The Oscar animated short films are a grim bunch

There's some formally interesting shorts, but don't take the kiddos.

War. Murder. Religious oppression. Child abuse. The Holocaust.

Yeah, I’m thinking maybe you shouldn’t take the kids to this year’s crop of Academy Award Best Animated Movies. 

While the five nominated films, which are being screened in theaters ahead of this year’s Oscars on March 10, are a formally interesting and often engrossing bunch, it is a grim collection aimed more at older audiences. There ain’t a Pixar movie in the bunch.

My favorite of the five is “Ninety-Five Senses” by the husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Jared and Jerusha Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”). An old coot, wonderfully played by Tim Blake Nelson, reminisces about his life through each of his five senses. He thinks fondly of seeing catfish while snorkeling on the lake near his home, or smelling the unique scent of a Blockbuster video store.

But then the memories turn darker, and we realize that the old man is remembering his life because he doesn’t have much time left. It’s an evocative, surprising piece, and the fact that different animators are used to bring each of the character’s five senses to life gives “Ninety-Five Senses” a consistent visual inventiveness.

Stephanie Clement’s “Pachyderm” is bathed in deceptively warm and autumnal colors, recounting a nine-year-old girl’s visit to see her grandparents at their country home. But the visual beauty conceals an uneasy menace that Clement alludes to rather than depicts, such as the Grandpa’s giant hands enveloping the small girl’s. It’s a haunting and elusive film.

Iranian filmmaker Yegane Moghaddam’s “Our Uniform” chooses a clever visual motif to recount her memoir of her childhood, in particular the mandatory dress code (including a hijab) at the school she attended. Moghaddam uses clothes and fabric as the literal canvas for her memories, as denim, wool pants and that uniform become the backdrop on which characters move around. 

Tal Kantor’s “Letter to a Pig” mixes photorealistic animation and simple line drawings – sometimes in the same character, as in the film’s protagonist, a young girl with lifelike eyes but a slash for a mouth. The mix of styles befits a film that’s so dreamlike, as the girl listens in class to a Holocaust survivor tell his story, and slips into a daydream in which the old man’s trauma is twisted into her own. 

Finally, Dave Mullins’ “War is Over!,” inspired by the John and Yoko Lennon song, feels like a too-simplistic parable in these times. Soldiers on opposites of No Man’s Land play chess via carrier pigeon, a fragile truce that gets shattered when the men go into battle. (Luckily, in this alternate Great War, the soldiers fight using fisticuffs rather than guns and grenades.)

In the anthology now playing in theaters, the five nominated films are augmented by two more “highly recommended” animated shorts. “Wild Summon,” by Saul Freed and Karni Arieli, follows the dangerous attempt by salmon to swim upriver to breed. But the trick is that the film doesn’t depict the fish as fish, but as a school of tiny little scuba divers trying to avoid fishermen, bears and bigger fish to make the journey. It’s weird but fascinating.

Finally, “I’m Hip” is a silly but energetic short by veteran Disney animator Dave Musker (“Aladdin”) about a jazzy alley cat singing his own praises. It’s a lightweight entertainment, like a modern-day update of the old “Top Cat” TV show, but after the darkness that’s come before, it’s nice to leave the theater on an up note.

“The 2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation” is now playing in theaters. In Madison, the anthology is playing at Marcus Point Cinemas and Marcus Palace Cinemas on Feb. 29 and March 6.