Animated Shorts Academy Awards 1931-1969. A Look and Discussion Thread.

Off Topic!!!
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*Punts the stomach bug I’ve had.

Now then…award times again. 1936.

Let’s see…winner this year was Disney’s “The Country Cousin”. Good for seeing the design of the food shown, but otherwise just a cutsey story that (and I know this wouldn’t have effected choosing back then but still) we’d see similar stories in future shorts (most notably one of the shorts MGM did later with Red).

The other nominees were The Old Mill Pond by Harmin-Ising…good way to get the music of the various performers used out there, but save for a few gags here and there didn’t really take much with the animation format IMO.

And then…the one I think should have one for ambition alone, being almost double the length of any short (and keep in mind these were the pre-Snow White days): Popeye the Sailor meets Sindbad the Sailor

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Back in the good old days, when I was editor in chief of a multimedia website, that Popeye two-reeler was one of the PD cartoons we had up.

The world of public domain cartoons is a fascinating grab bag. I have a DVD set with tons of them on it.

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Wonder how many more that were winners or nominees we’ll see. Or if any already mentioned have entered there.

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I think all the Harman-Ising and Iwerks cartoons are in the PD. (Not counting their WB and Disney work). Some of the Fleischer stuff is and some isn’t… we had “Poor Cinderella” but only the b&w print, not the color one. No Disney is in the PD yet except for one Mickey cartoon… “The Mad Doctor.”

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My personal pick that year was a live action short (Keaton’s “Grand Slam Opera”), but of the animated nominees, yeah Popeye was the best of the nominated trio.

Others from '36 that are rated highly
Through the Mirror and I Love to Singa

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about the June-a and the moon-a and the spring-a?

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Time to move on to 1937, ever closer to the big change in animation with Snow White.

As such, our winner this year is “The Old Mill” (not to be confused with the previous year’s “The Old Mill Pond”)…which could be considered a test reel for some stuff from that movie.

Runners up were Fleisher’s “Educated Fish”…not bad but not sure Academy Award nominee good (also the worm on the hook would be getting SOOOO much art if this was made in the Internet age)

And what I heard described as “The Best Disney Short That Disney Didn’t Make”, “Little Match Girl” (a strong contender against The Old Mill I’d think)

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I selected The Old Mill as my personal pick.

It was the test subject for their multiplane camera that they were planning to use on Snow White (it could offer up to 7 layers of artwork and helped improve tracking shots). The animation is gorgeous, the camera movement impresses.

I’ll have to refresh my memory and watch the other 2. (Edit: okay, yeah, I’ve seen those)

I also liked Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth’s kinetic sound abstractions, especially “Escape” - it’s hypnotic

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