This was the strongest of the films nominated for Best Animated Short in 2020. It uses crayon technique, and is not so much animated as having images shift from one state to the next, depicting states of mind; that makes it a bit different in style, and the story it tells with no words save a text message, of a couple trying cope with the death of their daughter in a school shooting, is a powerful one. Each year I worry more and more that the best animated short Oscar is becoming more and more a technical one, showing what visual effect can be acheieved..... and each year, that seems the sole purpose of the short. Technical advances are important, but unless they offer us some way to connect with an emotion, a story, something human, then animation might as well remain stuck in 1906, wit Stuart Blackton's HUMOROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES.
This movie does not innovate particularly in technique, but it does have a story to tell, something to say.
This movie does not innovate particularly in technique, but it does have a story to tell, something to say.