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1937 Animated Short Oscar Analysis

1937 was a pretty good, though far from great year for Best Animated Short Film category at the Academy Awards. Once again, it’s actually pretty diverse in its nominees as it does have a Disney film in the slate, but it also has a short from Columbia and one from Paramount. Although none of these shorts are really great, two of them are very strong and artistically ambitious. That’s why I found this slate to be an improvement over the previous slate, though still the category needs some work.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

3. Educated Fish

Although by far the weakest nominee this year, Educated Fish still is a pretty solid little flick. This Color Classics cartoon does have a good message for kids and it’s particularly well animated in backgrounds and overall very well made. However, I found the character design unappealing and the short needed more energy. The first half is way too slow and thus the second one is much better. I found the seductive worm very odd in that too weird, but still the most memorable sequence here.

2. The Little Match Girl

This Color Rhapsodies short coming from Columbia is an incredibly moving, tragic film which is to be expected having in mind the classic source material from Hans Christian Andersen. It does feature an overly extended dream scene and it needed more real world sequences in it, but still I found the beginning terrific and of course the ending is the most beautiful, truly emotional highlight of the film. The score is also wonderful as is the animation which is polished and very pleasing in its color palette.

1. The Old Mill

The pacing is bad and the story could have been better in The Old Mill which still explores the circle of life and the nature’s destruction very well. This Silly Symphony definitely isn’t one of the best from the series, but it still deserved its Oscar win as it’s the best of the nominees. The selling point here is obviously the animation which is groundbreaking in its quality with realistic animal depictions, an absolutely fantastic use of the multiplane camera while being accompanied by dark, atmospheric tone to it.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Hospitaliky – By far the best animated short of 1937, Hospitaliky is one of the classic, best Popeye the Sailor shorts which was once again shamefully snubbed by the Academy. Popeye actually uses spinach here to give it to Bluto to beat him up so he can end up in a hospital to be treated by Olive. A very original, inventive and hilarious movie.

The Twisker Pitcher – Yes, this is a baseball short and I most certainly dislike all sports, especially this boring one. However, the fact that it worked for me despite that goes to show how strong this cartoon is. It was inventive seeing Popeye plant spinach himself and of course Olive being beaten by a fat woman was the funniest scene here.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves – With a groundbreaking use of 3D, gorgeous animation and simply phenomenal action and also humor, this short is actually better than the one Popeye short that the Academy nominated which is frustrating. It is my favorite in this color series as it’s just so polished and entertaining.

My Artistical Temperature – Although this one could have been funnier, it’s still a very strong Popeye cartoon which is particularly entertaining in its action as some scenes here are quite inventive and superbly executed. I also loved the use of paintings in the story and action as it was quite inspired at times.

Pigs Is Pigs – In a year which is obviously the best in Popeye shorts, we still have one great Merry Melodies cartoon. Pigs Is Pigs explores the dangers of gluttony so well and is thus a very strong Silly Symphonies-inspired message flick. The ending is certainly problematic, but the humor, story and animation are all so good.