Bear Story

During the Oscars, I was really rooting for World of Tomorrow to win the Oscar for best animated short film. I was a little disappointed that Bear Story won but that was only because I hadn't seen it yet. Since then, I've sat through the ten-minute short film and I can definitely see why it was worthy of the Oscar it won.

The film starts off in a pretty lackluster setting but it quickly gets more interesting. Most of the story is told through the machinery of a music box which really grabbed my attention and there were a lot of transitions and effects that built off of the unique setting very nicely. The story was simple but effective in getting the audience invested in what was going on. The CG scenes that didn't take place in the music box could have looked a little smoother in my opinion though and out of the other Oscar nominees like World of Tomorrow and We Can't Live Without Cosmos, it seemed a lot less memorable in comparison.

Overall, Bear Story was a nice ten minute film that obviously had a lot of work put into, but I feel like World of Tomorrow is better suited towards my taste in film so I would have rather seen it win the Oscar.

You can check out Bear Story by clicking on the link below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIugretb-3Q

We Can't Live Without Cosmos

We Can't Live Without Cosmos, is an animated short-film that is nominated for an Oscar this year along side other shorts such as World of Tomorrow, which I reviewed as part of my first blog post of the semester. It was created by Russian filmmaker Konstantin Bronzit and centers around two life-long friends and aspiring astronauts as they train in hopes of one day venturing into the vastness of space. However, when tragedy strikes midway through the film, the change of tone falters from cheerful to depressing. The short is devoid of dialogue but is able to tell a compelling story nonetheless through clever animation. One of my favorite scenes in particular is when a shot of a starry night sky transitions into snow falling, an effect that illustrates the change of tone perfectly. The animation itself is unique and fun to watch throughout. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the 15-minute film and wish it luck in the upcoming Oscars. You can watch the entire video for free by using the link below:

http://video.newyorker.com/watch/we-can-t-live-without-cosmos