CW 4: Animated Short Films

"May you always have the courage to face your fears" - Alan Barillaro

Yes, I am always obsessed with movies, it's not just this week. But, I just started a Disney+ subscription to finally watch "Soul" and so I had access to all the beautiful short films by Disney as well. Aside from the Disney animated shorts (which, funny enough, can be read in two ways) though, over the years I always tried to keep up with the films nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars and found a lot of them on Youtube.

I feel there is so much more detail in animated shortfilms and so much love poured into the project. At least when watching them, for me, it really transfers through the screen. The filmmakers have one central message and deliver it so perfectly and lightly that you can't help but feel love after watching them. My favorite one so far, and I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen, because it was shown with "Finding Dory" when it was released in theatres, is "Piper". The animation is so far the cutest I have ever seen and that is all I'm gonna say about it, you HAVE to go and see it for yourself. "Hair Love", which won the Oscar in 2020 is also up there with "Piper". With that film I first felt what representation meant. I know it sounds corny, but for someone looking like me, it really does something. You don't quite realize how much representation in tv, film, whatever it is matters, until you actually feel represented at some point and can say "Hey, she looks like me" or "She does what I do" and you feel instantly connected to that one character. 

Disney has a lot of cute shortfilms, among them is "Out" which as far as I know features the first LGBTQ couple in a Disney movie. Well, it's 8 minutes, I guess they can do better in 2021 but I guess it's a start. "Bao", which also won the Oscar, remains very weird but still super cute and well animated and just recently I watched "Once Upon a Snowman" which tells the story of how Olaf from the "Frozen" franchise came to life, so as a "Frozen"-fan I had a blast watching it. I am going to leave you with a list of eight animated shortfilms, that I think need to be seen by more people. One of my dreams is to work in animation one day and if I can create stories like these that make people feel seen, make them laugh, cry or just have a meaning to them...

...I will be the happiest person.

1. Piper (full film on Disney+)
2. Hair Love
3. Bao (full film on Disney+)
4. Negative Space
5. Out (full film on Disney+)
6. Once Upon a Snowman (full film on Disney+)
7. Watermelon - A Cautionary Tale
8. Purl