This is the day before the Oscars are announced for 2008 and I just got back from a special screening by our local film society of all five films nominated in the category of Best Animated Short Film. This film was among the five and while a very good film, it just seemed in a different league compared to the two best nominees, Petrov's "Moya lyubov" and "Même les pigeons vont au paradis"--as these two films were great and clearly deserve the statuette (too bad they can't give two).
"Peter and the wolf" is a retelling of the Prokofiev's classic musical tale. Unlike other versions, this one is not set in the 19th century but more recent times, as there are cars and other modern things in the film. Also, unlike many of the previous versions, this one does not use traditional animation but stop-motion animation--producing a very pretty film.
As for me, although this is a lovely film and tooks years to make, this is a wonderful case of "been there, done that" because I have seen this story before and frankly don't want to see yet another version of this classic tale. While the animation is nice, the creators of this short film did not need to spend much time writing--just adapting a story. Because of that, I just can't see it winning the Oscar. Pretty good, but probably not in the running for the award.
2/24/08--Apparently I am terrible at guessing Oscars as this film DID win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. It was a lovely film--its winning just surprised me.
"Peter and the wolf" is a retelling of the Prokofiev's classic musical tale. Unlike other versions, this one is not set in the 19th century but more recent times, as there are cars and other modern things in the film. Also, unlike many of the previous versions, this one does not use traditional animation but stop-motion animation--producing a very pretty film.
As for me, although this is a lovely film and tooks years to make, this is a wonderful case of "been there, done that" because I have seen this story before and frankly don't want to see yet another version of this classic tale. While the animation is nice, the creators of this short film did not need to spend much time writing--just adapting a story. Because of that, I just can't see it winning the Oscar. Pretty good, but probably not in the running for the award.
2/24/08--Apparently I am terrible at guessing Oscars as this film DID win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. It was a lovely film--its winning just surprised me.