2017 Oscars Summary – Best Animated Short Film

Now that I'm done with my write-ups for all of the films nominated for Best Animated Short Film, I decided to do a brief recap post for all five together.

First off, a brief recap. Five films were nominated ("Dear Basketball," "Garden Party," "Lou," "Negative Space," and "Revolting Rhymes") with the Oscar going to Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant for "Dear Basketball."

​I have ranked the five films below based on my viewing and how I would have voted.

1. Dear Basketball
​I think this deserved the win and it was great to see someone from the world of sports cross over into film and receive recognition for the work. I appreciated Kobe's speech at the award ceremony and I'm honestly hopeful that we'll see him back at the Oscars in the future with his next film venture.

Read my analysis of "Dear Basketball."

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2. Garden Party
​In another year, I would have picked this as the winner. Despite the lack of a true "story" in this film, the visuals are so stunning that it ultimately makes up for the lacking story. I can watch this over an over again and see some new visual detail every time. I hope to see the team behind this film back in the running for an Oscar in the near future.

Read my analysis of "Garden Party."

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3. Negative Space
While I'm not typically a fan of stop-motion animation as a medium for an entire film, I could see the appeal of this film and why it was nominated this year. I appreciated the visual styling of the film and how the visual elements were used to move the story along. This film has made me start to reconsider my feelings on stop-motion animation.

Read my analysis of "Negative Space."

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4. Lou
​I have to move Pixar down a bit this year as this didn't have the same visual polish of last year's winner "Piper." That film was moving in the general direction of "Garden Party" in terms of photo realism, but still kept some cartoonish elements. While "Lou" is fun and entertaining, and even has a morale, I can't help but feel Pixar can do better. If this had been released ten or even five years ago, it would have won hands down.

Read my analysis of "Lou."

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5. Revolting Rhymes
Ultimately, the only reason this falls so low on my list is that the other films were better. The other films were all under seven minutes while "Revolting Rhymes" needed more than 20 to tell its story. I'm not faulting it for that at all, just focusing on the "short" part of the category as a partial determining factor.

Read my analysis of "Revolting Rhymes."

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