Oscars 2013 Category Breakdown: Best Animated Short

Every year, leading up to the Oscars, I break down every single category. It’s essentially a precursor to my picks. I explain all the stuff that needs to be explained in detail, so when the time comes to make my picks, I can refer to it as a shorthand.

In the articles, I’ll go over each category’s history, show previous winners and nominees, then list the current year’s nominees, talk about the guild history, if it’s important, what the guilds went with this year, whether that means anything for that particular category — all the background you need to know to make an informed decision. And then, once that’s all done, I’ll rank the nominees in that category in order of their likelihood to win, based on how I see it at the present.

The only difference between this year and previous years is that this year, I’ll be doing only one category a day instead of multiple categories. This is so I can take more time with each category and not stuff a bunch into a single article for information overload, and, simply, so I don’t have to do as much work. Though it is also easier this way. One category, one day.

Today, we’re doing Best Animated Short, which is, at a glance, a category that no one cares about, but it’s a category we want to care about. Since they’re animated, and usually they’re happy, the shorts, as opposed to being about AIDS and depressing stuff. And usually there’s one we’ve seen before, so we have some sort of interest in the category. And it’s also a category where we’d be willing to watch the nominees. I personally love it. I love seeing what each year’s category has.

That said, picking it — not always the easiest proposition. So let’s see what this year has to offer:

This one isn’t so much about the history as much as it is a general sense of knowing what they go for. That mostly comes from paying attention to it for a few years. I’m just now starting to get a handle on the nominations process, which usually allows me to guess 3/5 in it every year (though they always manage to throw in some surprises regardless).

For instance, in following this category, you’d know that Room on the Broom is exactly the type of thing they go for. But it doesn’t typically win. You’d know that — oh, hell, let’s get into the category and then I’ll talk about it.

Basically it comes down to the individual category and knowing what their tastes are. Which seems obvious, but you’d be surprised at how it varies with the Oscars.

Best Animated Short

Feral

Get a Horse!

Mr. Hublot

Possessions

Room on the Broom

To me, this category is pretty easy to figure. I have this one already narrowed down to two choices, just from first glance, and I can rank them all exactly based on how this category normally goes.

But first, let’s go over what they are.

But since this is animated short, we can show them to you, because they’re more interesting than the doc shorts.

Feral:

Get a Horse!:

Mr. Hublot:

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Room on the Broom:

Possessions: http://oscar.go.com/nominees/short-film-animated/possessions

Rankings:

5. Possessions — It just seems like the obvious #5, given its style (anime), and the fact that the subject matter is something we’ve seen before (dude goes to a place and interacts with spirits. Spirited Away won Animated Feature 12 years ago. They know this story). I just can’t see them voting for this over the other four. Of course, in a logjam scenario, maybe this does win. But I can’t consider it anything more than a #5, and I think less than 5% of people putting a pick out there for this category would vote for this. (And if they do, I think it’s because either they really liked it or because they think the voters will vote for it on the similarity to Spirited Away.) I just can’t see this winning over any of the others. (Then again, this is really the only one I’ve known nothing about all along. Those ones tend to jump up and surprise me, because I so easily discount them.)

4. Room on the Broom — ones like this… slam dunk for the nomination, bad choice for the win. The precedent here is The Gruffalo, which got nominated in 2010 but lost to The Lost Thing. This is based on a popular children’s book, is made by the same company who made The Gruffalo, and also features a cast of famous actors doing voice parts. (Simon Pegg narrates this.) However, the animation is pretty simplistic, it’s not going to blow anyone away, and, considering you have to see all the nominees in order to vote, doesn’t seem like it’ll fare well in an open vote. It doesn’t make you happy or have animation that makes you really truly impressed. It’s just there. And these kinds of films seem like they’ll do well in this category, but rarely ever do. Fourth choice, and possibly even fifth. I wouldn’t vote for this. I can’t see it winning.

3. Feral — Probably the most beautifully animated of the bunch. That will win it some votes, but unfortunately, these films almost never do well either. It’s happened before, but it’s happened in very specific ways. That is to say — the voters want to feel something. They want the story to have an emotional hook on top of being beautifully animated. That’s why Adam and Dog didn’t win last year. It was made by people that were truly respected within the branch, and it looked fantastic, but it didn’t have any emotion to it, the way Paperman did. Which is why I don’t see this winning. It doesn’t seem to have that emotional pull to it. I feel like they’re gonna respect this more than like it. I can’t consider this a favorite because of that. It’s definitely a wild card, though.

2. Get a Horse! – Consider this: last year’s win for Disney with Paperman was the first time Disney has won this category since 1969. Since Walt died in 1967, Disney has only won this category three times. Pixar (since they are one company now), since 1988, has won this category three times. But not once since 2001. My point being… will they vote for this? Because they never seem to. It’s truly one of the most inventive shorts in a long time. It mixes traditional animation, 3D animation, and actual 3D in ways that haven’t been used before. It’s brilliant. That said… Disney never wins this, and the last time there was a truly innovative short, Day & Night, that lost to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which is a film that sounds an awful lot like my #1. So I’m gonna hold off before I consider this the #1 in the category just because it’s the flashiest nominee.

1. Mr. Hublot – I had a real hard time picking a #1. I honestly think this is probably the short that’s going to win. It has that type of animation, that type of look to it, that type of story that the Academy loves. It should be #1. Make no mistake about it, I truly think this one is going to win. I’ve been swayed by the flashier nominee before. They almost never win. This reeks of the film that’s going to win, that only savvy voters will choose. Of course, I could be wrong, and Get a Horse! could win. And I’d be pleasantly surprised. But honestly, right now, I feel like if I were picking to win, this is the choice. I might change my mind later, but right now, this feels like your winner. And I haven’t even seen it yet. This is your #1.

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So that’s Animated Short. Tomorrow, we do a category that I personally don’t ever care about, but some people seem to — Documentary Feature. (I’m getting the boring categories for me and the ones people care about the least out of the way first.)

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