Oscar nominated animated short: Room on the Broom

Room on the Broom

Short description (from BBC):
A kind witch invites a surprising collection of animals to sit on her broom.


Credits:
Directed by Max Lang and Jan Lachauer (who are to receive the Oscar, if Room on the Broom wins)
Written by Max Lang and Julia Donaldson


The official trailer:



More video clips:
There are more than a few clips and behind the scenes stuff on their youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/roomonthebroomfilm?feature=watch


My personal opinion (no spoilers):
Out of the five nominated short films, this was the only one I had seen up front. I saw it a very long time ago, so I was kind of surprised it was nominated, I actually thought it was from 2012. Back then it was still available to watch for free by the way, I couldn't find a full free version, so I'll have to judge this based on memory mostly.

I remember my excitement well, from the makers of "The Gruffalo", which I enjoyed very much. (I really recommend watching the Gruffalo. The story has been called a modern classic.) And I also remember being slightly disappointed, which probably was due to my expectations. I can't think of this without thinking of and comparing it to The Gruffalo, which makes this a bit hard to judge for me.

In it's own right it's still very good though. The story was cute and quirky, though a little repetitive and (therefore) predictable. This is very much a children's story though, so you might accept the repetitiveness if it didn't take away from the enjoyment of it as much as it does.
I liked some of the funny bits (like the way the cat found the needle), but most definitely not all of them. Overall I think it just took too much time for the amount of content displayed.

The animation and look of the film are simple and clean (and colorful in the case of the look). The short film is meant to entertain a young audience and the animation and look serve that purpose. I can't fault them for this, yet I would've liked to have seen some progress since The Gruffalo.

It just doesn't have that special something that would make this win the Oscars. It is pretty good for the purpose it serves, which is to entertain children, but it doesn't have the unpredictability and depth that The Gruffalo had. In conclusion, I think this won't win an Oscar, because I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the other nominated short films (or The Gruffalo).