Customer Reviews

A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love shorts and have bought a number of short collections. However, it's always a grab-bag. Usually there will be some shorts that are excellent, a few that are stupid or lousy, and some that are mediocre. But I'm willing to put up with the lousy and mediocre ones in order to enjoy the excellent ones. However, this particular collection of 7 shorts that were nominated for the 2006 Academy Awards, plus 6 extra ones, is the absolute best collection that I own. Of the 13, not one was lousy, and only 2 or 3 were in the mediocre category. The two which won, "West Bank Story" for live action and "The Danish Poet" for animated, blew me away, but many of the others gave them quite a run for their money. Particularly "Helmer and Son" about a son who is called into a nursing home to talk to his father who has locked himself inside his closet, and "The Savior" about a group of church missionaries who are trying to convert the people who live in a neighborhood by going door-to-door, but one of them begins to have an affair with one of the housewives, who is married. And of the bonus shorts, "A Gentleman's Duel" (about two men who want to kill each other over a lady) and "One Rat Short" (excellent animation of a rat caught in a scientific laboratory) really stand out. Still, my absolute favorite is "West Bank Story" which satirizes "West Side Story" and tensions between Israelis and Palestinians by comparing it to competing fast food restaurants.

This DVD brings together the five short films nominated for the 2006 Live Action Short Film Academy Awards and two of the animated short films nominated for the 2006 Animated Short Film Academy Awards. The films on the disc are:

WEST BANK STORY--this live action mini-musical parodies the famous WEST SIDE STORY. The film takes place in the Middle East on the West Bank. On the border between Israel and un-nationalized Palestine are two competing fast food restaurants. One the one side of the border is the Kosher King, a fast food kosher restaurant. Directly across the border next to the Kosher King is the Hummus Hut, a fast food restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern cuisine. The sister of the owner of the Humus Hut, Fatima, and an Israeli border guard, David, fall in love with each other. The story is told through humorous singing and dancing numbers. This film was the winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

THE SAVIOUR--in this short live action film from Australia, a young apparently Christian missionary sent on a weekly door to door witnessing campaign becomes involved in an affair with a married woman.

HELMER & SON--Jess is called into the retirement home where his father, Helmer, is staying. Helmer has locked himself into the wardrobe and won't come out.

ONE TOO MANY--tired of living with two helpless males, Fernando's wife leaves him and throws many of his belongings into the street. Fernando awakens his son, Joaquin, and the two travel to a rest home where Fernando's mother-in-law lives. They pick the woman up and bring her home, hoping that she will take her daughter's place and cook and clean for them.

BINTA & THE GREAT IDEA--Binta is a young girl living in a small village in Senegal. Binta's father is a fisherman with great ideas. He shares a grand idea with Binta that he hopes will bring peace and joy to the world. Binta transcribes a letter he dictates and her father starts out on a journey taking the letter from one government official to another. Meanwhile, Binta's cousin Soda yearns to attend school and receive an education, but her strict father refuses to allow her to go. So, the school children get together and perform a play in an attempt to convince Soda's father to allow her to attend school.

THE DANISH POET--one of the two featured animated shorts on the DVD. The story revolves around a man named Kasper, a Danish poet, and his search to become inspired. The message of the movie is about the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance in living a life full of joy and love instead of despair and sadness. This film won the Oscar for Best Animated Short 2006.

MAESTRO--the second of the featured animated shorts on the DVD. A mechanical arm and a wooden arm work together for their big performance.

Besides the featured five live action shorts and two featured animated shorts, the DVD also includes six other films.

THE WRAITH OF COBBLE HILL--in this black and white stop motion clay animation, it's winter in Cobble Hill Brooklyn. Felix is a high school student living with his mother. His mother is around, but only physically and Felix is left to fend for himself. When the elderly owner of a convenience store asks Felix to watch the store and his dog while he is gone for a few days, Felix is given a grand opportunity. He starts spreading the spoils of the store with his friends, but neglects the dog. Felix has to come to grips with what he is doing and decide if this is the life he wants to live.

SURVIVING THE RUSH--this is the only live action short of the extra shorts included on the DVD. It follows an assistant manager and his team at a local Cineplex in Michigan through the worst possible night ever.

THE PASSENGER--while reading a scary story on his way home, a boy sits next to strange fish on the bus that turns into a ferocious beast anytime he hears loud vibrations. The fish terrifies the boy until he realizes he can use the creature to his advantage.

ONE RAT SHORT--in this computer animated short, a brown city rat chases a bag of discarded cheese curls and accidentally lands in a science lab where he meets and is smitten with a blue-eyed white female lab rat. They plan to escape from the lab, but even the best prepared plans sometimes go awry. This is an elegantly illustrated picture told without any dialogue.

A GENTLEMEN'S DUEL--in this piece of computer animated steam punk, two gentlemen "duel" over the same extremely attractive and voluptuous young woman.

GUIDE DOG--in this more traditionally-animated film, an energetic and eager dog applies to be a guide dog. As the dog finds out, being a guide dog isn't as easy as it seems.

As far as short collections go, this DVD is one of the better that I've seen. Usually collections such as these contain a few really good films and several stinkers. There really aren't any terrible films on the DVD. The only film I didn't enjoy very much was THE WRAITH OF COBBLE HILL. I really liked all the other films. My favorites were WEST BANK STORY, BINTA & THE GREAT IDEA, THE DANISH POET, THE PASSENGER, and A GENTLEMEN'S DUEL.

Overall, a very nice collection and highly recommended for anyone who enjoys watching short films.

This compilation, the second of what I hope will be a long series of such annual releases, contains all five of the live-action shorts nominated for the Oscar LAS category and two of the five Animated Short nominees (the other three, Lifted, The Little Match Girl and No Time For Nuts, were presumably not included because they are all extras on features released to DVDs by the major studios which produced them). Also included are six other shorts-one live-action and five animated shorts-released in the same year as extras, each of them well worth watching in their own right.

I still haven't figured out how Maestro managed to get nominated over One Rat Short, The Wraith of Cobble Hill or Guide Dog, all of which are extras on this disc. Maestro is a visually impressive short, but so are One Rat Short and The Wraith of Cobble Hill and Maestro is really not as entertaining to watch once you've seen it and know the payoff, whereas the other three bear repeated viewing. In any case, The Danish Poet is an excellent short and deservedly won the Oscar.

As for the live-action shorts, while they were all good, West Bank Story would not have been my choice to win the Oscar. I actually consider it to be fourth-best, behind Eramos Pocos, Helmer and Son and Binta and the Grand Idea. I fully understand why West Bank Story won and it's a very well-executed and entertaining effort-I just preferred the other shorts a bit more.

The other three shorts included as extras are the live-action short Surviving the Rush, which I found amusing but slight and considered far too long and two animated shorts, The Passenger and Gentlemen's Duel, both visually impressive, but a touch too obvious and predictable in spots. Gentlemen's Duel is hilarious and worth watching once

This is most definitely recommended for anyone who likes short films.

The winners--and except for one stinker these short films were all interesting, all excellent--were: "One Too Many" (over the short live film which won the Academy Award "West Bank") and "Maestro" (over the animated short which won the Academy Award "The Danish Poet").

The best of the bonus shorts was "The Passenger" (over a number of short films that enchanted and one that revolted, the stinker, "Surviving the Rush". The inclusion of this rude, vulgar short cost the whole collection one star.)

This film has caused delight in all of my classes; especially after seeing the dated West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet; a light satire on the tragedies now occurring in the West Bank now. A good way to introduce the topic to teens who are a bit clueless and yet sensitive. This film really deserved the award.

I bought this DVD for one reason. I could not find "West Bank Story" anywhere else. I love it. Anyone with any knowledge of Israel and a sense of humor will enjoy it very much.

The other movies are a welcome bonus, but "West Bank Story" was reason enough to buy this DVD.

Fantastic - while all of the films are interesting the Westbank Story is a great musical and well worthy of the awards it has received. Buy the collection just for this one film!

The Danish Poet (Torill Kove, 2006)

I'm not exactly sure what I can say about The Danish Poet, except to say that I love it dearly. It's a very short film, fifteen minutes long (and I find it odd that this is the third short I've reviewed in the past two months, when I almost never did so before). It's about a woman (voice of Liv Ullmann, who alone is reason enough to watch just about anything) meditating on the coincidences that bring each of us to be, then telling the story of how her parents met-- which is in itself an almost unbearably unrealistic string of coincidences. Except that the whole thing comes off as entirely realistic. It may well be true. I don't know. I do know that, real or not, it's charming, it's got wonderful detail, and it holds up to many repeated viewings, and is one of those cartoons where the viewer is likely to find something new every time. Deserved its Oscar. ****

West Bank Story is the gem of this collection, but there's more on the disc as well. Truly tongue-in-cheek, anyone with a sense of humor should love this short, though I could imagine so much more that could have been done.... just imagine how this would have sounded (to the of "When you're a Jet");

When you're Hamas,
you're Hamas all the way...
From your first I E D,
to your last dying day.....

Recommended!

I purchased this because I wanted to see the Oscar winner "West Bank Story." Of the shorts, this shouldn't have even been nominated. The rest of the shorts on the CD were excellent and worth viewing.A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films (Including West Bank Story and The Danish Poet)