Animated Shorts for a Sunday Afternoon

You'll notice that my choices from AniBoom are musical, whimsical and on the innocent side. That's my sensibility and taste. There are plenty more to see on the Fox virtual animation site that showcase other qualities.

The animators would do well to remember that Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks animation (which is at Paramount now but still with Jeffrey Katzenberg at the helm) are apt to go for the rounded sweetness of the former style.

Except for the Ice Age franchise Fox (the sponsor of Aniboom) has pretty much gotten out of the feature animation business to cash in on prime-time toons while Warner Bros continues to hone it's harder, darker edge via DC comic adaptations.

It's not a matter of one style necessarily being better than the other but rather one of knowing your buyer's taste. Since these all came from the Fox online animation studio, it's not surprising there are so few Disneyesque pieces there. I had to really search for these.

Like attracts like. Even so, generally speaking, the ones that succeed the most are the ones that emphasize theme and character over plot and structure. Feeling over intellect. Animation is, in my opinion (and will always be), best when it recognizes its roots in pantomime.


WE SING THE FOREST ELECTRIC




DO THEY EAT DOGS IN FRANCE?




THE PIANO




THE FOUNTAIN