[Ghoulish Delight]

Damn, left the official LoT ballot tally (prepared by the accounting offices of Goldman, Sachs, and Canters) at home.

Until I have that in hand, here's my summary of the nominees.

Live Action:

1. "On the Line" - Well put together for the most part, and it quickly created relatively compelling characters. But I had issues with it. First of all, it was nothing but tight closeups. I don't know why, but that bugged me. Secondly, while other's pointed out afterwards that there may have been more narrative closure than I first got out of it, I still thought the ending left things way too loose. I don't need shorts to end entirely unambiguously, but I felt like this one just gave up, less, "It could go anywhere from here," and more, "We can't decide what emotions these characters should have, so you sort it out." Meh.

2. "NewBoy" - great fun. Wonderful performances from children, which is always difficult. And it did a great job of handling serious, sensetive topics without being overbearing or heavy handed. Really a charming short piece.

3. "Toyland" - Depressing, of course. Morally muddled. Well presented. That's about all I have to say on it.

4. "Pig" - So wonderfully great. LOVE the message of misuse of "tolerance". This was my pick, both as my favorite of the bunch and as my Oscar prediction. I hope the voters have the balls to say, "forget theoretical fallout from people who might be insulted by this, it's a solid message and a solid short." New Boy was a close second for my vote.

5. "Manon on the Assphalt" - Yawn. Not unpleasantly bad, but I found it so uninciteful. A far too simplistic and literal play-by-play of the most obvious sorts of thoughts about mortality one might have.

Animated:

1. "Lavatory Love Story" - Cute I guess. But not particularly compelling.

2. "Oktapodi" - Good old fashion cartoony fun. At 2 minutes, there's not a lot more to say about it, but it was really enjoyable.

3. "Le Maison de Petits Cubes" - Oy. An interesting 30 second metaphor that dragged on for 10 minutes. It would have made a fantastic large format painting, but as an animated short it went nowhere. The entirety of the meaning was known from the start and the "story" as it were added nothing else to it.

4. "This Way Up" - My opinion on this one has changed several times, most of those changes happening during the run of the short. I liked the father-son interactions. The zany afterlife scene was great, and the freeze-frame ending was a good laugh. The slapstick stuff in between however left me flat. But overall I did enjoy it.

5. "Presto" - Easy winner. This short was such a leap in digital animation, in my eyes. They've finally managed to marry Pixar quality with the energy level of classic cartooning. With fantastic story telling and inventive sight gags. Just perfect. This was the unanimous LoT pick to win the Oscar.