#Rosana Sullivan

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Kitbull

Rating: PG

Director: Rosana Sullivan

Cast: N/A

Release year: 2019

Genres: drama, family

Blurb: An unlikely connection sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.

[best-animated-short-tourney]

Accepted Shorts List

This list will be updated as shorts are selected, and will become a masterdoc for entries.

Piper, dir. Alan Barillaro (Available on Disney+)

Dissolve, dir. Carina Heller

Sharp Teeth, dir. David James Armsby

Tar Boy, dir. James Lee

Moses of Prosthesis, dir. Gagame

Quasi at the Quackadero, dir. Sally Cruikshank

Welcome to Hell, dir. Erica Wester

Friendly Shadow, dir. David James Armsby

The Acorn Princess, dir. Kris Yim

Drawn to You, dir. Eleanor Davitt

Scattershot, dir. Jade Smania

Ramshackle, dir. Zi Chen

Paperman, dir. John Kahrs (Available on Disney+, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play)

Loop, dir. Erica Milsom (Available on Disney+)

Jinxy Jenkins & Lucky Lou, dir. Michael Bidinger and Michelle Kwon

Kitbull, dir. Rosana Sullivan

Out, dir. Steven Clay Hunter

In a Heartbeat, dir. Beth David and Esteban Bravo

Ice Merchants, dir. João Gonzalez

Diamond Jack, dir. Rachel Kim

Lackadaisy (Pilot), dir. Fable Siegel

The Cat Came Back, dir. Cordell Barker

Fuelled, dir. Michelle Hao and Fawn Chan

The Man Who Planted Trees, dir. Frédéric Back

My Friends Take the Night Bus, dir. Sofi

Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, dir. Nick Park

The Naked King -What a Beautiful Life-, dir. rapparu

Coming Out, dir. Cressa Maeve Beer

Dear Girl, dir. Choi Ji-eun

Jibaro, dir. Alberto Mielgo (Available on Netflix, Love Death + Robots S3E9)

The Witness, dir. Alberto Mielgo (Available on Netflix, Love Death + Robots S1E3)

The Legend of Pipi, dir. Julia Schoel and Birgit Uhlig

The Cameraman's Revenge, dir. Wladyslaw Starewicz

What's Opera, Doc? dir. Chuck Jones

The Dover Boys at Pimento University; or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall, dir. Chuck Jones

Kitty Kornered, dir. Bob Clampett

A Wild Hare, dir. Tex Avery

Everything Will Be OK, dir. Don Hertzfeldt

Yankee Doodle Daffy, dir. Friz Freleng

Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, dir. Chuck Jones

Long Gone Gulch, dir. Tara Billenger and Zach Bellissimo

I Love to Singa, dir. Tex Avery

Opal, dir. Jack Stauber

Scaredy Cat, dir. Chuck Jones

I Should Leave This Mall I Think, dir. Noodle

Porky's Duck Hunt, dir. Tex Avery

Bambi Meets Godzilla, dir. Marv Newland

Porky in Wackyland, dir. Bob Clampett

Rabbit Seasoning, dir. Chuck Jones

One Froggy Evening, dir. Chuck Jones

Don vs. Raph, dir. Jhonen Vasquez

Cat City, dir. Victoria Vincent

Roller Coaster Rabbit, dir. Rob Minkoff

Tummy Trouble, dir. Rob Minkoff

Trail Mix-Up, dir. Barry Cook

Blood Bound, dir. Lyly Hoang

Ciao, Alberto, dir. McKenna Harris (Available on Disney+)

Blackfly, dir. Christopher Hinton

Charlie the Unicorn: The Grand Finale, dir. Jason Steele

Free Apple, dir. Ian Worthington

Bigtop Burger Season 1, dir. Ian Worthington

There's a Man in the Woods, dir. Jacob Streilein

Llamas with Hats: The Series, dir. Jason Steele

Welcome to my Life, dir. Elizabeth Ito

Duck Amuck, dir. Chuck Jones

We Can't Live Without Cosmos, dir. Konstantin Bronzit

Geri's Game, dir. Jan Pinkava

Have to change the format cause tumblr has a limit to text in a single list

68. Snow-White, dir. Dave Fleischer

69. DAICON IV Opening Animation, dir. Hiroyuki Yamaga

70. Rooty Toot Toot, dir. John Hubley

71. SHOP: A Pop Opera, dir. Jack Stauber

72. Rabbit of Seville, dir. Chuck Jones

73. The Cat Concerto, dir. Joseph Barbera and William Hanna

74. My Little Goat, dir. Tomoki Misato

75. Asparagus, dir. Suzan Pitt (Available on the Criterion Channel)

76. Puparia, dir. Shingo Tamagawa

77. The Cybernetic Grandma, dir. Jiří Trnka

78. Captain Yajima, dir. Ian Worthington

79. Agoraphobia, dir. Victoria Vincent

80. Donald in Mathmagic Land, dir. Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark and Joshua Meador

81. Joy Street, dir. Suzan Pitt (Available on the Criterion Channel)

82. The Old Man and The Sea, dir. Aleksandr Petrov

83. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, dir. Aleksandr Petrov

84. Vincent, dir. Tim Burton

85. World of Tomorrow, dir. Don Hertzfeldt

86. World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts, dir. Don Hertzfeldt (pay per view of Vimeo)

87. The Magic Portal, dir. Lindsay Fleay

88. The Golden Chain, dir. Adebukola Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels (available on the Criterion Channel)

89. Black Soul, dir. Martine Chartrand

90. Hedgehog in the Fog, dir. Yuri Norstein

91. Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House, dir. Windsor McCay

92. Around is Around, dir. Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren

93. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor, dir. Dave Fleischer

94. Historia Naturae (Suita), dir. Jan Svankmajer

95. Still Lost I Guess, Here's a Tunnel, dir. Dario Alva

96. Kapaemahu, dir. Joe Wilson, Dean Hamer and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

97. Long-Haired Hare, dir. Chuck Jones

98. Muto, dir. Blu

99. Windy Day, dir. John and Faith Hubley

100. Bully for Bugs, dir. Chuck Jones

101. The Haunted Hotel, dir. J. Stuart Blackton

102. Destino, dir. Dominique Monfery (Available on Disney+)

103. Fantasy, dir. Vince Collins

104. To Beep or Not To Beep, dir. Chuck Jones

105. Pixillation, dir. Lillian Schwartz

106. Goodbye Jerome!, dir. Chloé Farr, Gabrielle Selnet and Adam Sillard (Available on the Criterion Channel)

107. Betty Boop's Halloween Party, dir. Dave Fleischer

108. Jumping, dir. Osamu Tezuka

109. Baby Fingers, dir. Adrian Dalen

110. On Your Mark, dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[disneytva]

Disney Legends Pete Docter And Craig McCracken Awarded With Winsor McCay Award Achievement At 50th Edition Of Annie Awards.

ASIFA-Hollywood has just released nominations for its 50th Annual Annie Awards recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation.

This year, the ceremony is scheduled to be held live, in-person on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Juried Awards will be presented during the ceremony, honoring unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation. The Winsor McCay Award in recognition of lifetime or career contributions are being presented to three recipients:

Pete Docter - Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios

Docter is American animator, film director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor mostly know for Directing the Academy Award & Annie Award winning films Monsters Inc,Up,Inside Out & Soul and being the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios since 2018, Docter has lead the future Director of Storytelling at Pixar and bringing diversity with more POC,Queer and Female voices to direct their own shorts and films at the studio with upcoming talent like Aphton Corbin, Brian Fee, Kristen Lester, and Rosana Sullivan who have been working on their respective untitled feature films

Additionaly Docter has provided creative consultant on Monsters At Work from Disney Television Animation and got a special thanks credit on Walt Disney Animation Studios Frozen II and was going to helm the production of the canceled Pixar film Newt to step down to make Inside Out.

Craig McCracken - Creator And Animator Disney Television Animation 2011-2018

Craig McCracken is an American animator, writer, producer, director, storyboard artist, and designer known for creating The Powerpuff Girls,Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends at Cartoon Network Studios,Wander Over Yonder for Disney Television Animation and Kid Cosmic for Netflix Animation, McCracken has been credited as "a staple of American modern animated television" on 2021.

Besides working on his most notable works McCracken has pivoted character desings,art direction and storyboarding for other projects at CN like Two Stupid Dogs, Dexter’s Laboratory, Dumb And Dumber,Chowder additionaly he helped on CN Development with the pilots of Diggs Tailwagger: Galactic Rover and Enter Mode 5 and was Executive Producer for the pilot of Regular Show from J.G Quintel.

Currently McCracken is in development for a Powerpuff Girls Reboot for Cartoon Network and WarnerMax and a preschool reboot of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends for Cartoonito and WarnerMax with Hanna Barbera Studios Europe.

Despite leaving Disney on 2018, McCracken on late 2022 revealed on Twitter that he didn’t felt burn with Disney and would like to make more original shows for them, given the chance with the new Disney Channel’s Worldwide CEO Ayo Davis

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Something I missed...

Daniel Chong, creator of WE BEAR BEARS and currently working at Pixar, tweeted this a few weeks back...

Chong had alluded a while ago, around 2020, that he was at work on *something* at Pixar. This was interpreted as him directing a feature there.

Prior to WE BEAR BEARS, he did work on various productions at all the big studios, including work - reportedly - on Pixar's own CARS 2, INSIDE OUT, and some TOY STORY stuff.

This could be interpreted as "Daniel Chong is directing a Pixar feature, and it'll be announced at D23 as the other 2026 Pixar movie to accompany TOY STORY 5".

There's something very weird about the whole "who directs what" thing. A director will say in an interview or something that they're directing a feature at Pixar, and someone like me speculates, "Okay, maybe their picture is the one that's coming out in 20XX."

For example... Mid-2020. SOUL was coming out. At the time, I only knew that Brian Fee (CARS 3), Kristen Lester (PURL), and Domee Shi were directing movies at Pixar. I heard from the trenches that one of them was set in Italy, and another was known as "Red". I figured Shi wasn't directing the Italian movie, so I thought, "It's probably Fee's movie. He finished CARS 3 in 2017, while Lester finished PURL in 2018."

Then, lo and behold... It's announced that Pixar's next movie after SOUL is indeed set in Italy... But it's not from one of those three directors... It's Enrico Casarosa, director of the 2011 short LA LUNA which ran before BRAVE in summer 2012. He was directing a feature this whole time??? And no one said anything??? And LUCA it was, not "Vespa", a possible title I had heard.

It was a nice surprise. Shi was later confirmed to be directing that "Red" movie in December 2020, which of course was TURNING RED... LIGHTYEAR was announced during that same Investor's Day presentation, a picture that was also complete news to me. Ditto Angus MacLane being the director. There had been rumblings of BRAVE director Mark Andrews developing a sci-fi movie at Pixar, and when the presentation started showing something very cosmic-looking... I was like, "This is it! This is Andrews' space movie!" Boom, LIGHTYEAR title appears... Completely surprised.

A lot of misdirection.

And it happened again. I figured, maybe Lester or Fee's movie was after LIGHTYEAR, then. As Pixar's summer 2023 movie.

In mid-2022, it was revealed that the next movie wasn't Lester's, or Fee's... It was from none other than Peter Sohn, director of THE GOOD DINOSAUR. ELEMENTAL.

Adrian Molina is another one. I don't remember hearing anything about him directing a feature, post-COCO. Again, I would assume Lester, Fee, etc. were next. Are their features even a thing anymore?

INSIDE OUT 2 being a thing AND it being from Kelsey Mann... Also not in my orbit beforehand.

So really, we don't know what's next... Could be Chong's movie, or Domee Shi's sophomore outing... Or a director hitherto not previously said to be working on something. Could be anybody, really. Sometimes projects don't make it. A while ago, we heard that Rosana Sullivan (KITBULL) and Aphton Corbin (TWENTY-SOMETHING) had features in the works, but someone else's movie might've surged ahead in development.

D23 is around the corner, so that might fill us in. What that other 2026 movie is, who is directing it, etc. We still don't know who is directing TOY STORY 5. Rumor mills say it's Andrew Stanton, but I'm gonna need more than "I think I heard Pete Docter imply that Stanton is directing it." Kind of a dubious source, but if he is, it would make perfect sense.

Until then... We shall see...

[mpittmanart487]

Some inspirations for my second idea are "Kitbull" a Pixar short directed by Rosana Sullivan and "Siblings" by Kenet Garcia Rojas with their impactful stories, textured/line art styles, and muted pastel colors. Another inspiration for my idea is "Let's Eat" an Anamon Studios 3D animated short film directed by Dixon Wong. I remember crying after watching Kitbull and Let's Eat, as they both tell such emotional yet relatable stories. After first watching them a few years ago, they both sparked my passion for creating, drawing, and animating again.

[trainingtitta]

Abused dog pica

Teething usually starts at about 3 weeks of age and lasts until your puppy is about 6 months old. The pain gives puppies the urge to chew on things to help alleviate it. Dogs with pica can develop serious issues like a. Some vets have observed that dogs prefer eating objects that have their owner’s scent, like underwear, towels, and socks instead of other things. Teething is the process when puppies start to lose their puppy teeth to make room for adult teeth, and this process does, unfortunately, cause pain. Pica in dogs is a health disorder, it causes them to eat non-food items such as paper, rocks, plastic, wood, cloth, and items from the trash. They will chew on everyone and everything they can get their little teeth on as well while teething. Puppies tend to explore and gain information from the world around them by putting everything in their mouths. Puppy Teething Image credit: nuu_jeed, Shutterstock How to Get Your Dog to Stop Chewing Carpet 1. Now we’ll look at 8 reasons why your dog might be chewing on your carpet and some ideas on stopping this behavior. Particularly if your dog has lost her appetite, has a swollen belly, or you see changes in her bowel movements. It does not store any personal data.If you suspect your dog has swallowed some of your carpet and hasn’t vomited, you need to take your dog to the vet immediately. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. You’ll want to pull your pets in close after this one. It’s also a testament to the power of friendship and what can happen if you step out of your comfort zone and embrace kindness. The film has started a conversation about breed stereotypes, animal abuse, and animal rescue. It doesn’t matter if you have a rescue pet in your house or not, this Pixar short film is sure to pull at your heartstrings. We won’t give any spoilers, but you’ll definitely want to watch this short film all the way to the end. It’s about kindness and friendship, and it also touches on the serious issue of how society treats animals. The short film takes two vulnerable characters through experiences that everyone watching can relate to. “Kitbull” shows how an unlikely friendship can evolve and create something truly heartwarming. At first, I just wanted to draw something that made me feel good and was fun, but it evolved into something more personal to me eventually.” I loved watching cat videos in times of stress. “To be fully honest, it started from a cat video. Director Rosana Sullivan said in a companion video, Chained outside and obviously abused, the poor pup is desperate for a friend. The story is about a fiercely independent, yet vulnerable, stray kitten who ends up meeting a pit bull.

[animationtidbits]

Kitbull

[thegalaxyrailways]

Kitbull (2019) - dir. Rosana Sullivan

[moviemosaics]

Kitbull

directed by Rosana Sullivan, 2019

[musicalhog]

Kitbull art by the short’s director, Rosana Sullivan.

“Thank you team #Kitbull and everyone who supported us to get this far. It’s truly been a dream to see this short out in the world!”

[mina-ahavi]

kitbull

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #19 - Kitbull

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Some Further Thoughts: TOY STORY 5, FROZEN III, ZOOTOPIA 2

The dust has settled for a bit…

These are some theories on who I think will be in charge of the three animated movie sequels announced by The Walt Disney Company the other day, because that’s always a concern of sorts for me when it comes to these movies… And also when they could possibly be released…

Why don’t we get the big one out of the way? That’s right… TOY STORY 5…

The announcement of TOY STORY 5 was unusual in that it didn’t give us any idea who is spearheading it. Now, TOY STORY 4 was similarly announced during an earnings call in October of 2014. It was the first official announcement of the movie’s existence following years of rumors coming from dubious sources… And on that day, we learned right away that it had a director (John Lasseter, who stepped down as director in mid-2017 prior to his prolonged ouster from the Disney company), two writers (Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, who left around that time as well), and was going to be a love story… But during that February earnings call, Bob Iger only stated that it was in the works, along with the two Disney Animation sequel films FROZEN III and ZOOTOPIA 2. No info on those, either… Just, they exist… It wasn’t too dissimilar to the March 2014 shareholder earnings call that officially confirmed that CARS 3 and INCREDIBLES 2 were in the works. Info was sparse on both…

In my previous post on the TOY STORY 5 announcement, I thought of who was part of the main crew of all four of the movies. Lasseter’s been out of Disney altogether since mid-2018, Pete Docter never directed a TOY STORY movie and is currently the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, Andrew Stanton has been off directing live-action stuff and trying to get live-action features off the ground elsewhere, Lee Unkrich retired from the business entirely, and Josh Cooley is presumably still directing an animated TRANSFORMERS movie for Paramount… I’d imagine Docter and Stanton will at least write or contribute story material to the fifth TOY STORY, but I don’t see them being involved in other levels of the production. Does Unkrich un-retire (he’s not particularly old) and write, possibly even direct? Not sure. Perhaps another promising upstart director gets this one, much like how Josh Cooley got the TOY STORY 4 gig after years of story artist/supervisor work dating back to CARS. But who… Is the question. All the directors confirmed to make new Pixar features - Brian Fee, Kristen Lester, Rosana Sullivan, Aphton Corbin, Enrico Casarosa, and Domee Shi - are working on original stories… Maybe a short film director who has yet to get a gig - such as Brian Larsen or Bobby Rubio - will be director. Maybe someone I’ve never heard of before or even considered… After all, no one outside the walls of the studio knew that Enrico Casarosa had an original film in the works (LUCA), or that Adrian Molina was tackling a movie of his own after COCO (ELIO), or that Kelsey Mann was set to direct something, let alone an INSIDE OUT sequel. There’s a lot they don’t say, as much as they do say…

Release… Pixar currently has these dates locked for releases, post-INSIDE OUT 2:

06/13/2025 03/06/2026 06/19/2026

I’m thinking… Should production go smoothly, and not go through multiple writer changes like TOY STORY 4 did, it gets the June 2026 slot. That puts it… Seven years after TOY STORY 4. When TOY STORY 4 was announced, it was slated for summer 2017… That would’ve been seven years after TOY STORY 3, but again, those delays pushed it to summer 2019. TOY STORY 3, by contrast, took four years to come together. Development began following Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in early 2006 (erasing the old anti-sequel terms of the original contract between the two companies), was at first slated for summer 2009, but was released in summer 2010. TOY STORY 2 debuted four years after the first TOY STORY… Seven years is long, both TOY STORY 3 and TOY STORY 4 took what seemed like eons to come out.

As for those other release dates? I think those go to originals, of course. They’re the only other Pixar films we know about, and more originals is a good thing.

Now while we know what Pixar are releasing in 2024, original ELIO and sequel INSIDE OUT 2… We know next to nothing about what Walt Disney Animation Studios has on the horizon for after WISH’s holiday 2023 bow… And WISH wasn’t known to the public until this past autumn… Barely a year away from release. Outside of the two recently-announced sequels? Nothing. No hints on anything that’s cooking. We’ve known for a while - read: since November 2019 - that filmmakers Josie Trinidad, Suzi Yoonessi, and Marc Smith had original movies in production. If those are still a priority, then I’d imagine we’d be hearing about them soon. Walt Disney Animation Studios runs differently from Pixar now, what with Jennifer Lee as Chief Creative Officer, not how John Lasseter used to oversee both WDAS and Pixar… Don Hall, for example, was curiously whisked off of his STRANGE WORLD to take over RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON from its previous directors, ditto Carlos Lopez Estrada. Estrada had an original of his own in the works at the time, until he was assigned to RAYA. He left Disney altogether after that, meaning that his original is either dead (reportedly titled FOSTER, which shared the name with a cancelled Blue Sky musical) or it was given to another director. Hall later resumed STRANGE WORLD and the movie debuted nearly two years after RAYA. (Worth noting, RAYA was originally supposed to be a fall 2020 release, with ENCANTO following fall 2021, and then STRANGE WORLD fall 2022.)

So, which movie bows first? And when?

FROZEN III was inevitable given the billion dollar success of both movies, individually. FROZEN II came out six years after the first one, in fact it wasn’t announced that it existed until a year and a half after the first FROZEN came out. FROZEN II is now 3 1/2 years old, so they took a while to even confirm that this movie exists. Do Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee return to direct? Definitely no on the latter, as Lee is busy running the studio. Chris Buck is director of WISH, so if Buck’s directing, it won’t be out for a little while then. If neither are directing, and they gave it to someone else (maybe one of the directors of the half-hour OLAF’S FROZEN ADVENTURE), then it could come sooner than later… Again, with such little information, it is hard to gauge.

Ditto ZOOTOPIA 2. Byron Howard directed the first film alongside Rich Moore, the latter left Disney a while ago. Howard, and ZOOTOPIA co-director Jared Bush, took on ENCANTO afterwards. Is Howard returning? Or is he pursuing another original project? Jared Bush is involved in ZOOTOPIA 2, and it’s possibly he could direct, or he has an original lined up for himself as well. I’d imagine they’d both at least write it or contribute story material. Josie Trinidad has an original movie lined up, but given her story work on the first ZOOTOPIA and that she directed most of ZOOTOPIA+. Trent Correy, who also directed on ZOOTOPIA+ and directed the Short Circuit short DROP, could be the director, too. Or he has an original lined up…

Release dates? Well, here is Walt Disney Animation Studio’s post-WISH slate so far…

11/20/2024 11/26/2025 11/25/2026

While Pixar has smoothly moved into doing two features every other year, WDAS still does one movie a year… And two sequels being on the boards makes thing a little complicated for the originals. Do we semi-repeat 2018-2019, where we went a whole four years without a new not-sequel Disney animated movie? Or does WDAS wrangle another movie into a doable slot?

Pixar, as said before, releases two movies in both 2024 and 2026… 2025, just one… Who’s to say Disney can’t take one of their placeholder dates for a “live-action” movie and gave it to a WDAS movie? Like, I can imagine one of those two sequels - likely ZOOTOPIA 2, since FROZEN is always more of a wintery sort of thing for obvious reasons - taking such a date… Say, March 2025? That’s the earliest feasible date, though…

FROZEN III, if it were truly coming out next year, than they’ve kept a hell of a tight lip on it… I don’t think it’ll be next year’s WDAS movie, nor ZOOTOPIA 2…

Earliest I can see either is sometime in 2025. It’s harder to gauge because originals exist, and WDAS only does one a year as of now. Again, that could change. They could surprise and say that they’re doing two in 2025 or so, and one of those two is a sequel.

As I said in the previous post on this matter… Why don’t they double up their efforts so they can get more originals out without having sequels pushing them back? In a way that doesn't put pressure on the crews, and doesn't crunch anyone... I think it can be done: That Vancouver studio they recently opened... Can that be upped the same way the defunct Orlando studio was? The Orlando unit helped on features like THE LION KING, and then whole features were made in-house there starting with MULAN. By the early 2000s, Disney Feature was able to get two features out every few years because of this. Both units seemed to work well in delivering movies without much strain. It only went kablooey because of outside circumstances, but look at Pixar. They’re doing two a year just fine despite outside hardships (COVID-19, LIGHTYEAR flopping at the box office), DreamWorks is doing that just fine, too. WDAS, from my outside perspective, could possibly get two movies out in 2025. An original and a sequel - be it ZOOTOPIA 2 or FROZEN III - and make it through unscathed.

As for what makes it first out of the two WDAS sequels? I'm definitely leaning on ZOO2PIA here. The first film will be *ten years old* in 2026, and ZOOTOPIA+ recently debuted on Disney+, so I'd imagine that one arriving sooner than latter.

Who knows, but I could see this happening…

11/20/2024 - ORIGINAL WDAS (possibly Josie Trinidad's film?)

03/07/2025 - ZOOTOPIA 2

06/13/2025 - ORIGINAL PIXAR (possibly Brian Fee’s film? He said he was writing/directing an original way back in July 2017)

11/26/2025 - ORIGINAL WDAS (possibly Suzi Yoonessi's film?)

03/06/2026 - ORIGINAL PIXAR (possibly Kristin Lester’s film? Her original movie was confirmed to exist in 2018)

06/19/2026 - TOY STORY 5

11/25/2026 - FROZEN III

2027 - ORIGINAL PIXAR (possibly Rosana Sullivan's film?)

2027 - ORIGINAL WDAS (possibly Marc Smith's film?)

This might all look silly by 2026 anyways, so… Why the heck not?

[chillqu33n]

It's been a while since i see "Kitbull" but he doesn't leave my head, I was emotional and I ended up crying a little ... oh my dear sensitivity;

Thx Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson for it

[tardisman14]

Short Film (Animated)

DCERA (DAUGHTER) (Daria Kashcheeva)

HAIR LOVE (Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver)

KITBULL (Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson)

MEMORABLE (Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corre)

SISTER (Siqi Song)

[dweemeister]

Best Animated Short Film Nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards (2020, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

Since 2013 on this blog, I have been reviewing the Oscar-nominated short films for the respective Academy Awards ceremony. This is one of my favorite traditions for the “31 Days of Oscar” marathon I hold yearly, and I recommend to all my North American followers to seek these shorts out (see this) – they have just released to theaters as of this review’s publication and the reach of each package’s distribution increases every year. As a one-off for the 92nd Academy Awards, the Oscars are being held on their earliest weekend ever, giving everyone less time to see the nominated shorts.

Without further ado, here are the Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short Film. Three of the five are stop-motion animation. It’s a solid bunch and – despite the fact I have seen better nominee slates – all fully deserving of their nominations (it is rare I feel that way) in a tightly contested year. They are all, in some ways, featuring characters and showing how they connect to others.

Hair Love (2019)

Co-directed by Matthew A. Cherry (former executive at Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions); Everett Downing Jr. (a journeyman storyboard artist who has worked with Blue Sky, DreamWorks, Netflix, and Pixar); and Bruce W. Smith (creator of The Proud Family and former supervising animator with Walt Disney Animation Studios), Hair Love becomes what is most likely the second film in the history of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film to have significant involvement from a former professional athlete (Cherry; the first is probably 2017′s Dear Basketball). Distributed by Sony Pictures Animation following a Kickstarter campaign, Hair Love played in front of 2019′s The Angry Birds Movie 2 – talk about a disparity in quality. The film follows a young girl as she refers to a YouTube channel (this film showcases modern technology but does not, like many other animated films, date itself in its technological depictions) to style, if not tame, her hair. Her father – who appears to have little experience with cutting or styling hair – is hesitant to help his daughter, but they struggle and learn together. The final moments of Hair Love reveal that their time learning from these online tutorials extends beyond their bonds as father and daughter.

Hair Love, riding on Hollywood goodwill from figures rarely associated with animation, has been lauded for its depiction of black fatherhood. In American popular culture, black fathers in black-centric narratives have often been portrayed as abusive or absent. So to see the opposite in hand-drawn animation is a welcome sight. The daughter’s hair almost has a life of its own and is normalized (black hairstyles have long been otherized in the West); an abstract sequence where the father is doing combat with the out-of-control hair represents the awkwardness of this scenario – with zero dialogue – perfectly. For an animation studio ridiculed for releases like The Emoji Movie (2017), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Hair Love serve as partial correctives. 

My rating: 8.5/10

NOTE: Hair Love can be seen on YouTube as of this review’s publication.

Dcera (Daughter) (2019, Czech Republic)

The Czech Republic can lay claim to being the home of the late Jiří Trnka, arguably one of the greatest, most innovative stop-motion animators of all time. Carrying that legacy forward is Daria Kashcheeva, a graduate of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). Her graduation film, Dcera (“Daughter” in English), won a Student Academy Award and was deemed the best graduation film at the famed Annecy International Animated Film Festival (the most important all-animation film festival in the world). In Dcera, we find a young woman at the side of her father’s hospital bed, reminiscing about their relationship. Wordless and shot largely with a shaky camera and in close-up, we see several images from the woman’s childhood – how her father, barely scraping by with household duties, had little time to express his love to her. Dcera often breaks into literal flights of fancy and the daughter’s surrealistic imagination. And yet even when retreating into a world crafted so that she can escape, there is a longing to bring her father in.

Kashcheeva’s notes about Dcera elicit that she wished to accomplish an, “authentic immediacy and a para-documentary nature” to her film via the film’s constant close-up shots and low depth of field. She mostly succeeds; although the shaky camera is distracting and prevents the audience from forming an emotional connection with the characters onscreen. The stop-motion puppets appear to be made of papier-mâché and are intentionally rough –reflecting how difficult their lives have been and the innumerable imperfections of their personhood. The production design – when we are allowed to see it (the lack of production quality is not any fault of the film’s, considering that it is a graduation work) – resemble something from a lucid nightmare. Dcera is an outstanding feat of stop-motion stylization. In its final minutes, it seeks to understand and to forgive that which was never realized. Its emotional impact is imperfect, but its intentions nevertheless pack a wallop.

My rating: 7.5/10

Sister (2018)*

When the Chinese Communist Party brought an end to its one-child policy in 2015, it concluded a decades-long experiment that has left China in a demographic bind. Stemming from a decision made in 1979, the policy’s consequences include a skewed age disparity and sex ratio at birth that will affect the nation for more several decades. Siqi Song’s graduation film from CalArts, Sister, has the one-child policy in mind. The film, narrated by Bingyang Liu (no previous film credits) is a reflection by a man thinking about his life with his little sister. More than midway through Sister, the audience learns that the film is nothing more than speculation. In China even now, the one-child policy – since replaced by a two-child policy – has left its mark on numerous generations be they children, parents, grandparents. The film’s unique character design is wool-based, with its monochrome pallet recalling an older family photo album.

According to Song, the film’s story, “didn’t change from the very beginning. [She] always knew the film would be about a man imagining how his life might have been like had he had a little sister.” What did change while Song – a “little sister survivor” whose family made a tremendous effort to keep her a part of their family – made Sister were the stories of a brother and sister as the two grow up. The never-to-be siblings have their conflicts, as well as their moments of familial love. Not all of the ways this is depicted work, most notably the scene where the sister grows beyond her crib to become a giant looming over her brother (the metaphor here is too heavy-handed). Our narrator ponders whether he might have been a different person if his mother – pregnant with his younger sister, wanting very much to bear her – never had the policy-forced abortion. Given the trauma it inflicted on his mother, the narrator – even from an early age – will be left pondering this well into his adulthood. Is there regret in his narration? Guilt? I don’t have any answers, but I will leave it to those of Chinese descent to discern theirs.

My rating: 8/10

*Sister is entirely in Mandarin. For non-English language films, I usually list the film along with its country/countries of origin unless it was primarily an American production. Despite Sister being listed as an American/Chinese co-production by Song, I see no evidence of a Chinese studio backing the film. For record-keeping purposes, Sister will be deemed an American film.

Mémorable (2019, France)

Last year, Ireland’s famous Cartoon Saloon garnered acclaim for Louise Bagnall’s Late Afternoon. Late Afternoon, an expressionistic study in an elderly woman’s dementia, is a distant cousin to Bruno Collet’s Mémorable. Here, an artist named Louis (André Wilms) shifts between periods of remembrance and forgetfulness. His wife, Michelle (Dominique Reymond), tends to his needs and to his increasing disconnection to the things and people around him. If Louis has one fixture in his life, it is his painting – with brushes or, close to the end, with his fingers. Collet, noting the increase of short films – animated or otherwise – about dementia in recent years, indeed questioned the wisdom of yet another film about someone suffering from it. He then encountered the works of artist  William Utermohlen. Utermohlen, like Louis, continued painting even as his dementia impaired his understanding of his surroundings, let alone his work. Collet, now convinced of the validity of his plans by learning of Utermohlen’s life, set straight to work on Mémorable.

Mémorable evolves as the film progresses. What seems like a straight stop-motion animated short film transforms itself as Louis’ dementia worsens. By the film’s end, Louis’ figure begins to melt into something like oil paints, making him a living Impressionist painting while others around become surreal on the terms of a Picasso or Dali. With Mémorable containing plenty of dialogue, none of this ever detracts from this short’s abstractions The film’s final moments – an uplifting dance scene between Louis and Michelle – is an extraordinary marriage of stop-motion animation and computerized animation. By then, Collet has depicted the progression of Louis’ dementia in as cinematic a way as possible using an array of styles that could not have been predicted within a twelve-minute animated short film. The technical daring of Mémorable and the strength of its artistic conceit is breathtaking to behold.

My rating: 9/10

Kitbull (2019)

If any animation studio has a history with animal, it is Disney. Released as one of Pixar’s “SparkShorts” – a program created in 2019 to foster the talents of Pixar’s younger animators to force them to make short films with limited resources – Rosana Sullivan’s Kitbull joins that esteemed company. Sullivan, a storyboard artist who worked on the likes of Monsters University (2013) and Incredibles 2 (2018), was previously training to be a veterinarian and had helped many pit bulls in clinics and shelters. She, “saw how sweet and gentle they could be, despite [her] initial fears.” Her work with unadopted black cats formed the other half of what would become Kitbull. In San Francisco’s Mission District, a scrawny kitten and a pit bull who is forced into dogfights (even the implication of dogfighting would render Kitbull ineligible for wide theatrical release by Disney executives, knowing their insistence on a sanitized brand) strike up a friendship.

The design of the kitten is not realistic, but it would not be believable if Kitbull was filmed as a stop-motion or CGI-animated film. The kitten’s unrealistic body proportions make it more appealing and the minimalism of the pit bull’s design (there is a minimum amount of lines used to trace its facial shape) is effective artistic economy. The pit bull is a type of dog in need of an image rehabilitation. Perceived the be among the most violent of dogs, pit bulls are anything but naturally violent and Kitbull plays into this misconception. Sullivan’s experience as a former veterinarian student are fused with themes of loneliness and trust-building. Cut down from an 18-minute-long storyboard to its nine-minute runtime, Kitbull is an efficiently told animated short film evoking the pathos of animal-centric Walt Disney Animation Studios’ feature- and short-length films of the 1930s and ‘40s.‡

My rating: 8/10

‡ Which, for younger readers that have not seen Disney films from those decades, should be taken as a high compliment.

NOTE: Kitbull can be seen on YouTube as of this review’s publication.

^ Based on my personal imdb ratings. Half-points are always rounded down.

From previous years: 85th Academy Awards (2013), 87th (2015), 88th (2016), 89th (2017), 90th (2018), and 91st (2019).