Borrowed Time has something of an underground comic vibe with the exaggerated psychological state and action of its hero. Rather than the contemporary setting we usually see for these depictions, Hamou-Lhadj and Coats have chosen to use a Western, and their design here is admirable if not outstanding. However, Borrowed Time doesn’t do much new with its angst, and it feels longer than its 7 minutes.
Patrick Osborne’s short is one of the more compelling of this year’s collection. It’s a slightly-predictable story of a father and his daughter as she grows up, a refreshing take on a story that is often told of a father and son or mother and daughter. Osborne gives us some nice period touches here, the outcome of the film is in doubt for much of its run, and the animation is interesting to look at. In fact, it’s worth catching the VR version of this short. But the strength of Pearl is its heart more than its technical innovation.
This film points to where Pixar is going – increasingly wonderful technique accompanied by a loss of insight and imagination. An incredibly cute baby sandpiper must learn how to forage and win the approval of his mother and the other sandpipers. All the marvelous water animation in the world can’t make such a trite project interesting.
Animated in a style that looks like wood-block etching, Blind Vaysha is a philosophical folktale. With its voiceover narration, the short introduces us to Vaysha, who sees the future with one eye and the past with the other. Ushev’s dramatic animation style shows how neither view is satisfying, and as Vaysha contemplates blinding one eye so she doesn’t have both views, we’re left like her, not sure if we want to live looking at the past or the future.
Robert Valley’s graphic novel style informs this short. With visual touches of noir, the film opens at the end of its story, and the narrator takes us back to tell us the story of a kid he admired in high school but who had a checkered life afterwards. At 35 minutes, the film is too long and too flat in tone, but the compelling nature of the visuals keep us watching.
★ Asteria (Alexandre Arpentinier, Mathieu Blanchys, Lola Grand, Tristan Lamarca, Thomas Lemaille, & Jean-Charles Lusseau)
It’s not clear why the collection includes this dumb little short that features a bullying American astronaut shooting multi-eyed aliens to lay claim to a new planet. It may be trying for whimsy, but it’s as predictable as it is stupid.
★★★★★ The Head Vanishes (Frank Dion)
★★★★ Once Upon a Line (Alicja Jasina)
This effective, touching short is a graphic portrayal of how an elderly woman with dementia experiences her trip to the seashore. Sometimes Jacqueline is confused, and sometimes she wanders off on flights of fancy about things like fish, which she loves eating on these trips. There’s a heavy -handed moment when she wonders who the woman is that calls her “mother,” but the rest of the film is pure fascination as we try to understand what’s actually going on by seeing what Jacqueline experiences. The ending is deeply touching. It’s disappointing that the Academy didn’t choose to give this excellent project a nomination.
The charm of this short lies in the cleverness of its animation. A line runs across the screen forming shapes describing the daily life of a man. His black-and-white life is fine until he encounters a red-haired woman who brings that color and a lot more shapes into his line. Jasina’s simple, graphic telling is a smart joy.
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