The animated short features nominated for an Academy Award this year are a sumptuous visual feast."Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage," from France presents an animated scrapbook of images and encounters from a visit to Madagascar, complete with a village reburial ceremony and honking city traffic. Wonderfully realized, and the most arresting visually. By Bastien Dubois.
"Day & Night," from the U.S., and quite likely the only one you saw, since it preceded "Toy Story 3," by Teddy Newton is a bit of a one-note work with some hackneyed ideas. Not my favorite.
"Let's Pollute," also from the U.S. presents a '50's boosterish exhortation to do your part to keep wasteful consumerism flourishing. Cute and mercifully short. By Geefwee Boedoe.
"The Lost Thing," from Australia and the UK, presents the most original vision of all as it follows a boy's quest in a Kafkaesque world to find a place for a forlorn lost thing he befriended at the beach. By Andrew Ruheman and Shaun Tan. My favorite.
"The Gruffalo," by Max Lang from the UK and Germany illustrates the story told by a mother squirrel to her kids about a clever mouse. The longest and most conventional, it's very well realized and the likely winner.
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