Every year five films are nominated for Best Animated Short Film and every year my wife and I ask ourselves the same question: Where can we see these films? Does anyone know?
“My mind reels with sarcastic replies!” - Snoopy
One option is to look for animation festivals. In my part of the country (Orange County, California) these two guys (Spike and Mike) come out at irregular intervals with an animation festival that’s shown in a local theatre. Some of the animation shorts might also have been previously shown on television stations, e.g. in Canada or on MTV.
You can probably find them on videocassette also if you look hard enough.
Arnold is right (isn’t he always?) about the animation festivals. If one comes to town drop everything to go and see it. My only complaint is usually only one theater in town covers them, and it’s some little artsy one downtown. (Actually, here in Seattle it’s in the University District.)
You can find videotapes of collections of animated shorts. Try the video stores, but my best luck is in the public library.
If you want to see the best of the best, get Nick Park’s “Wallace & Gromit” films. They are always nominated and frequently win the Oscar for this category. He also did another Academy Award winner entitled “Creature Comforts” which is superb. (“I need … space.”)
“I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body, until I realized who was telling me that.”
Emo Phillips
I think Viagra is the key to animated shorts.
Thank you, folks… I’ll be here all week.
BTW Spike and Mike is not a local thing. It’s shown in Vancouver as well.
The other way to see the animated shorts is to become a member of the Academy and attend the special screenings of the animated shorts.
This is usually not practical.
However, renting the Wallace and Gromit tapes are fairly easy. There are only four “episodes” I believe, with “The Wrong Trousers” being my favorite.
I’ve got a DVD of Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. If you’re thinking of looking into Spike & Mike, be warned; some of the shorts are extremely tasteless and/or gross. Anyone else seen the “Lloyd’s Lunchbox” series?
There are lots of different videos available for animation: World’s Greatest Animation, International Tournament of Animation, blah blah blah. When I lived near Santa Fe, animation fests would occasionally show up at the little Center for Contemporary Arts theater. Find such a place in your area and get a schedule of events or get on their mailing list.
Thanks guys. I had tried the video store and library routes and pretty much came up zilch. I guess it’s time to start frequenting the local art movie houses (not that they are all that local).
It really stinks that I can’t just see the ones I want or rent all the nominees for the year.
Thanks again.
“My mind reels with sarcastic replies!” - Snoopy
Oh yea - Wallace and Grommit. They’re great. I got the set for Mrs. Trion for Christmas. Sort of a joint gift. 
“My mind reels with sarcastic replies!” - Snoopy
I’ve got the box set with A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. The only other W&G short I’ve heard of is Creature Comforts which was part of another animation collection. Is that the fourth one?
FWIW I like A Close Shave best. The chase scene is a gas and all the characters have well developed personalities.
There’s no fifth W&G short yet, but Nick Park is working on one.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
Spike and Mike have (or at least used to have) two (2) series:
Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation
and
Spike and Mike’s sick and twisted Festival of Animation.
As Max Torque said, the sick and twisted festival is mostly “adult” animation. The “ordinary” festival of animation is PG-13 (at a guess) material.
Yes, there are only Wallace & Gromit shorts. Two won Oscars: “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave”.
“Creature Comforts” also won an Oscar for Nick Park.
“A Grand Day Out” was nominated, but did not win, losing out to … “Creature Comforts”.
Spike and Mike’s animation festivals go on national tours, and are shown at artsy theaters or college theaters around the country. I see them at the local art school. They are consistently the funniest, most memorable cinema-going experiences of the year.
I have several Spike And Mike festivals on video tape - they’re available from Spike And Mike’s Web Page.
You can also see some shorts online at www.atomfilms.com . They have some Plympton stuff, “Creature Comforts,” and current things.
“No,” he replied, and smiled seraphically, as was his wont.
Write or call:
The Whole Toon Catalog
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
(800) 331-6197.
Hopefully they’re still in business. If they are, they sell videos of every cartoon you could imagine.
In addition to that, you can see a trailer for his new full length movie, “Chicken Run”, here:
http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=chickenrun/trailer
Looks like good stuff, but you should expect that from him.
“My Accountz Reeceevable Posse don’t call me Tha Troubleshoota for nothin’. Suckas think I be chillin’, but I gots to represent at all times, 'cuz ain’t nobody else reeceeve accountz right but ME.” --Herbert Kornfeld
I think Nick Parks pays the bills by doing the talking car Chevron commercials. I look forward to Chicken Run. Thanks for the link Mouthbreather.
Check the public library–ours here has a fairly large video collection available for checkout. Don’t bother trying to look for “animation shorts” in the card catalog; it’s much easier and quicker to corner the A/V person and ask him, or her, whichever.
Padeye, are you joking about the Chevron commercials? Does he really do those?
I was going to post a link to Tripping The Rift but it looks like the site is shut down.
One of the best animated shorts I’d seen in a while (other than my own).