Badgered

A six minute short with a simple plot about a badger being badgered by cawing crows who disturb his sleep, and the sudden arrival of a truck carrying nuclear missiles that conceals the weapons of mass destruction beneath the badger's abode under the ground.

I do believe this was intended to be another short meant for young children in schools that alluded to nuclear weaponry. It is well drawn and rather perfect for an animal tale. Oscar nomination probably wasn't in its mind and only came in as a surprise for the film. Truly Oscar-worthy hand-drawn animated movies are the ones made by Walt Disney, which are absolutely spectacular in its imagination. There was a Mickey tale which actually gave life to a train; imagine watching a train with eyes getting tired and tugging the tracks to reach the station. There is a lack of imagination in many animated films today and it is because many try to unnecessarily add metaphors and deeper meanings to the films.

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Anyone who hits the snooze bar as much as I do can relate to this badger.

Of course, there is another level to this story of a badger who just wants to sleep, for heaven's sake, but it is told with a light, humorous touch, not an annoying alarm-clock style bleating. It approaches the topic of nuclear power from a new, refreshing, badger's eye point of view.

If you'd like to see this engaging film www.Filmporium.com is offering it for five dollars along with "Swamp," a film that depicts horses supported by balloons engaged in battle and "Nibbles" a frenetically paced family travelogue.

Basically the story of a Badger who is interrupted while trying to get some sleep, this film has one or two moments of slight amusement, but is not much better than any typical Saturday morning cartoon. The animation appears to have been drawn by a fifth-grader of average talent, and it is surprising that this film has received an Oscar nomination. It is difficult to tell if the denouement is intended to be thought-provoking at a political level or just another homage to the wiser and infinitely better Road Runner cartoons. The only redeeming value this film has is its short running time. To be fair, the sound and music effects are adequate, but animation has as part of its nature the ability to transcend the every-day. This film not only doesn't transcend the level of a second level children's book, it appears to be just that--and Reading Rainbow did a better job of creating the effect of animation with the static pages of books than this film does with animation as its primary medium.

Beautiful animated short which lost out on the oscar but is a nice little feel good curio. Two stunt crows revel in annoying our badger friend with their constant cawing. Who hasn't wanted to punch a crow in their time...i know have! The crows are cleverly drawn and depicted as avian rascals but the ending is satisfactory as our Badger triumphs in settling the score with these flying feathered caw caw cawing see you next tusadays. Enjoy.

Some animations impress by the way they are made. Some are extremely funny. Others have a great story. This animation is pretty strong on all points, but doesn't stick out in any. It's a relaxed watch. The music is good, it has a nice animations style (reminding me of Dudok de Wit's work but a little rougher) a funny and good storyline. It's also not that remarkable in any way. I would have expected a little more of a Oscar winner. Something a little extra, to set it apart from other animations, but nothing really did.

Overall good, a 7/10, but not like previous Oscar winners like Das Rad, Ryan or For the birds. Still it's enjoyable and worth the watch. However, I doubt if it deserved the Oscar, in my own opinion.