Oscar Animated Shorts 2019

I'm just going to put all five in one post because they're mostly very short and you can watch them all here as well as the rest of the films on the shortlist.

Animal Behavior A dog therapist tries to help his patients push through some of their ingrained behaviors to achieve clarity and more control over their lives.  This one is definitely the funniest of the nominees but it did drag on a bit.  The animation felt rougher, more like an old show from Comedy Central or HBO back in the 90s.

Bao  This is the Pixar one about a depressed mom that makes a dumpling baby that premiered before Incredibles 2.  I still think this is super weird.

Late Afternoon   A woman with Alzheimer's drifts through her memories and rediscovers something important.  This is very pretty and dreamlike but also very melancholy due to the subject matter.

One Small Step   A little girl dreams of being an astronaut with the support of her cobbler father.  This legit made me cry.  The animation is beautifully done but the story just killed me.

Weekends   A little boy spends alternating weekends with each of his divorced parents.  This was the only one I didn't feel any kind of connection with at all.  Maybe because I just couldn't relate, maybe because it didn't really seem to have a recognizable plot, but I just came away with a resounding "meh."

I am super happy I got to see all the nominees in at least one category and I wish this was the usual.  It's incredibly hard to find short films.  There's only one theater in my area that plans to show them and only the Saturday before the Oscars.  Still, I keep trying.