The Great Oscar Baiter

Boy, it’s been a whole week since we last discussed a Chuck Jones short! And we are tackling a weird one today. How weird are we talking? Well try this- it was so weird that even Chuck Jones didn’t understand it. And if the guy who made it didn’t get it, what chance do the rest of us have? Well, that’s the sixties for you I guess. Either way, let’s take a look at Now Hear This, one of the strangest Looney Tunes you or I have ever seen! (via Wikipedia) Released in either 1962 or 1963 depending on who you ask, Now Hear This! (co-directed by Maurice Noble) is an interesting short for a variety of reasons. It doesn't really have any plot to speak of, and is instead just a series of loosely collected gags about the subject of sound. Its style of animation is nothing like the usual Warner Bros. fare, adopting more of a limited UPA style. And while I think the only people who did UPA style animation right were the people at UPA, I think Jones and his team do an admirable job with this...

I was not fortunate enough to see Ratatouille in theaters. The closest I came to doing so was catching a glimpse of a screen showing it while my family was at a drive-in. (We were there to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I believe, which is actually the first Harry Potter I saw in theaters; but that’s a story for a different time.) However, I didn’t actually see any of Ratatouille on that screen. No, it was early enough in the screening that instead I saw a clip of the short which played before it, Lifted. And while it wouldn’t be long before I saw Ratatouille on DVD, it would be a much longer wait before I saw the rest of this short. Was it worth the wait? Let’s find out! (via Wikipedia) Directed by Gary Rydstrom, Lifted tells the story of an anxious, awkward teenage alien taking a driver's test in a UFO. Having never taken a driver's test I can't quite relate to this story, but I do relate to someone being anxious behind the wheel. That one hits a li...

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Bill Maher made a complete ass of himself recently by complaining about the fact that all of this year’s Best Picture nominees are too depressing. Setting aside the fact that this year’s nominees are actually considerably less depressing than years prior (or the fact that Maher’s idea of an entertaining, non-depressing movie includes Schindler’s List and 12 Years a Slave ), the Best Picture nominees have nothing on this year’s short categories! And not surprisingly at all, the Best Documentary Short category is the most depressing of all. But that’s not really a surprise; this category really does love its misery porn. So it is rather nice when a film manages to succeed in this category without being needlessly bleak. Last year’s winner, Carol Dysinger’s Learning to Skateboard in a War Zone (If You’re a Girl) , is one such short. (via A&E) Learning to Skateboard in a War Zone (If You're a Girl) documents the nonprofit organization Skatei...

Like Chuck Jones, Tex Avery is rightfully considered a legend in the history of animation. Like Chuck Jones, Tex Avery had a decent amount of success at the Academy Awards (even if, due to the strange rules the shorts categories had in the early days, he never received a nomination personally). And like Chuck Jones, it’d be hard to tell based solely on the films of his we’ve covered in our Year in Shorts. And unfortunately, his 1953 short Little Johnny Jet will do very little to change that. But we’ve got to get to it one way or another. (via TV Tropes) Little Johnny Jet is set in a world populated by sentient planes, sort of like the world of Pixar's Cars (or its spinoff, Planes, or the spinoff's sequel, Planes: Fire & Rescue ), except there are also humans living in this world. That is not the most bizarre thing about this short. It tells the story of a retired B-29 bomber (voiced by Yogi Bear himself Daws Butler) who, despite being a decorated World War II veteran, ...

As I’ve said before, the category for Best Animated Short at the 72nd Academy Awards was (with one major exception) an incredibly strong one. And the National Film Board of Canada had its hands in two of that year’s nominees. One we’ve already covered (the utterly delightful My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts ), and today we’ll be discussing the other, When the Day Breaks. It is, admittedly, less delightful, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful in my book. Let’s take a look! (via TV Tropes) Directed by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, When the Day Breaks is a short about the series of seemingly minor connections that link the anthropomorphic animal residents of an unnamed city together in ways both see and unseen. It's sort like of if Babel were set in Zootopia. And also if Babel wasn't terrible. Either way, When the Day Breaks is a fairly bizarre and exceptionally moody piece of animation, built more around moments than a linear story. It might not be everyone...

Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with the name Don Hertzfeldt. While we’ve yet to cover a single one of his films, it seems that I can’t more than a couple of weeks without bringing him up in some capacity or another. And the reason for that is exceedingly simple- I think the man’s a genius. And while that word gets thrown around a lot these days, I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic when I use it here. Well dear reader, the time has finally come for us to discuss one of his films. So let’s dive into the wild and wonderful world of Don Hertzfeldt and his 2000 short, Rejected. Be excited. Be very excited. (via Wikipedia) The premise for Rejected is... well, I'm not sure "simple" is the right word, but it's fairly easy to explain at least. The short almost functions like a found footage film, comprising of a series of sketches which claim to be rejected advertisements Hertzfeldt was hired to create for a handful of companies. What follows is a series of ...

Content Warning- Today's post contains rather frank discussions about Kobe Bryant Ugh. I don’t want to talk about this one. Due to the involvement of Kobe Bryant, Dear Basketball has always been a difficult short to talk about, and it’s become even more so after the death of him and his daughter last year. Kobe Bryant was and remains a highly controversial figure, and I am well aware that I’m stepping into a bit of a minefield by talking about him. But I suppose he’s not the first alleged rapist to win an Academy Award, and contending with that fact is just part of the territory. So with all that out of the way, let’s discuss Dear Basketball. (via Wikipedia) The creative staff assembled to make Dear Basketball is undeniably impressive. The short is directed by legendary Disney animator Glen Keane, who is up for another Oscar this year for his feature film Over the Moon. And who did they get to write the score than none other than John Freaking Williams? And it must be said that ...

The term “gaslighting” derives from the title of Patrick Hamilton’s play, as well as its two film adaptations. By far the best known of the three is the 1944 film Gaslight, which stars Ingrid Bergman and features the film debut of one Angela Lansbury. Nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Gaslight is a film that The Great Oscar Baiter will cover one day. (And believe me, I have a lot to say about it!) I only bring it up to say that it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that today’s short, the 1949 film Mouse Wreckers, was in some part inspired by Gaslight. If that’s the case, I’m afraid that director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese fumbled their homage in one critical area- unlike Mouse Wreckers, Gaslight was entertaining! (via Wikipedia) Sometimes I fear that I give Chuck Jones a bit of a bad rap here at The Great Oscar Baiter. Most of the time I bring him up it's to complain about his work on Tom and Jerry. Other times it's to rip apart some film he m...