A Collection Of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Shorts (Magnolia/DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Main Shorts: C+
We have
covered more shorts sets than most sites because they always make for
interesting viewing and reading. It has been
a little while that a set of recent shorts, each by different directors, has
come our way but Magnolia Pictures has issued the interesting A Collection Of 2006 Academy Award
Nominated Shorts and once again, we get some very ambitious work that
works. The disc is split into three
sections:
Live
Action Shorts: West Bank Story (Oscar®
Winner), Binta & The Great Idea (Binta Y La Gram Idea), Ramos Pocos (One
Too Many), Helmer & Son, The Saviour.
Animated
Shorts: The Danish Poet (Oscar® Winner),
Maestro.
Bonus
Feature Shorts: The Wraith of Cobble Hill, The Passenger, Gentlemen's Duel,
Guide Dog, One Rat Short Surviving The Rush.
Now the
details…
Live Action Shorts
Ari
Sandel’s West Bank Story (Oscar® Winner/U.S.A./1.85 X 1 letterbox) is a musical satire
about the crisis in the Middle East as two fast food joints are spilt between
Jews & Arabs with the results similar to the Romeo & Juliet/West Side
Story adding a couple of gags along the way.
Javier
Fesser’s Binta & The Great Idea
(Binta Y La Gram Idea/Spain/1.85 X 1
letterbox) is a touching tale of one young lady’s wish for education of all
young ladies in the third world in the face of misogyny and outdated
traditions. UNICEF co-produced this
decent short.
Borja
Cobeaga’s Ramos Pocos (One Too Many/Spain/1.85 X 1 letterbox) is
a drama/comedy about a family secret and the destruction it might cause if it
is revealed.
Soren
Pilmark’s Helmer & Son (Denmark/anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1) is a strange comedy/drama about a rich family whose father
is in a mental institute. Only his son
can help him, unless a deal he has made sends his father over the edge.
Peter
Templeman’s The Saviour (Australia/anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1) is about two Bible-touting Mormons who are making their way
around their assigned town when one is seduced by a married man. It is the boldest of the five nominees.
Animated Shorts
Torill
Cove’s The Danish Poet (Oscar® Winner/Norway & Canada/1.85 X 1 letterbox) has
Liv Ullman narrating the charming tale of how a couple almost were not but
eventually were drawn together by a beloved author. The best short on this disc, it is constantly
funny with wit and charm to spare. The
narration is in English.
Géza M.
Toth’s Maestro (Hungary/1.85 X 1
letterbox) is a CG-animated short about a singing bird being prepared for a
high class performance, except the twist at the end turns all that on its head.
Bonus Feature Shorts
Adam
Parrish King’s The Wraith of Cobble Hill
(1.33 X 1) is a fine Claymation piece about a teen in a poor neighborhood with
no money and stuck with no opportunity until his neighbor who runs and owns the
local mom & pop grocery lets him watch it for him while he takes a
break. Impressive to the end.
Chris
Jones’ The Passenger (1.66 X 1
anamorphic) is a CG comedy in the Spielberg tradition that is predictable, but
worth a look.
Francisco
Ruiz/Sean McNally’s A Gentlemen's Duel
(1.78 X 1 letterbox) is also a CG comedy in the Spielberg tradition that is
predictable, but worth a look, except it is longer and more preposterous than
expected.
Bill Plympton’s Guide Dog (1.33
X 1) is one of the legend’s lesser works about a dog who wants and needs
attention.
Alex
Weil’s One Rat Short (anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1) is a CG drama about a street rat who finds himself in a rat
lab trying to avoid an evil robot, bar-coding and doom. Very smart, thoughtful and the big surprise
in this set.
Sean
Farley’s Surviving The Rush (1.33 X
1) is my least favorite work here, giving us a very pretentious, tired and
highly formulaic look at teens/young adults running separate movie theaters
currently showing various blockbusters.
Too bad it is such a mess, throwing in way too many ideas, many plain
stupid making a quilt of failure best skipped.
The
various aspect ratios are listed with each title and all are in color except Wraith of Cobble Hill, though some tone
down their color to an almost monochrome look.
All audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo or even Mono, but PCM 2.0 Stereo
can be found on West Bank Story. Ramos
Pocos (One Too Many) is the
softest of the shorts, though some of the anamorphic transfers (Passenger, Helmer & Son) are softer than they should be. We are counting the bonus shorts as extras
because of the title of this collection.
You can
read about a recent Plympton collection at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4088/Plymptoons+–+The+Complete+Early
Plus see
the 75th Annual Academy Awards Shorts set at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/733/75th+Academy+Awards+Shorts
- Nicholas Sheffo
