Small Stories Pack Big Punch
The nominated films wrestle with deep emotions
IT’S HARD NOT TO NOTICE shared themes in this year’s animated short film nominees: the emotional lives of women, life in Toronto, difficult family relations, and two films featuring parents who literally eat their kids.
Big visuals have swayed voters’ favor, often — though not always — to the benefit of studio- backed shorts such as “Bao.” But don’t be surprised if voters follow the Annies’ lead and go with the dreamlike “Weekends” or with previous winners Alison Snowden and David Fine for the comic “Animal Behaviour.” THOMAS J. MCLEAN
Animal Behaviour
Snowden and Fine’s 1995 Oscar-winning “Bob’s Birthday” steered the husband- andwife duo from shorts to a long stint in TV. When an offer from NFB producer Michael Fukushima opened the door to a return, they bit. “We kind of missed it,” Fine says.
The media’s endless capacity for judgment inspired “Animal Behaviour’s” therapy group for creatures with species-specific issues: an overeating pig, a praying mantis lonely because she eats her mates, a canine therapist with a thing for sticks, etc.
It all hinges on Victor, an ape with anger-management issues who’s a reluctant and skeptical group member; he nonetheless gets the most out of the hilariously chaotic session.
Snowden and Fine adapted the handdrawn process used on previous shorts to digital, using TV Paint to animate it. ” We thought it would be more efficient, and it wasn’t — it took longer,” he says.
“That’s because you can do more,” Snowden adds.
Bao
Writer and director Domee Shi says the film’s defining moment of the frustrated mom gobbling up her dumpling “son” stemmed from her own upbringing. “I’m an only child, and I always just kind of felt like an overprotected little dumpling,” says Shi, a Pixar storyboard artist raised in Toronto by Chinese immigrant parents.
Visuals drew on Shi’s initial sketches of the mother and dumpling, developing it with hints of anime, miniatures and Chinese folk art. Reds and golds symbolic of good luck in Chinese culture emphasized happier moments, while light and shadow separated characters in conflict.