The 2013 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animated

This year the Oscar nominated shorts left town almost as quickly as they came in, and I was only able to catch the animated program which is available entirely online from various outlets. Frankly, I don't feel I'm missing much with the two programs I've forgone, being the Live Action and Documentary, in that they tend to be serious and self-important, and I've read that this year was no different. With this year's animated entries though, they did prove to be a pleasant surprise and there was no creative dearth as had been the case over the last several years. The nominees span several animated formats and storytelling techniques, but all share one thing in common: a complete lack of dialogue. My favorites were "Adam and Dog", which tells the story of the first man's pet in the Garden of Eden and "Fresh Guacomole", which provides a variant recipe for the dish in and told in under two minutes. Also well done were "Paperman", about a young man attempting to make contact with a girl who caught his eye, "Head over Heels" which tells of an older couple living at opposite ends of their floating, constantly rotating house, and "The Longest Daycare", a Simpsons short where baby Maggie experiences an inexorable day at the Ayn Rand school for gifted babies. Here are four of this year's five nominees.