For reviews of the 2020 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts, click here.

For reviews of the 2020 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts, click here.

Edwin Arnaudin: Stop-motion animation is back, baby! Well, at least on the short film front, where three of the five titles vying for the Academy Award utilize this time-consuming yet frequently rewarding art form. Are you excited for viewers to experience these throwback offerings at the Grail, or did the focus grow a bit tiresome for you as the program wore on?

Bruce Steele: Not tiresome at all! I'm married to an animator who started in stop-motion, so I love it when it's well-done, and all three stop-motion shorts nominated for the Oscar — and one bonus short on the program at the Grail — are technically brilliant. I was initially put off by the ugly character design of "Daughter," about a woman visiting her dying father and remembering her childhood, but its recreation of a "handheld camera" feel was rather stunning for the medium. And I got used to the rather hideous faces. Did it draw you in to its wordless narrative?

Edwin: To a degree. Your comment of, “Did Kathryn Bigelow direct this thing?” is apt, and the shakiness was a tad nauseating throughout. A good amount of the visuals are also “simply” a motionless puppet with digital eyes, shifting to relay the unspoken emotions of the family members, which played pretty dully for me. But other moments are full of visual and narrative imagination, relaying complex feelings with nary a touch of dialogue. Still, I was happy to move on to the computer-aided animation of “Hair Love,” a much lighter father-daughter tale, this one involving her difficult-to-tame locks, that builds to a well-earned (and, frankly, unexpected) heartfelt moment.

Bruce: "Hair Love" is definitely the audience pleaser in the group, and I suspect the one that will eventually rack up the most views on YouTube — and might win the Oscar. It's colorful and funny and, as you point out, quite touching in the end. The other obvious barker for the audience's hearts is "Kitbull," a stylized 2D short (with CG assist) about a homeless kitten and an abused pitbull. It's shameless and perhaps predictable, but it drew me in with its comic sketches of animal behavior and its simple but poignant story line. It's not a real contender for the win, but it's a charmer.

Edwin: It’s cuddly and occasionally moving, if a bit underwritten. And its “character” designs are somewhat off-putting … so maybe I don’t love it as much as I thought, though I love love love “Mémorable,” a visual stunner about a French painter struggling with dementia. Its blend of stop-motion and computer animation, plus some of the most thoughtfully crafted puppets I’ve ever seen on film, completely knocked me out. Writer/director Bruno Collet makes every second of his 12-minute film worthwhile.

(Dialogue continues below the photo.)

Bruce: The technical achievement of "Mémorable" is impressive — supporting the storytelling without distracting from it. And since character animators talk about "acting" as much as live-action directors do, I would add that the character performances here are the best among the nominees. Cute, succinct CG shorts — cute puppy, cute bird, cute dumpling-child — have won three of the past five Oscars, and there isn't a single one of those here. I think that narrows the potential winners to the sweetness of "Hair Love" or the poignancy and visual wows of "Mémorable." What's your vote?

Edwin: First, we skipped over the third stop-motion nominee, “Sister,” featuring felt puppets and some bizarre, accidentally phallic imagery that took me out of an otherwise sharp film.

Bruce: Oh, right. I had blocked that one out.

Edwin: The Chinese short's neat connection to shoulda-been-nominated documentary feature One Child Nation smooths over most of its rough patches, but doesn’t make it a contender.

Bruce: It wasn’t my cup of tea. It was both a little creepy and, at the end, too heavy-handed for me.

Edwin: So, much as I’d like to see “Mémorable” honored for its innovation and wonder, I think the lack of POC performers, films, and filmmakers across this year’s Academy Awards will help vault “Hair Love” to the win — and I’ll be happy to applaud its victory.

Bruce: I think you may be right there. Shall we also mention the four other animated shorts that fill out the Grail and Pisgah Film programs? I think we agreed that the glass-painted “The Bird and the Whale” (for synopsis, see title) was sort of pretty but finally off-putting, and that the musical, photo-real CG animals of “Maestro” were just a blip of amusement. There may be more to be said about the 16-minute stop-motion film “Henrietta Bulkowski” and the comic CGI short “Hors Piste.” Do these add value to your animation program ticket?

Edwin: “Hors Piste” certainly does. The comic adventures of a bumbling rescue team and its injured skier patient should have been a legit nominee instead of an also-ran. I likewise prefer the Anomalisa-like rubbery human puppets of "Henrietta Bulkowski” and its touching story of a determined aviator to stop-motion peers “Daughter” and “Sister.” But yes, "The Bird and the Whale” is more of a technical achievement than a fully-realized film, and the fun, gorgeous “Maestro” feels like part of a short instead of a complete work. With or without the bonus films, I give this program an overall B-plus.

Bruce: I’ll concur with that grade, and with you assessments of “Henrietta” and “Hors Piste.” The five Oscar nominees alone are worth seeing, but those two additions do make a positive contribution. Everyone should take their Academy Award pool ballots along and judge for themselves.

Overall grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Opens January 31 at Grail Moviehouse in Asheville and Pisgah Film House in Brevard.

(“Hair Love” photo courtesy of ShortsTV)