As promised, I went and took a look at the remaining Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts and was truly delighted by what I found. Story seemed to be key this year, though clever and voiceless had their place, as well. I've already shared Head Over Heels and the trailer for Disney's CGI/Hand Animation combo, Paperman. I haven't seenThe Simpsons: The Longest Daycare (in which Maggie spends a day at the Ayn Rand School for Tots), though I believe Fox is planning on airing it this coming Sunday.
That leaves Adam and Dog, a sweet mythology about the first man's first best friend:
And Fresh Guacamole, an absurd little stop-motion cooking lesson, of sorts:
And in case you missed it, here's the full version of Paperman:
While I do have a favorite of the four, I'll wait to name it until I've seen The Longest Daycare.
The older I get, the less I care about entertainment awards shows. When I was a kid, there were only five: The Oscars; The Tonys; The Emmys; The Grammies and sometimes The Golden Globes. It was a big deal when Rita Moreno became the first person ever to win the all of the Big Four. Then came MTV and it all went haywire. Of course, it still seems to me that awarding prizes for art is just silly. How does one maintain objectivity in such a subjective field? But since we do so award arts and entertainment, and since I'd like to consider myself to be primarily an 'Entertainment' blogger, I guess I should at least comment on them, no?
The Grammys were tonight, hosted by hot rapper/actor LL Cool J. The bastard step-child of awards shows, no one really cares about the Grammy awards anymore (if they ever really did). The general decline in the quality of popular music in the last 30 years makes me sound like my parents complaining about music in the 80's. Of course, we knew enough to appreciate how what came before influenced those who were popular at the time. Today's popular music is boring, repetitive and unoriginal crap. This year's Grammy broadcaster CBS issued a much-reported dress-code memo to invited attendees. I honestly can't wait to see the response.
The Oscars finish the season in a few weeks, and while I've seen several of the nominated films, I haven't seen enough of any of them to make any sort of truly informed opinion,. Curiously, I have now seen two of the films nominated in the Best Animated Short category. The first is from Disney, combining traditional hand-animation with CGI for the sweet and romantic Paperman:
Also nominated is Head Over Heels, a striking stop-motion film about a middle-aged couple who are separated by so much more than just gravity.
I know there is a live-action Sci-Fi-Romance coming out with a similar idea, though I doubt it will have the same emotional impact and commentary as that surprisingly delightful short. I think I need to seek out the other nominees in this category. I'll let you know what I find.
Norman is a boy who can talk to the dead. His parents are worried and most of the other kids at school make fun of him because they don't believe him but his dead Grandmother and all the dead people in the town of Blithe Hollow know better. After being befriended by the equally picked-on (for being fat) Neil, Norman is visited by his Uncle and charged with stopping the 300 year old curse of the Blithe Hollow Witch (who's story apparently drives the town's tourist trade). Eventually joined by Neil; Neil's older brother Mitch and his own older sister Courtney, Norman discovers the truth about the witch and how to keep her from destroying the town for good.
This often hilarious stop-motion movie takes on horror movie tropes with glee, and directors Chris Butler (who wrote the screenplay) and Sam Fell (Flushed Away) do their best to make sure their actual message is front and center. On the surface, ParaNorman is a comedic horror story about ghosts and zombies but at heart, it's an anti-bullying talewhich focuses on discovering one's own self-worth while breaking down stereotypes in often surprising ways.
The film's voice cast, which includes Kodi-Smit Mcphee (Let Me In); Anna Kendrick (Pitch Prefect); Casey Affleck; Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad); Leslie Mann (Knocked Up); Broadway legend Elaine Stritch; the highly underrated Jodelle Ferland; Tempestt Bledsoe; Alex Borstein ("Family Guy") and John Goodman is just terrific.While I personally didn't care for most of the character designs (the super-exaggerated faces and bodies of many of the characters were somehow off-putting - though I must admit to loving the climax's version of the 'witch'), the movie's central themes and decidedly dark humor more than made up for this minor flaw. And (SPOILER ALERT) it was amazing to see the first animated family film to feature an openly gay character, even if we don't find out he's gay until the end.
If you missed it in the theater this past Halloween, I highly recommend you see it OnDemand or DVD. It's certainly entertaining while delivering an important message of tolerance on many levels. *** (Three Out of Four Stars).
ParaNorman is rated PG and currently available OnDemand and on DVD and BluRay.
