Oscars 2018 Category Breakdown: Best Animated Short

So what we do here each year as a warm up for the Oscars is, I break down each of the 24 categories. The idea is to both familiarize everyone with the category and its history. I look at what the major trends are throughout the past bunch of years, how the precursors tend to go, whether they matter or not, that sort of stuff. I look at how the category came to be this year, and just anything else that seems totally pertinent about it. Then I rank each of the nominees and tell you what their likelihood (at this particular moment in time) of winning is.

This is all prelude to my giant Oscar ballot that I’m gonna give you. But I figure, if you have these as the warmup, it’s not as intimidating. You’ll have seen a lot of the pertinent trends here and we’ll all be able to reference these as a sort of cheat sheet. Plus it shows you where my head is at for how I think each of the categories are gonna go, and you can see me working my way up to all the bad decisions I usually make while guessing. Pretty much, with this, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how the category is gonna turn out.

Today is Best Animated Short. Truly one of my favorite categories this year, because just about everything in it is great and worth seeing.

All the shorts categories are specific to their year. They really don’t have any outside influences outside of, “Which one is Pixar?” So we just look at what we have and go from there.

Best Animated Short

Animal Behaviour

Bao

Late Afternoon

One Small Step

Weekends

This was the first year all ten shorts were available online before nominations. Many have since been pulled, because apparently they don’t understand the internet is pretty much the only way the public gets to see most of these, but I think at least two of these are still available (the best two, anyway).

I think, of the other shortlisted films, I’m surprised Lost & Found didn’t make it, since it was beautifully animated and stop-motion, but otherwise nothing was too much of a shocker to me. Animal Behaviour was the only short I didn’t really care for, so of course they nominated it. Grandpa Walrus was one that was just kind of okay. Bird Karma looked nice but didn’t amount to much. Bilby was nice, but I’m glad they didn’t nominate it just because it felt kind of standard CGI animation, whereas most of these are at least hand-drawn. And Age of Sail I really liked but also didn’t think they needed to nominate. I don’t think it did as much, narratively, as Pearl did a few years ago, even though this one did have more of a structured narrative. Personally, I think Lost & Found should have made it on instead of Animal Behaviour, but outside of that, I think we got the best version of this category that we could have gotten, and I rarely feel like I can say that. So I’m very happy with how this turned out.

That said… Pixar is pretty much running away with this one again, aren’t they?

Rankings:

5. Animal Behaviour — I don’t think this is gonna resonate with voters. Look at the last bunch of winners. If it wasn’t Pixar, Disney or Kobe Bryant (i.e., something with a lot of exposure), it was the one that told the most emotional story. And this ain’t that. So I have to consider it the fifth choice. Where’s the emotion here? It’s mostly just cute. Animals in therapy and their natural behaviors become their major issues. I don’t see this having any support in the way of a vote. You have to figure how many people are even gonna watch all five shorts and vote, and then figure how many of them are gonna vote for this one specifically. Can’t see it.

4. Late Afternoon — It’s really well done, and the animation is gorgeous. It might get some votes. Not sure it’ll have the legs to win. Feels like a fourth choice. This is a category where I can’t really support my feelings with any concrete evidence. You guys have all the evidence I do, though maybe you all haven’t seen the nominees as I have. Still, I think you can diagnose this one just on looking at what you have, and I think most of us would have this at #3 or #4 in this race. Doesn’t feel like a winner.

3. Weekends — This one has won some bigger festivals and just won the Annie Award for Best Short. Which is not insignificant. Since 2010, the Annie Short category is 4/8. Granted, the four times the winner didn’t win the Oscar, the Oscar winner in this category wasn’t nominated, and this was the only Oscar nominee up at the Annies, but it’s something. It at least means the animators saw it and liked it and that’s a measure of support that I will take in a category like this. That said… it’s not Disney or Pixar, so I can only go so far in my support. Can this win? Sure. Do I think I can call this a favorite at the moment? Not a chance. It doesn’t have what all previous winners had, which is the studio pedigree or the emotional story core. There’s emotion there, but it’s not what usually wins. Anyone who sees this knows that immediately. I think it’s a contender, but I’m not looking at this as a major player for the win just yet.

2. One Small Step — The only thing that is putting this over Weekends for me is the fact that you watch it and it has that emotional core that tends to do really well in this category. And the fact that this was openly on the internet from like September. So it gave more people a chance to just come across it along the way. At this point, I’m looking for anything that can beat Pixar, which has the total package this year in a way that I haven’t seen them have in a while. Lou didn’t have it. Piper didn’t have it. Sanjay’s Super Team didn’t have it. La Luna… ehh. Day & Night was technical, but didn’t have it. It’s been a while. So yeah, this is the second choice. But this is my personal favorite short in the category and it absolutely destroyed me when I saw it for the first time. And I think that will be the case for a lot of people who see it. It’s a very uplifting, life-affirming kind of a short, and is exactly what voters in this category respond to. So I think if you’re looking to what can possibly take down Pixar in this category, it’s this or Weekends.

1. Bao — The rule is that if Pixar is nominated in this category, it’s automatically the frontrunner until it loses. That’s just how that works. And this is the most complete Pixar short I’ve seen in a while. Last year, Lou wasn’t anything special. Piper looked great but was just kind of ehh, even though it managed a win. Sanjay’s Super Team I wasn’t a huge fan of. Lava — no thank you. The Blue Umbrella looked incredible, and probably came close, but they didn’t nominate it. La Luna looked nice, but otherwise didn’t have the total package. Day & Night had no narrative really, but looked spectacular, and could have won it on that alone (but didn’t). It’s been a while since Pixar had a short that was truly emotionally resonant. And this one should walk away with the category really easily. They look for what the most emotionally affecting shorts are in this category, and it’s hard to say this isn’t the one. I think it’s an easy winner and will be your frontrunner until it loses.

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