premise, and without a word of dialogue, the relationships between the three characters ring true. The four non-nominated films were less impressive. In general, storytelling took a back seat to technical wizardry, and the prevalence of certain tricks such as sound effects that recalled film running through an old projector starting to wear thin. But the art of animation is still strong. The short, it brings nothing but pleasure. Note: Several of these films are bloody, with profane gestures and bared body parts. Oscar Shorts run at the Triplex in Great Barrington through Feb. 23.