An Overlooked Oscar Gem

It's safe to say that anything not called Slumdog Millionaire was overlooked during Sunday's Oscar pageantry. Which is not to say its success isn't well deserved, but it wasn't the only brilliant film to win a gold statue of a little naked man this weekend.

One of the others was the winner for best short animated film, La Maison en Petits Cubes. Thankfully, it's available online, at least for a while.* It's only 12 minutes long, but it is one of the best and most moving films I've seen in a long time:



Where Slumdog is bright, loud, and about as subtle as a brick, Le Maison . . . is quiet, contemplative, and actually subtle. The style of animation is wonderfully "dirty" for the 21st Century. It's just brilliant.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, looks like Google has been hit with the copyright claims, too. Hopefully, this vigorous post-Oscar legal blitz means that the film will be widely released (in some form) in the near future.

* The version I found on YouTube yesterday has been taken down due to copyright claims.