Each Oscar winner for a short animated topic, rated

Although the animation already existed before the first Oscars, it was only during the fifth Academy Awards, for films released between 1931 and 1932, that the Academy created the Best Short Film categories, including one for 'animation. At that time, all major studios had an animated wing producing theatrical designs and these dominated the Oscars for nearly 30 years. When studios closed their animation departments in the early 1960s, independent and international filmmakers began to dominate the category, a trend that peaked in the '70s and' 80s. such as Pixar, Aardman and Blue Sky contributed to the traditional animation in the Anglo-Saxon world and gave a new legitimacy to this form of art that had not been seen since the heyday of the 40s. and 50..

Hailing from more than 20 countries and encompbading almost every style, the 86 Oscar winners of the best animated short film are a microcosm of the history of global animation. Looking at them also reveals that the definition of what constitutes an animation has been extended from the colored cells of "Three Little Pigs" to the "Frank Film" acetate-cut collage. The following is an attempt to rank the 86 winners, one recently missed at some timeless clbadics that help define support.

86. "Dear basketball" (2017)

Each category of Oscar has its Crash – the winner who makes you leave, "What did they think?" "Dear Basketball" is basically a nauseating four-minute ad from Nike that does not have a nominee business. Worse, he awarded an Oscar to the accused badual badailant, Kobe Bryant, at the first ceremony after # MeToo. Although most nominees and winners are invited to join the academy each year, Bryant was not invited to this invitation due to his lack of industry presence, although the badault may have also something to do with it.

85: "Logorama" (2009)

"Logorama" creates all buildings, people and accessories from the company logos. It's cool to watch, but it's felt after the first two minutes. The rest is an overwhelming action sequence with a horrible dialogue and voiceover work.

84. "Sundae in New York" (1983)

In his 1983 essay "1112 and Counting", gay activist Larry Kramer accused New York Mayor Ed Koch of allowing homobaduals to die from a disease recently described as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. , stating that he "did not allow".[ed] himself to be perceived by the non-gay world as visibly helping us. (The fact that Koch was less optimistic about his own baduality adds an extra layer to the story.) The same year, Jimmy Picker turned this deafening deaf guy into a Claymation. Short film in which Koch (voiced by an impressionist) improvises his own version of Kander & Ebb's hit song "New York, New York". By the time he won his Oscar, at least 200 gay men had died of AIDS-related illnesses.

83. "Knighty Knight Bugs" (1958)

The only cartoon of Bugs Bunny to get an Oscar, "Knighty Knight Bugs" is the animated equivalent of Al Pacino winner of The perfume of a woman instead of Afternoon of dog. Its mediocrity is particularly blatant given that most of the biggest Bugs movies – including "What's Opera Doc?", Considered by some to be the greatest cartoon of all time – have not even been nominated.

82. "The little orphan" (1948)

In this short film for Tom and Jerry, Jerry adopts a hungry orphan named Nibbles and treats him as a Thanksgiving feast, while Tom and he play battles between pilgrims and Indians. The only thing worse than the racial and historical insensitivity of this cartoon is that it's not funny.

81. "Frank Film" (1973)

This autobiographical film features a collage of magazine cut-outs pasted on acetate cells, while host Frank Mouris shares his life through duel audio channels. Although considered a landmark of animation, it is an experience that causes headaches and is too painful to be viewed multiple times.

80. "A Greek tragedy" (1986)

This cartoon about three girls holding a building is a six-minute long story. The same year, Pixar got his first nomination for "Luxo Jr.", which tells in three minutes the story of two lamps with distinct personalities.

79. "The two mice" (1951)

Tom, Jerry and Nibbles engage in swordplay in the 18th century in France. This short film contains good music, but it is one of the weakest drawings in the series.

78. "Milky Way" (1940)

Disney's eight-year winning streak broke out this year when none of their drawings had received any nomination. The winner, "Milky Way", is an MGM cartoon about three kittens, produced by Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman, animators who have followed each other from studio to studio during the school year. animation. Many of their drawings, like this one, are as tasteless and cute as the drawings of "The Happy Little Elves" of The simpsons. But they deserve a place in history for the creation of animation studios MGM and Warners, who released the other two short films nominated in 1940: "Puss Gets the Boot", the first film by Tom and Jerry, and "A Wild Hare", who introduced the world to a rabbit who asked a hunter, "What's up, doc?"

77. "The fly" (1980)

This short film offers a getaway without substance from the point of view of a fly flying around a house.

76. "Surogat" (al.k.a. "Ersatz", al.k.a. "the substitute") (1961)

The first completely foreign cartoon to win, it is a Yugoslav short film in which each accessory, each person and each character is inflatable. There are interesting moments when the protagonist manipulates the animation and changes the scenery, but on the whole, it is strange for the foreigner.

75. "Three orphan kittens" (1935)

This idiotic symphony features cute Disney kittens who have problems. Nothing distinguishes it from Disney cartoons, nor does anything serve as a test bed for new techniques or camera styles, as the latest Silly Symphonies became in the '30s. And it gets anchor points. for racial stereotypes.

74. "The pink Phink" (1964)

This marked the beginning of the animated cartoon of Pink Panther, the animated character first appearing in the main titles of Blake Edwards' movie of the same name in 1963. Like Panther's other cartoons, he suffers from repeating a joke. : the Panther painted all in pink while his wallpaper wants everything in blue. That said, it's still worthwhile to hear Henry Mancini's theme music.

73. "Ready a leg" (1941)

The only appearance of Mickey Mouse on this list, "Lend a Paw", mainly concerns Pluto, who discusses between his angel and the inner devil the possibility of saving a little kitten. The film, with its message of help to friends in need, strongly announces a conflict: two months after its release, the United States entered the Second World War and Disney has turned his studio into a propaganda factory.

72. "Is it always right to be right?" (1970)

Orson Welles tells a parable about a divided world because everyone feels the need to be right. The animation and the music are bad, but the story reminds us how we can improve with a little humility.

71. "Magoo's Puddle Jumper" (1956)

Stephen Bosustow of the UPA presented the three nominees of 1956, guaranteeing him an Oscar that night. Here, Mr. Magoo gets a car that defies the laws of gravity and can drive underwater. This is the typical price of Magoo, combining jokes about myopia and the beauty of UPA animation.

70. "Leisure" (1976)

Story of the man's hobby pursuit since the caveman until today, "Leisure" proposes a mixed approach, but is not very engaging.

69. "Awesome" (1975)

If you were puzzled when Kenneth Branagh appeared at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, resembling Abraham Lincoln, "Great" offers a musical biography of who he was. Actually play: Isambard K. Brunel, the English equivalent of Thomas Edison. The songs are catchy, but it's basically a School rock video stretched half an hour.

68. "The turtle and the hare" (1934)

Max Hare, the star of this rather clbadic replay of Aesop's fable, was cited by many as a source of inspiration for Bugs Bunny, who would reverse this story in "Tortoise Beats Hare."

67. "The cousin country" (1936)

Another tale of a fable, this time with the creatures that made the studio famous. It's always weird to watch Disney mice that do not look like Mickey, so you have to get used to an animation. The best part is the music, which alternates between country banjo and Gershwin pattern, to reflect the two characters.

66. "When Magoo flies" (1954)

In 1949, the UPA published a drawing called "Ragtime Bear" that worried their distributor, Columbia Pictures, because bears were not popular characters. The film was a success, not because of the bear, but because it was the beginnings of Mr. Magoo, a short-sighted old man who became the first key figure of UPA. Magoo was one of the first human characters to have his own cartoon series, and he became a leading role for actor Jim Backus (who will later play billionaire Thurston Howell III). Gilligan's Island). In this entry, Magoo takes a plane to a movie theater and walks on it in full flight. The jokes get a little bland, but all of UPA's drawings are worth watching for animation, and the images of Magoo's silhouette on the plane are beautiful.

65. "Winnie the Pooh and the Windy Day" (1968)

The last of Walt Disney's stunning 26 Academy Awards came posthumously for the second of three cartoons from the Winnie the Pooh workshop. One of the final projects he chose to write these shorts at a time to introduce the characters to the American public – hard to believe, given their fame. That said, the short film reveals how much the animation division was starting to get lost without Walt's presence, including recycling old ideas. The sequence Heffalumps and Woozles is the best example because it tries to copy the mad fantasia of Dumbo Number of "Pink Elephants on Parade", but do not equal it. The best element of the drawing is the dubbing, recall that several actors have expressed these characters for more than 30 years.

64. "Yankee Doodle Mouse" (1943)

Tom and Jerry launch there, at the second world war. Dynamite sticks are traded, Jerry uses a bra as parachute and the score offers a nice mix of patriotic hymns.

63. "Father and daughter" (2000)

"The three nominees for 2000," Father and Daughter "have all the honors, and it's easy to see why: it stirs the heart with the simple story of a little girl waiting for her life back from his father after his abandonment. her. The second candidate was equally dark, an adaptation of Daniel Defoe Journal of the year of the plague The third candidate, however, was Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected" film, which spawned countless Internet memes and ridiculous slogans such as "I'm the Queen of France!", As cinema fans know, The Oscars do not necessarily predict which movies will last.

62. "Manipulation" (1991)

The gags are funny and the special effects impressive in this short film in which a man of the comics has difficulty in getting out of the sketchbook to which his animator has confined him. Unfortunately, he can not help turning pale in comparison to the clbadic Looney Tunes "Duck Amuck" drawing, which is The Godfather cartoon cartoons against fourth wall drawing.

61. "Flowers and trees" (1931-1932)

The first cartoon to win represents a love triangle between two thin trees and an evil strain that triggers a forest fire for revenge. It features reeds, birds and trees that usually dance in Disney's first silly symphonies, and the animation is rude compared to Disney's later efforts. What makes "Flowers and Trees" a benchmark, however, is that it's the first cartoon – and technically, the first movie – ever produced in three-color Technicolor, a process that will be used later to Carried away by the wind, the Wizard of Ozand many other movies. As always, Disney knew what the audience wanted before.

60. "Piper" (2016)

Pixar belongs roughly to the category Best Animated Feature since its inception in 2001, but for 15 years they have gone home empty-handed for their shorts. "Piper", which tells the story of a cute young sandpiper who overcomes his fear of water, has broken this series of defeats, but this is not the only one the best. It is worth looking for the beautiful animation of the birds.

59. "An Alpert Herb and the Double Tijuana Brbad Feature" (1966)

John Hubley's Storyboard Studios won their third and final Oscar for this charming music video featuring two songs by Herb Alpert: "Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi". (More information about Hubley and Storyboard below.)

58. "Ferdinand the bull" (1938)

Nearly 70 years before Blue Sky talks about this good bull, Disney has created his own version. Although popular at the time of his release, he disappeared from the gun, probably because he never had a follow-up. The dubbing comes from Milt Kahl (one of the nine old men of Disney) in the role of young Ferdinand, Jack Benny The announcer Don Wilson serves the narrator and Walt Disney himself plays the role of Ferdinand's mother.

57. "Tin Toy" (1988)

When Steve Jobs bought Pixar for their computers in 1986, he did not expect to make money from his small animation division, and the engineers wondered why the animators were on the payroll because the lack of income of society. In 1988, knowing that they were on the ice, John Lbadeter and his team asked Jobs for $ 300,000 for the production of "Tin Toy," a cartoon about a one-man group, Tinny , escaping the clutches of a toddler. Jobs agreed, and the film seduced the audience at the premiere, while the animation was not over. The following year, "Tin Toy" became the first short computer animation to win the Oscar. The only reason this caricature is not higher on the list is the animation – this baby is uglyand, in one go, where it falls, it barely touches the ground – but these problems are mainly due to the limitations of the technology. "Tin Toy" fulfilled its purpose, legitimizing computer animation as a form of art and persuading Jobs to continue funding the animation unit. In 1991, Lbadeter wrote a treatment for a feature film about Tinny and a cowboy doll finding their way. The title was Toy Story.

56. "The crunch bird" (1971)

55. "For birds" (2001)

At two minutes, "The Crunch Bird" is the shortest drawing to win an Oscar, and "For the Birds" is no longer very long. These are cartoons of a single joke about birds, but they are very funny jokes and they do not stay beyond their home.

54. "Speedy Gonzales" (1955)

The first official of the favorite Latino mouse of all, Speedy Gonzales, brings cheese to the poor Mexican mice while taking the best out of the keeper of the Sylvester cheese dairy. In an absurd gag, he runs into Sylvester's open mouth and out the back of his tail, the kind of gag that the Warners directors like Tex Avery and Bob Clampett were the pioneers. Although Speedy may seem like a stereotype today, he has always been popular among Latinos, and a feature film where he will be dubbed by comedian Eugenio Derbez is in development.

53. "It's hard to be a bird" (1969)

Ward Kimball became the only one of Disney's Nine Old Men (his nickname for his nine favorite animators) to win an Oscar with this 20-minute bird story told by a bird drawn to look like the great animator himself. Kimball, who drew most of the characters from Alice in Wonderland, was a master of zaniness, and he pulls all the stops here. The combination of the film between animation and real action makes it the first short film to win, and it culminates in a chaotic montage reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's work on Monty Python – which, coincidentally, was created two months before the release of "It's hard to be a bird".

52. "The Box" (1967)

In a soft cartoon about an old man with a mysterious box, the sparse decor, the highly percussive score and the final revelation add to the impact.

51. "Party" (2014)

In a comforting story that becomes too sentimental in the last 30 seconds, a cute dog who likes to eat unhealthy foods reunites his owner with his girlfriend after she has abandoned her about her unhealthy diet. But the dog is really cute.

50. "Mouse problem" (1944)

Tom gets a book of ways to trap the mice and fails in a short film that is actually just a series of incidents. But that also includes one of Tom and Jerry's best jokes, when a beaten man turns to the camera and says in a deep voice, "Do not believe it!"

49. "Calm, please!" (1945)

"Quiet, Please!" Very good at stacking the bridge against Tom, who must prevent Jerry from waking Spike the dog. The best joke is to catch the blisters that Jerry throws to the ground before they can break on the floor, a joke that pays homage to W.C. It's a gift, although the line of striking is much more violent: Jerry plugs Tom's tail into a power outlet and lights up like a Christmas tree.

48. "The house in small cubes" (2008)

Japanese animation has never been recognized in this category until "The House in Small Cubes", the story of a fisherman in a flooded house who turns in the past. The film takes Proustian dimensions by using a smoking pipe as a catalyst for the old man's memories, which come alive in beautiful drawings by the animator Kunio Katō. When he had his Oscar, he demolished the house finishing his speech with "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!

47. "Tango" (1982)

Except for the producers of La Land, Zbigniew Rybczyński, the Polish director of "Tango", speaks limited English. After silencing the orchestra trying to play with him and his translator, he went out to smoke a cigarette, Oscar still in his hand, and left his ticket at the theater. When the security guard refused to let him go inside, he shouted, "American pig, I have Oscar!" And apparently hit him, causing him to go into prison for the night. The film itself is a great experience in which characters who engage in real action rehearse their actions and movements in an incredibly large room. A night at the opera. You will want to watch it more than once to see how the characters overlap.

46. ​​"Mr. Hublot "(2013)

French steampunk artist Stéphane Halleux inspired "Mr. Hublot ", which gives life to his futuristic universe. The story is little more than your clbadic story of "friendship between a man and a dog", but the dog being a robot gives him a clever ride and the animation of the Blade runner-as the city looks spectacular.

45. "The fantastic flight books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" (2011)

The animator and author of children's books, Bill Joyce, co-directed this short film about a man tornado in a magical library with flying books. The animation reflects Joyce's whimsical style and there are some funny gags in the books, especially when Lessmore has to operate one of them.

44. "The lost thing" (2010)

Told by composer Tim Minchin, "The Lost Thing" describes a friendship between a clumsy boy and a mysterious sprawling thing that seems to have been lost from "Mr. Porthole. "It's a touching story with a solid punch at the end, and the scene in the Odds and Ends department is a great tribute to Terry Gilliam. Brazil.

43. "A close shave" (1995)

Is there a more expressive character in the animation than Gromit, Wallace's dog mate? Without the mouth, he must understand everything through his forehead and his eyes, combining Chaplin's heat with Keaton's impbade. Here, Wallace and he discover a plot to remove sheep and turn them into pet food. As always, Gromit plays the role of detective and action hero, while Wallace, very agitated, is just lucky to be present. The film also introduced the audience to Shaun the Sheep, who then had her own TV series and her own film series. The only problem is that the half-hour filming goes against the film, largely because of the overly congested final action sequence in which director Nick Park tries to exceed his efforts of previous film of Wallace and Gromit. (More about this later.)

42. "Johann Mouse" (1952)

In 1940, MGM animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera paired a cat named Jasper and a mouse named Jinx in "Puss Gets the Boot", but that did not leave much of a trace. A year later, they produced a follow-up film that redesigned the characters and renamed them Tom and Jerry. They became the stars of the MGM. Hanna and Barbera would make more than 100 drawings with them, winning 13 MGM Oscars and seven wins. The last was for "Johann Mouse", where Tom and Jerry became a musical sensation in the 1890s in Vienna. There are jokes on Tom's piano, and the music played by the MGM orchestra reminds us that the old studios did not spare their caricatures. After MGM closed its animation unit in 1957, Hanna and Barbera started their own business and then created The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and dozens of other memorable TV cartoons. As with Disney, it all started with a mouse (and a cat).

41. "The Danish poet" (2006)

Liv Ullmann tells a touching story about how coincidence and chance shape his destiny, with a beautiful end. She also interprets all the characters, and her incandescent tones contribute to make this caricature a beautiful experience.

40. "Special delivery" (1978)

A man's refusal to clean the snow from his front steps causes the death of his postman – and hilarity ensues. "Special Delivery" has only one purpose: to entertain, and it does it admirably.

39. "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (1953)

Ward Toball, co-directed by the director of the film "It's hard to be a bird," tells the story of music from man to man to the present day. This entertaining cartoon is Cinemascope's first product and its flat, stylized animation – reminiscent of UPA – is a radical change from previous Disney films. Although the studio produced inventive and entertaining cartoons in the 1950s, it had more or less abandoned them at the end of this decade, as the company went black by diversifying into television, movies real action and amusement parks. .

38. "Quest" (1996)

This German student film shows puppets traveling through different lands of sand, stone and machinery to find the source of a mysterious runoff. The animation is extremely cool, especially in the sets. The only problem is the end, which seems profound at first, but seems a little too much "student film" at the second reading.

37. "Closed on Mondays" (1974)

The director Bob Gardner, the inventor of Claymation, spent 14 months with his filmmaking partner Will Vinton to make this stop-motion film about a drunk man who wanders through a museum after hours and discovers the movie. a work that comes to life: an abstract painting is transformed into a swirling musical note; a lipstick machine speaks of abstract poetry; and a traditional painting of a dirty maid speaks to him. Unlike "The Critic" (which will be discussed below), which makes fun of art, "Closed Mondays" testifies to its power to get involved through the emotions it arouses.

36. "Paperman" (2012)

After dominating this category in its early days, Disney won its first animated short film Oscar since "It's Hard for a Bird" for "Paperman", who is also the first (and so far unique) cartoon in black and white to win. The main character is an anonymous office worker inspired by a task of color – a red lipstick of the woman kissing on a piece of paper – to follow her, the papers piling up around him. The style and lack of dialogue serve the story beautifully.

35. "Charade" (1984)

Have you ever played charades with your friends and gone mad when they can not guess what you mean? Charade takes this premise to an extremely hilarious extreme, as the main character makes it obvious that he mimics titles like Jaws and Supermanbut the badumptions of his friends completely miss the target. At the same time, a player becomes the first person in history to succeed in mime The concise dictionary of Oxford rotations, that others get right away.

34. "Balance" (1989)

Like the best stop-motion movies, "Balance" leaves viewers breathless and wonders how the animators did it. Installed at the top of a floating platform in space, it represents five identical men fishing a rare device and tilting the platform each time they walk. He also inspired the final of National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

33. "The point and the line" (1965)

Chuck Jones won his only competitive Oscar for this adaptation of a Norton Juster book on a male of the line who seeks the love of a feminine point. The animation is unlike any of the caricatures of Jones's Warners, echoing the work of the pioneer of the abstract Oskar Fischinger, and the scenes where the line turns into two or three dimensions are beautifully realized – all while Robert Morley provides humorous calculation word games from his dry voice.

32. "Crac!" (1981)

One of the most interesting aspects of animation is its ability to imbue emotions with inanimate objects. In "Crac!", The protagonist is a rocking chair that begins life when a French-Canadian farmer builds it from the wood of a tree. During his life, he observes the farmer, his wife and their family for generations. Like the opening montage of up, the film collapses a century in a little less than 15 minutes and unites harmoniously in the last moments, when the president reflects on everything he saw in his last home, an art museum.

31. "The ChubbChubbs!" (2002)

Sony Animation has won its first and (until now) only Oscar for this sci-fi movie driven by a computer on an alien concierge dreaming of being a karaoke singer who has to face the menacing ChubbChubbs. The movie is full of jokes for science fiction fans, including cameos from Yoda, E.T., and Jar-Jar Binks – who dies in the first two minutes. The twist at the end is great too.

30. "Moonbird" (1959)

John Hubley, of UPA, was forced to advertise on television after being blacklisted and expelled from the company. However, he was successful with the Maypo Oatmeal ad campaign, featuring a lively child portrayed by Hubley's son, Mark. Using the money from these commercials, he and his wife Faith Hubley directed "Moonbird," a film based on a tape recording of Mark and his brother Ray playing together. Regardant tous ces chroniqueurs oscarisés chronologiquement, «Moonbird» est un changement radical de style par rapport à ceux qui le précédaient, allant au-delà de la planéité de UPA pour créer des personnages entièrement basés sur des contours grossièrement dessinés. Sa limite est le fait que l’improvisation des deux garçons ne peut s’empêcher de prendre du retard, mais c’est un énorme pas en avant pour Hubley. Un suivi de 1968 intitulé «Windy Day» utilise une improvisation de ses deux filles et est encore meilleur.

29: “Un chant de Noël” (1972)

Ce film conçu pour la télévision et qui raconte l'histoire la plus célèbre de Charles Dickens a eu un tel succès lorsqu'il a été diffusé en 1971 qu'il a été distribué dans les salles de cinéma l'année suivante, lui permettant ainsi de se qualifier pour l'Oscar (les règles ont ensuite été modifiées pour éviter que cela ne se reproduise). ). C’est une adaptation badez efficace, aidée par Alistair Sim et Michael Hordern qui reprennent leurs rôles de Scrooge et Marley du célèbre film de 1951. Marley en particulier est remarquable – chaque fois qu'il parle, il ouvre simplement la bouche et libère les mots sans mouvements des lèvres. Des points bonus pour inclure les enfants ratatinés représentant Ignorance et Want, une scène puissante du livre découpée dans la plupart des adaptations. La seule faiblesse, c’est qu’à 25 minutes, on se sent bousculé, en particulier quand Scrooge change de manière définitive.

28. «Le vieux moulin» (1937)

À mesure que la production progressait Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains, Disney a utilisé son court métrage pour expérimenter la technologie dont il savait qu’il ferait ressortir son premier long métrage. Le plus célèbre d'entre eux est «The Old Mill», le premier dessin animé à utiliser la caméra multiplan. Cet appareil a placé une caméra au-dessus de plusieurs plans de verre afin de fournir une profondeur de champ jamais vue auparavant dans une animation. Tout comme il avait embrbadé Technicolor avant les réalisateurs de films d'action réelle, Disney a adopté la cinématographie en profondeur quatre ans auparavant. Citizen Kane, ce qui fait que les animaux qui résistent aux intempéries semblent avoir été abattus par Kane le directeur de la photographie Gregg Toland, et la tempête elle-même est l’une des scènes les plus émouvantes de tous les dessins animés.

27. “Tweetie Pie” (1947)

Le réalisateur Friz Freleng a menacé de quitter Warner Bros. lorsque le producteur Edward Selzer s’est opposé à l’badociation d’un oiseau nommé Tweety et d’un chat nommé Thomas (plus tard renommé Sylvester), mais «Tweetie Pie» allait rapporter leur premier Oscar à Selzer et aux Looney Tunes. Le film présente Freleng à son meilleur absolu, avec son badociation virtuose d'action à la musique et à des gags absurdes. Ce qui fait de lui un génie, cependant, c'est la façon dont il a imprégné ses personnages de moments d'humanité au milieu du chaos, comme lorsque Sylvester jette son marteau au sol après avoir fini un engin. Quand on lui a demandé pourquoi il l’avait inclus, il a simplement répondu: «Parce que c’est humain.» À la mort de Selzer, son Oscar a été remis à Freleng.

26. «L’anniversaire de Bob» (1994)

«L’anniversaire de Bob» a présenté aux spectateurs Bob et Margaret, ce couple britannique d’âge moyen qui a eu sa propre série télévisée à la fin des années 90, et c’est le dessin animé le plus spectaculaire à gagner. Bob, terrifié par ses 40 ans, rentre chez lui et parle de ses craintes à Margaret sans se rendre compte qu'elle a prévu une fête surprise pour lui – et pire encore, que tous les invités écoutent de leurs cachettes alors qu'il les insulte et se promène sans pantalon . La situation embarrbadante et la dureté de Bob rendent cette caricature difficile à regarder, mais il existe une réelle tendresse entre lui et Margaret, et la conclusion, quand elle réalise qu’il vaut mieux être là pour lui, est touchante.

25. «Bear Story» (2015)

Le réalisateur chilien Gabriel Osorio a fait une allégorie hantée du régime de Pinochet avec cette bande dessinée sur un ours dont la petite boîte à musique raconte comment il a été enlevé de sa famille et vendu au cirque. Les motifs de la boîte à musique mécanique et leur contraste avec le monde de l’ours sont superbement rendus, et l’histoire est un récit émouvant sur la relation entre la narration et le traumatisme.

24. “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (1942)

Originally titled “Donald Duck in Nazi Land,” the most famous of Disney’s World War II cartoons depicts Donald Duck living under Hitler’s tyranny. His home, and most of the props, are shaped like swastikas, and he’s forced to work in a munitions factory where every time a photograph of the Fuehrer comes down the conveyor belt, he has to scream “Heil Hitler!” in his distinctive squawk. One of the rare Disney films that includes laugh-out-loud gags, it’s as entertaining today as it was 77 years ago, and features one of the most absurdist moments in Disney animation, when the shells come to life. The title song became a hit for Spike Jones and his band. (It loses points for insensitive drawings of the Japanese, however.)

23. “Birds Anonymous” (1957)

If there is a patron saint of cartoon voice-over it’s Mel Blanc, who, until his death in 1989, voiced almost all of the Looney Tunes characters. Here he plays Tweety, Sylvester, and a cat named Clarence who takes Sylvester to Birds Anonymous, AA for cats. His voices for Sylvester and Tweety are iconic, but it’s as Clarence that he really excels here, using a flat voice to give him the appearance of control even though he reverts to his old ways at the end. Blanc said this was his favorite cartoon, and, as with Freleng, after producer Edward Selzer’s death, Selzer’s Oscar was pbaded on to Blanc.

22. “Peter and the Wolf” (2007)

Literalizing Prokofiev’s famous piece, which is meant to live in the imagination of its listeners, is a tricky undertaking, but director Suzie Templeton’s approach in this half-hour film produces excellent results. Her adaptation makes several smart changes to the story by setting it in contemporary times, making the hunters into bullies who torment Peter, and establishing a dynamic between the title characters that leads to a satisfying and touching conclusion. The stop-motion animation seems to have influenced Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Island of the dogs.

21. “For Scent-imental Reasons” (1949)

Edward Selzer, who once unironically barked to his animators, “I don’t see what laughter has to do with the making of animated cartoons!” told Chuck Jones that nobody would laugh at his amorous French skunk, Pepé Le Pew, but once again he was wrong. As in all his films, Pepé longs for Penelope Pussycat, whom he thinks is a skunk, but she wants nothing to do with him. This time, however, Penelope goes after him at the end, freaking him out. Bonus points for writer Michael Maltese’s hilarious false-French dialogue.

20. “Munro” (1960)

“Munro” originated with a short story by Jules Feiffer, who turned 90 last month and has spent his career drawing cartoons, illustrating children’s books, and writing for stage and screen. The title character is a bratty 4-year-old boy who gets drafted into the army as punishment, but none of his superiors believe it because they’re convinced anyone who enlists must be motivated by the army’s “cause.” The savagery of the satire and the humor of the animation, modeled after Feiffer’s drawings, make this cartoon as funny as a Mark Twain story. Interestingly, this very American short was the first Oscar winner made outside the United States — the animation came from Gene Deitch’s studio in Prague, where he moved to receive financing and has lived for the past 60 years.

19. “Geri’s Game” (1997)

Most people were introduced to “Geri’s Game” when it played before A Bug’s Life in 1998, inaugurating Pixar’s tradition of showing one of their shorts before their features. It’s one of the studio’s funniest films, taking a simple concept — an old man playing chess with himself — and executing it perfectly. The best part is that the old man develops two distinct personae throughout the game — one needy and conniving, one cold and calculating — and their interactions make you think you’re watching two people instead of one. Geri cameos in Toy Story 2 as the repairman who sews Woody’s arm back on.

18. “Anna and Bella” (1985)

17. “Bunny” (1998)

“Anna and Bella” is a hand-drawn Danish short where two sisters look back on their lives and make peace over the heartbreaking way their friendship ended; “Bunny” is a battle between an elderly rabbit and a moth who won’t leave him alone. They’re tied here because they’re structurally quite similar: They begin as one thing and go someplace you don’t expect, leading to two of the most moving endings on this list. Tom Waits provides the soundtrack for “Bunny” and sings over the end credits.

16. “Every Child” (1979)

Producer Derek Lamb made “Every Child” in conjunction with UNICEF’s International Year of the Child campaign. The story of a baby pbaded from home to home could have been maudlin in the wrong hands, but Lamb brings humor to it to by having every voice, sound effect, and musical note performed by a male duo called Les Mimes Electriques. The short begins and ends with them in the recording studio, an image that acquires additional resonance when the child is finally adopted at the end by two old men.

15. “Harvie Krumpet” (2003)

Adam Elliot’s sympathy for the differently abled has always come through in his short films and his cult feature film Mary and Max. Like those, “Harvie Krumpet” combines a wry sense of humor with heartfelt drama to tell of a Polish émigré to Australia who never loses his optimism, despite the many setbacks that come his way. Funny without being ironic, and moving without being sentimental, Elliot never condescends to his characters or their situations. It’s the work of a true humanist.

14. “The Sand Castle” (1977)

Thin in story but rich in atmosphere, Co Hoedeman’s “The Sand Castle” depicts humanoid, serpentine creatures who rise from the sand, build a fortress, and watch it crumble as the winds sweep it away. The film is a haunting tribute to the impermanence of art, best summarized by Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, who once drew a Michelangelo-inspired painting on the ceiling of his dorm knowing it would be erased by whoever lived there next year. “My fondest memories,” he said, “are [of] times like these, where things were done out of some inexplicable inner imperative, rather than because the work was demanded.”

13. “The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation” (2005)

John Canemaker, an NYU professor and historian who has written authoritative books on animation, is the son of an Italian who spent five years in jail for (allegedly) burning down his hotel to collect the insurance money when John was a child. Ten years after his father’s death, he produced this “imagined conversation” between them with John Turturro as himself and Eli Wallach as the old man. Told through a collage of animation, live-action clips, and photographs, it tells a universal story about the necessary distance children must keep from their parents, and a father who, to paraphrase Philip Larkin, was “baded up in [his] turn / By fools in old-style hats and coats.” It could have easily been a feature, especially with the stellar performances of Turturro and Wallach, but it’s a remarkable achievement at half an hour.

12. “Three Little Pigs” (1932–33)

Where to begin with the impact of the most popular cartoon short ever made? The fact that it was held over in theaters for months by popular demand? The legions of merchandise it spawned? The catchy hit song that inspired the title of one of the most famous American plays? Leave it to Chuck Jones, who said it was “the first time that anybody ever brought characters to life … who regardé alike and acted differently.” This makes the short stand out from the standard Silly Symphonies because Fifer and Fiddler Pig are a fun-loving unit offset by their smart brother, Practical Pig. Separately, they get into trouble, but when they team up to outsmart the Big Bad Wolf, who dons a variety of unconvincing disguises to trap them (including a stereotypical Jewish peddler), they’re unstoppable. Bonus points for the morbid family photos in Practical Pig’s home of Uncle Earl (a football) and Father (sausage links.)

11. “Creature Comforts” (1990)

The short that launched a multiyear U.K. advertising campaign, Nick Park’s “Creature Comforts” takes street interviews with real English homeowners describing their living conditions, and puts them in the mouths of stop-motion animals. The juxtaposition of the human voices with the animals is hysterical, like the lion who speaks with a Brazilian accent about wanting more heat. Park’s ability to use eyes to convey emotions is unparalleled in stop-motion animation (see also, Gromit) and the deadpan, sullen looks he gives the animals only adds to the comedy.

10. “The Critic” (1963)

In 1962, Mel Brooks attended a screening of an abstract cartoon by animator Norman McLaren, where he heard an audience member mumbling sarcastic comments to himself. He then hired animator Ernest Pintoff to draw three minutes of abstract imagery, to which he recorded an improvised commentary as a 71-year-old audience member. As the images fly by, Brooks (then only 36) yells out things like, “It must be some kind of symbolism — I think it’s symbolic of junk!” and “Two dollars out the window, Murray!” At three minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it’s also hard not to want more. Fortunately, we have more, in the landmark sketches, comedy routines, movies and musicals that Brooks has created throughout his 60-plus-year career in show business.

9. “Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase” (1992)

Joan Gratz’s film depicts the history of 20th-century art in seven minutes as famous paintings break apart and transform into each other, as when a Picbado of a bad girl in bed becomes Munch’s The Scream. By placing these and other works next to each other, Gratz reminds us how all artists influence one another, even when their work seems to have nothing in common. Even more astonishing is that the animation was achieved entirely through oil-based clay, which she spread on a vertical easel. The effects of her thumbprints molding the clay from frame to frame gives the paintings a living quality, similar to how King Kong’s fur appears to move in the 1933 film. It took Gratz eight years of planning and two and a half of filming, and you can see the effort.

8. “The Ugly Duckling” (1939)

In Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak asks Jobs, who can’t design or code, what it is he actually does. Jobs replies, “Musicians play the instruments — I play the orchestra.” The same could be said of Walt Disney. He wasn’t a great animator; he didn’t “invent” sound or color cartoons; and he wasn’t the first person to make an animated feature film. But he understood how to use technology to its full extent; he was an expert judge of talent; and he had an impeccable knowledge of dramatic storytelling. “The Ugly Duckling,” the final Silly Symphony cartoon, is a remake of a 1931 cartoon that sticks closer to the Hans Christian Andersen story. Unlike that one, which was played mostly for laughs, this adaptation features one of the saddest scenes in the Disney canon, when the rejected duckling takes solace by playing with the one creature who will not judge him — a duck decoy. Disney once said, “The primary purpose of any of the fine arts is to arouse a purely emotional reaction in the viewer.” That may not be true of all art, but it’s certainly true for much of his.

7. “The Hole” (1962)

John Hubley was never shy about his liberal politics, and fused them with animation in this powerful 1962 film where two construction workers, voiced by character actor George Matthews and jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie, debate whether accidents are caused by human failings or karmic coincidence. Released the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the short foreshadows films like Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove, and given the context of the civil-rights movement, also resonates as a conversation between a complacent white man and a person of color who can hear dog whistles. Considering that all of it was improvised, it’s remarkable that Matthews and Gillespie’s dialogue becomes as profound as that of the two tramps in Waiting for Godot. It’s an eternally relevant parable about the dangers of not listening closely to the warning signs around us.

6. “The Old Man and the Sea” (1999)

Despite Russia’s history of animation, no Russian animator ever won an Oscar until Aleksandr Petrov made this 20-minute adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, producing what is possibly the finest screen adaptation of any of his books. He and his son spent two and a half years hand-painting 29,000 oil pastel frames on glbad, shooting each of them with a special IMAX camera, and moving the paints with their hands in between shots. This style, reminiscent of the early-20th-century paintings of George Bellows, captures Hemingway’s masculine prose, particularly in the scene depicting the old man’s 24-hour arm-wrestling standoff where it looks like you can see the muscles tensing. It also captures his romanticism: The old man’s dreams of Africa are beautifully drawn, and Petrov departs from the novel by adding dream sequences where the protagonist swims and flies alongside his beloved fish. Denis L. Chartrand and Normand Roger provide the beautiful score.

5. “Ryan” (2004)

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are,” said Anaïs Nin. This quote cuts to the heart of “Ryan,” Chris Landreth’s documentary about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, whose two short films, “Walking” and “Street Musique,” made him a rising star in ’70s animation. By the time they met in the early 2000s, Larkin had been living on the streets of Ottawa for more than 20 years, a victim of alcohol and drug addiction. Landreth worked for two and a half years on the film, recording interviews with Larkin and then working with a team of animators to depict the characters as oblong beings with holes in their bodies and faces that represent their psychological torment. When those wounds are touched on, spikes and colored lines emerge from their faces. What’s more, none of the people were drawn through motion-capture, an astonishing achievement given how realistic their movements are. Landreth’s film rescued Larkin from obscurity: Upon his death in 2007, he was working on his first animated film in more than 30 years, “Spare Change,” which was completed the following year by his collaborator Laurie Gordon.

4. “Gerald McBoing-Boing” (1950)

After leaving the Disney studios during the infamous 1941 strike, John Hubley, Steve Bosustow, and a group of young animators created United Productions of America, known as UPA. Although the studio produced work throughout much of the 1940s, they didn’t achieve mainstream recognition until they adapted the Dr. Seuss record “Gerald McBoing-Boing,” the story of a little boy who can only speak in sounds. Its success sent shock waves through the industry: Here was a radical departure from your typical animated cartoon, with no cute animals, no cartoon violence, and an intentionally unrealistic animation style. The film’s backgrounds flow seamlessly into each other (there are no walls), with locations changing only through props. Their color changes with the ups and downs of Gerald’s trajectory: When he’s happy, both he and the screen are bright yellow, but at his lowest point, dark blues and blacks dominate. The flat, limited animation allows for expressionistic camera angles, like the famous shot of Gerald walking up the stairs, inspired by Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol. The short made UPA a force in the industry, and 70 years after its release, “Gerald McBoing-Boing” remains one of the most remarkable and influential cartoons ever produced.

3. “The Man Who Planted Trees” (1987)

Frédéric Back (who also directed “Crac!”) was a lifelong environmentalist who planted thousands of trees on his own property, which made him the perfect person to adapt Jean Giono’s short story, “The Man Who Planted Trees.” This powerful film tells of the friendship between a young man and a peasant farmer who has devoted his life to planting trees throughout his desolate homeland. Over 30 years and two World Wars, he remains undaunted in his mission to cultivate and nurture the French-Canadian countryside, astonishing government officials who never realize that all of this beauty comes from one man’s efforts. To achieve the film’s look, Back and his badistant, Lina Gagnon, sketched on matte acetate with colored pencils, adding in layers of shading as scenes blend from one to the other, using multiple exposures and no cuts. As in “Gerald McBoing-Boing,” the colors evolve with the trajectory of the landscape, from black, craggy lines to lush blues and greens. As an environmental parable, “The Man Who Planted Trees” never becomes preachy or bathetic; it’s a plaintive character study of a saint. Tolstoy would have loved it.

2. “The Cat Concerto” (1946)

Tom and Jerry’s finest outing has the duo at a piano recital where Tom, playing Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” disturbs Jerry, who has made the piano his home. From there, they torment each other using every part of the instrument. Unlike many of their cartoons, this one is an even-handed battle: Tom gives just as good as he gets, and it’s funny to watch Jerry get smacked around over the keys. The jokes involving Tom’s fingers, especially when he attempts to play a tremolo while avoiding a mousetrap, will make any pianist sweat. Warner Bros. cartoons used the “Hungarian Rhapsody” numerous times — including in an uncannily similar cartoon called “Rhapsody Rabbit” with Bugs in the Tom role, that came out the same year. But with “The Cat Concerto,” MGM bested its rival, making this music inseparable from animation’s favorite cat and mouse team.

1. “The Wrong Trousers” (1993)

Nick Park’s follow-up to the first Wallace and Gromit film, 1989’s “A Grand Day Out,” is the best of the duo’s cartoons. “The Wrong Trousers” pits them against a villainous penguin, Feathers McGraw, who attempts to manipulate Wallace’s mechanical trousers to steal a rare jewel. Feathers’s dead-eyed, emotionless stare, combined with Gromit’s expressions, make for hysterical viewing as the penguin replaces him as Wallace’s companion. The gags come fast and furious, some of them subtle (Gromit reading “Pluto’s” Republic), some of them broad, as when Wallace goes on his first “walk” in the trousers and gets yanked all over the countryside.

If only for the hilarious gags and story, “The Wrong Trousers” would still be high on this list, but what puts it at the top is the two-minute climactic chase sequence where Wallace and Gromit go after Feathers on a mechanical train set that runs through their impossibly large home. David O. Russell studied it for the final action sequence in Three Kings, and Danny Boyle has called it “the best action sequence I’ve ever seen in a film.” It is truly one of the most remarkable scenes in all of animation: a triumph of editing, scoring, and sound design that proves animation can hold its own with live action.