Capsule Reviews of the 96th Oscars Animated Shorts

As promised, here are this year's Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short.

Our Uniform (From Iran. Dir. Yegane Moghaddam): The narrator tells us about her upbringing in the Iranian school system, which forces her and her classmates to conceal their hair in hijabs. She relishes the opportunity to let her hair loose in private, and even abroad. Abroad, she admires the different colors and textures of the people around her. 

The short is animated directly onto the fabrics of Iranian school uniforms. It's a unique art style that lends itself to a few good gags. That the narrator and her classmate relish the opportunity to act like kids is rather optimistic. It's a lighthearted story about how good it is to express oneself with clothing - even if it opens with a disclaimer that says it's not against the hijab or anyone who wears it. It's also the lightest short by far; buckle up, we're about to hit heavy storytelling turbulence.

Letter to a Pig (From France/Israel. Dir. Tal Kantor): This seems like the obvious winner. In it, Haim, a Holocaust survivor, recounts how he survived the Nazis by hiding in a pig sty. One specific pig obscured him from the Nazis until they left. The titular letter is to that pig. Alma is the only student thoroughly invested in his story and is soon drawn into a creepy daydream. 

Its seventeen minutes blend a literally sketchy art style with some live-action elements. This mixture is haunting when we get close-ups of Haim as he goes deeper into his memories. Its climactic daydream is as disturbing as it is confounding. I thought it would be the most emotionally devastating short, but no, that comes later.

Pachyderme (From France. Dir. Stéphanie Clément): The narrator recounts a summer when she stayed with her grandparents. Their house is creepy, with a creaking roof and a broken pachyderm bone as Grandpa's centerpiece. He's an imposing figure, but he seems like a good grandpa. He gets creepier until a later scene that all but directly states what a scumbag he is. The implications are disturbing, and it's made creepier by its elegant storybook-esque CGI. We empathize with the narrator as she ends the short by confronting her past. It's not a grand ending, but it's still a memorable ending.

Ninety-Five Senses (From the USA. Dir Jerusha & Jared Hess): The creators of Napoleon Dynamite bring you the tale of Coy (Tim Blake Nelson), an old guy who recounts how his five senses shaped his life. He's a death row inmate and is about to lose all five senses in an hour or so. 

The short is divided into six segments, one for Coy and the other for the five senses. Each of them was animated by a different animator with their own style; Coy's segment is rendered with smokey charcoal, while the hearing segment is in Flash. The hearing segment is also the funniest segment ... right until it leads into Coy's crime. Sure, it takes a dour turn earlier once we learn he's on death row, but the mood whiplash is worse once we find out why. His story is especially profound when he meditates on the life he could have had. The title takes in account the 100 senses which Coy theorizes humans have access to five. His uniquely compelling story is anything but a simple explanation. Who knows? Maybe this might win too.

War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (From the USA. Dir. Dave Mullins): John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Christmas classic Happy Xmas (War Is Over) provides the backdrop for this short. In it, two soldiers on opposing sides of World War 1 play chess by pigeon mail. Everything's fine until their superiors force them into one final skirmish. The pigeon, meanwhile, races to deliver one last message. 

Remember me saying I thought Letter to a Pig would be the most emotionally devastating contender? That changed with this short's ending. We spend the short following two likable guys (both nameless and voiceless) carrying on the world's most interesting game of chess. It's quite harrowing when they're both thrown into a bloody skirmish. You will feel it once the bittersweet ending - and the titular song - kicks in. 

WETA FX visualized the short as a moving painting, which is as stunning as it sounds. Thomas Newman gives us an equally magnificent score that would easily give him an Oscar nomination if this was a feature. Letter to a Pig might seem like the obvious winner, but this might also come close. 

As always, you can catch the shorts in one package in theatres or find them wherever they're playing legally. I got to the package film today, which played these shortlisted possibilities:

Wild Summon (From the UK. Dir. Karni Arieli & Saul Freed): This is a nature documentary about the lifecycle of salmon narrated by Marianne Faithfull. The salmon are "played" by human scuba divers. The photorealistic scenery is stunning, while the "salmon" embody the uncanny valley. This might make one reconsider eating meat after they see what the salmon go through. 

I'm Hip (From the USA. Dir. John Musker): Dave Frishberg's cover of his 1966 Jazz number is visualized as a cat proclaims his hipness to the world. Nobody buys it. This is the most enjoyable of the shorts on this program. Its four minutes feature plenty of stylish 2D animation, a snazzy main number, and plenty of slapstick. The Hip Cat may have an ego, but he's still likable, and one might feel sorry when he gets pelted with stuff at the end. Don't worry, he's fine. He's a cartoon. This made a good finale for the shorts program. 

Now to get some other nominees reviewed. Just over a week before showtime. Tick, tock.