Oscar Shorts - starting this weekend
 

Hi, gang,

It's that time of year again! The Oscar shorts will be starting in Los Angeles this Friday, at the Nuart Theater. They are running both programs - animated and live-action.

It'll be running for 2 weeks there, so we have a little wiggle room. I propose that we go either this weekend or next weekend - anybody have a preference for day? I put a poll up to figure this out.

(Incidentally, the program also plays for a single day, Friday March 5, at the Egyptian. But our household is quite busy that weekend so we won't be able to go then.)

Hope you'll join us - it's always a fun movie outing.

What time of day?

I'd love to go see the shorts at least once in my life. But driving out to LA is such a pain.....

Maybe next year I'll make the effort. This year I'm down with my foot surgery.

To everyone who makes it- have fun!!

There's a range of times. Follow this link and select the day you think you may be available. Scroll down to the Nuart (below the Landmark movie times) and it'll tell you.

I haven't checked every day, but here's the times for this Saturday:

Animated: 12:00 2:30 7:30
Live action: (5:00) 9:50

So depending on people's schedules, we'd probably go Animated/Live at 2:30/5 or Live/Animated at 5/7:30.

These are always so much fun. I am very interested, however I am just a maybe because things are pretty tight right now. I did vote but please don't let my one vote influence the final outcome.

I can work almost anything into my schedule these days (and I LOVE saying that!) My only conflict is this Saturday because I am scheduled to go bead shopping in Downtown with my friend Christy.

The site says they're available on itunes but I'm not seeing them. Perhaps after they screen them.

I'd probably lean toward next weekend as well - I've heard from others (outside of LoT) that next Saturday is good. And mousepod is offline today but I'm guessing he may not be up to something this weekend.

Whatever is decided I will try to make - Next saturday is fine unless I work.

There's a theatre here that is showing all of the Shorts nominees. That's pretty cool!

Aha, for those who can't make it to the theater screenings I finally found a mention that the shorts will be available on iTunes starting March 2.

Is there a charge?

I think over at Cartoon Brew.com they had the animated shorts up

They are indeed: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/wa...ts-online.html

At itunes shorts are usuall $1.99 each. Don't know if they'll have a discount for the oscar noms when they're out.

ETA: Just started checking those links at cartoonbrew. At least one (French Roast) says "coming back soon", so they're not all available there.

Next weekend works better for us, too, as we're headed south this weekend.

Psyched for this. I'm not going to vote - I'll just be there when you tell me to.

Sweet! Next Saturday, then? Any objections?

I vote for the day we're going

Aw poop. Next Saturday I work at 3:30 so I'm out.

I would be available to do this Saturday.

Oh! Sonofa crap!

I didn't realize my mother-in-law had bought us tickets for something at 4:00 PM next Saturday.

It seems like it's the best day for a majority of people, so maybe Tom and I should see the live-action shorts today. Then if you guys went to live-action at 5 next Saturday, we could join in for the animated at 7:30 and then hang out to discuss afterwards.

Unless you guys felt like Sunday. Sorry to throw everything up in the air.

It looks like I'm going to have to miss this year. I forgot I have plans Saturday (it must be going around H) and Sunday is the day before my first day so I want to make sure I have time at home to relax and prep.

I look forward to tweets and hearing about it after.

Whatever is fine with me. Saturday or sunday.

So... How about next Sunday? It works for mousepod and iSm. What about the rest of you?

What time on Sunday as I am now scheduled to work the evening shift?

If we want to see back-to-back, we'd need to go 2:30 animated, 5 action.

If we wanted to have lunch in between, we could go noon animated, 5 action. Then maybe you could at least catch the animated with us!

What do people think?

That should work! there's no other back to backs around noon?

No, the live-action doesn't play until 5, sadly.

Well, I'm sure whatever works best is fine. We can 230 and then skirt off after that, or do the noon and have lunch then skirt off. Either we'll be happy to hang with ya'all!

The later the better for us. We've got the annual Pug Pagent in the late morning.

We want to try and make it - we can do at least the animated (whatever time). Maddie wants to know if the "Danish Poet" is nominated again.

I'm out, completely. The gold medal hockey game is on. ;)

Have a wonderful time and I can't wait to hear all about it.

Someone please tell me what the plan is! We want to partake of the viewing this year. Tomorrow? Which times?

2:30 and 5 would be best for me, I think, because I have to work a bit before I come. Is that OK for the rest of you?

It works great for us. Yay!

(I am just so happy to get out of the house for something fun at this point....)

Just bought tix for 2:30 and 5:00!

230 is good I suspect!

Ratz - we're out. Maddie has to clean tack for her tournament next weekend. Have fun everyone.

Wow - pretty strong year for Animated. We couldn't stay for the live action. Any good?

I think The Lady and the Reaper was the best all around. Logorama was interesting in the way they used the logo's and such. Wallace and Grommit was good but typical. I think I liked French Roast better than the group - really liked the use of animation and the models of the characters. Granny Grimm's Sleeping Beauty had some funny moments but the CG was terrible.

I don't think animation technique is the guiding spirit of quality. But rather, which film that happens to be animated is the better film. The look of a film certainly impacts its quality, and that is in the eye of the beholder. I found the look of Granny's Sleeping Beauty to be completely in concert with the irreverent tone of the piece.

I liked all the animateds, except for French Roast. But, going by which one I'd like to own in my personal collection, I unexpectedly find myself voting for Logorama as Best Animated Short Subject. (We did not have the typical straw poll after the screening).



The live actioners were miserable. Even the two comedies were meh. The rant which started The New Tenants was terrific, but the rest of the cute film paled by comparison. The Swedish one about the magician was charming, but a meaningless piece of fluff. The child slavery one was horrible, the Miracle Fish was unfulfilling. The Door was actually pretty well made and didn't hammer home its point too hard. So with it ultimately being about child cancer, it's the obvious winner.

But I didn't really like any of them ... and sitting through them was a chore.

Sitting through the animateds, though there were a couple of duds, was a delight!

Aaargh! I've seen a million references to the shorts being available in iTunes, but I can't find them :mad:

I've tried clicking the link on the Shorts International site, all I see is a few of the previous years' nominees and winners. I've tried searching for "oscar", "oscars", "nominated", "academy" as well as titles of individual shorts. Absolutely nothing. I'm really bummed.

I've emailed the folks at Shorts International, maybe they can help.

I think 4 of the 5 animated noms are available at the site Bornieo mentioned previously, so I guess we can make due with that. And, without reading any spoilers, I've seen enough feedback to gather that the pattern has been broken and the live action selections are uninteresting again. But I'd still like to see them and judge for myself.

The cartoonbrew.com had them Monday after doing a site search. I've also seen them posted on Myspace and on Youtube.

Them as in the animated, or them as in animated and live action?

And the link for "French Roast" at cartoonbrew just says "Coming back soon". The other 4 seem to be working.

If you can see the other 4, but not French Roast - consider yourself fortunate.

Okay, between Cartoonbrew and iTunes, you can now get 8 of the 10. The only two that I haven't found are "Kavi" and "Miracle Fish". Perhaps those will eventually trickle to iTunes.

The end credits of Kavi indicate that it was a student film.


It shows.

Still have one more at home to watch (Logorama), so I'll reserve final judgment until then, and of course we're still missing two of the live action (aww, but I wanted to see child slavery!!). But here are my thoughts thus far.

Agreed with iSm re: New Tenants. Started out so strong, but just got...gratuitous, blunt, and clunky. And you can't blame it on the talent, they had some heavy hitters acting wise. Gotta chalk it up to writing and/or directing. Bleh. Plus, I was distracted the whole time trying to figure out which This American Life contributor was playing the smoker because I KNOW that voice (it's David Rakoff).

We may be missing 2 of the nominees, but thank god we got to see at least one oppressively heartbreaking film. Phew, thought we were going to make it through a year without. I guess the door thing is a Russian tradition. For a second I thought he was making a table out of it in an elaborate attempt to commit suicide by accelerating his, and his wife's, own radiation poisoning.

I really like Instead of Abracadabra. Maybe not the most poignant clever bit of film, but well executed in every way. It has my vote, it'd be nice for a non-message film to win it.

On the animated side: Man am I sick of big-headed 3D old people. Really really sick of it.

That said, Sleeping Beauty was delightfully fun. Best of the bunch (before seeing Logomania).

Wallace and Gromit was Wallace and Gromit. Entertaining but more of the same. Actually, less of the same. Not a single piece of cheese in sight and only mentioned once?! What's with that?

French Roast was odd. I didn't really see the point of it. And why the hell was the old lady in the bathroom so damned long?

The Lady and The Reaper bleh. Scooby Doo schtick? Really? That's what they're nominating now? No thanks.

I wouldn't call this a down year, per se. There haven't been any that left me thinking, "WTF did I just watch?!" as in previous bad years. But nor is it a stellar year.

Don't know if anyone else is going to see these, but if you want to avoid spoilers, you'll want to skip my post.





I agree with GD on his post except for this part. After Lady and the Reaper ended, I said, out loud, what the f was that? Cartoony chase antics against a backdrop of the right to die issue? I'm not sure if the silly gags weren't very good or if it was just the disturbing concept clouding my enjoyment. I almost felt I was mistaken in what this was really about and felt oddly vindicated when she killed herself, as in, "see, I KNEW this was a f'd up story." Maaaaybe it could have worked if it didn't have endless staircases, swooning nurses, etc - a bit further from Bugs Bunny might have helped.

Anyway - I loved Instead of Abracadabra. The mom and dad were great characters, and the magician himself was a perfect balance of ridiculous and ultimately believable. But then, I'm a sucker for geek stories, especially when they end up winners. When he really did bring the "gothic darkness" it warmed my heart. :)

Sleeping Beauty was great. Even if the CG textures weren't visually up to Pixar quality (at least in the bedroom), the camera angles and story beats were spot on, which is the important part. The storybook animation was gorgeous and smart.

The Door was yes, horribly depressing, but it made me realize I hadn't seen anything on Chernobyl in forever and never had it been humanized like this. I'm sure Russia is full of film/books/theater about this but it's not often talked about here. I kind of appreciated this quick look into what happened there - and I do mean quick, you're not going to catch me watching a full length cancer pic anytime soon.

French Toast kept me somewhat interested but fell extremely flat by the end. Wallace and Grommit is always fun, their formula works very well, though I wish it were a little more laugh-out-loud funny.

Bummer about New Tenants. Started out great. You could almost taste the cigarette smoke. As soon as the husband sat down and started talking about his wife, I knew it was over. The looks on the other guys' faces were almost saying "we were doing a great scene, what are you busting in for?"

BwaHaHa, how true!

The Lady and the Reaper was our crowd favorite at the screening. Not mine. Perhaps I like things more irreverent, but I preferred Sleeping Beauty and, especially, Logorama. They had a warning about language and violence before that one - it was left on screen for at least 2 full minutes to give people a chance to exit the auditorium. It did not disappoint. I'm surprised it was nominated. I'd be blown over it it wins, but it gets my vote.


Hope you get to see it soon. (If you do, please post where you found it - I'd love to watch it again.)

It's on iTunes. $1.99.

ETA: It's also here. Damn. That link wasn't working while we were watching last night, so we bought it from iTunes (and then it got late and we had to go to sleep before watching it). Oh well, it's $2 and the iTunes download is probably better quality. The Wallace and Gromit link from Cartoon Brew was taped off television!

Oh wow, yeah. Logomania FTW! Loved it, even as it disturbed the hell out of me. I think it's got a lock on the prize, for the sheer ingenuity and uniqueness of it. But was I the only one who was thinking/hoping that the source of the earthquake was going to turn out to be a Gozilla-scaled Ralph Nader?

I loved The Lady and the Reaper. Cerberus as a poodle did it for me.

I forgot to mention that Logorama got bonus point from me for A) not having big-headed 3d animated old people and B) throwing Slurm in there.

Yay Logorama. Awesome concept, fantastic execution. I did wish there was some cause given for the oil eruption/earthquake. It seemed like it was going somewhere but stopped short. Otherwise, loved it.Cerberus as a poodle was great. Too bad it was one joke, and after the story had ended.

I thought Logorama relied too heavily on shock value without providing anything of substance. It was amusing and all, but after a bit I got tired of "look at how irreverent I am!!!"

Yeah, I'm a sucker for that...

Whereas I am a sucker for antiquities humor. :P

If they had antiquities humor throughout, I would have been on board as well. :)

Boooooooo. Boooooooo.

I gotta believe New Tenants won purely because of its star power. Because it just wasn't that good.

But yay of Logorama.

I thought the opening of New Tenants was pretty terrific, but it went downhill eventually. I'm solidly in the "Abracadabra" camp.

I didn't think any of the live actioners deserved the award, so I'm glad it went to one of the two I even remotely liked.


On the other hand, I was thrilled for the Logorama win. Not least because it was the only surprise win of the evening. (I didn't think it had a chance. Ya know, cause I really like it.)