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1943 Animated Short Oscar Analysis

1943 was not the greatest year when it comes to the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Surely, there are some good films in this line-up, but the winner itself was quite weak and some nominees aren’t particularly good. Of the six nominated flicks, I failed to find one so I have only seen five so far. The line-up is actually rather diverse on the positive side. Not only are Disney and Warner Bros. here, but also Woody Woodpecker as well as Tom & Jerry and others.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

5. Greetings Bait

In this difficult to explain oddity we follow a fisherman, a crab and a worm. The film actually looks great with the split-screen effects being amazing. But even though it has a good final third, the rest of the flick is very troublesome. Not only is the structure of it messy, but it’s also badly paced and simply underutilized in all of its characters. It’s a shame that the Academy continues to nominate Merry Melodies for this category, but they never pick the right, strong ones.

4. The Yankee Doodle Mouse

The whole war going on between Jerry and Tom is endless here, starts abrupt in a weak beginning and just goes on forever with similar action scenarios. And the whole propaganda quality to it is unfortunate and I really feel bad that even they had to succumb to that during the war. Yes, this is the worst Tom & Jerry winner by far that has some great scenes such as the dynamite exchange and the action is strong across the board, but overall I was not impressed and I deem it rather overrated.

3. The Dizzy Acrobat

The film follows Woody’s shenanigans at the circus with the elephant and the trapeze. Yes, a Woody Woodpecker short actually got nominated for an Oscar, though this particular one did not really deserve it. I did like some of the action here and the energy to Woody is reliably terrific, but overall the circus plot is uninspired and typical for the forties. None of the scenes really make a strong impact, and though everything is serviceable, nothing really pops in this well animated, but uninventive short.

2. Imagination

This Color Rhapsody ended up taking the second spot on this list which just goes to show how weak this particular line-up was. It follows two dolls in love, but a bigger male doll arrives and wants to steal the girl as he has the hots for her and it’s up to the boy to stop him and fight him out. Expectedly so, the film is dated and very creepy, but to me its sexually charged villain was downright hilarious and so entertaining that I did not mind its excessive sexual nature too much. It’s a weird film with some strong action and characterization.

1. Reason and Emotion

Through some visual gags and an intriguing premise, we are presented with a message against Hitler and his fear mongering in this highly original, and influential film about inner emotions becoming alive. Yes, the narration is excessive, but the premise itself is mind-blowingly original as it influenced later on ‘Inside Out’. It’s one of Disney’s most creative early efforts, and it’s a shame that it did not receive an Academy Award this year when it was clearly the best among these much weaker nominees.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Sufferin’ Cats – How the hell didn’t this film manage to garner an Oscar nomination? In the year where the winner was a much weaker Tom & Jerry short, this one is the overall greatest cartoon of the year thanks a superb introduction of another cat to fight with Tom over the mouse through many instantly memorable action sequences. It’s hilarious and a lot of fun.

Porky Pig’s Feat – Porky Pig and Daffy Duck try to escape from the hotel manager as they do not want to pay their bill, but they mostly fail at that effort as the manager simply is impossible to leave behind. That’s the great premise behind this action-packed and wonderful Looney Tunes entry that also features one brilliant, unexpected cameo from Bugs Bunny.

Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs – Of course this one is not for everyone, especially these days owing to its sensitive subject matter. But to me the movie is actually very respectful in its artistic representation of blacks. It deserves more love as it’s also hilarious in its ending and it serves as a terrific fairy tale parody.

Tortoise Wins by a Hare – It was so funny how Cecil Turtle fooled Bugs so easily in this amusing short. He is very conniving and bright here whereas Bugs is uncharacteristically stupid, but it works in the context of the story and it leads to many funny sequences. It’s one of a couple of classic flicks starring these two great characters.

Baby Puss – This one is a beautifully constructed Tom & Jerry short which has many plot points, but all work stupendously well. Not only is the finale hilarious, but it also treated the mouse the same it treated Tom so that was instantly memorable. This is one of the funniest, most entertaining entries in this series for sure.