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Watch: Animated Short Oscar Winner 'The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore'

by Alex Billington
February 27, 2012
Source: YouTube

What does it take to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short? Find out here, as one of the surprise wins last night was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore in that very category. It features no dialogue, but does use a variety of animation techniques, including stop-motion, miniatures, 2D animation and CGI. From their site: Inspired in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, Morris Lessmore is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. It's a great short (found via The Film Stage), definitely worth the time to watch.

Here's the full Oscar winning The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, on YouTube:

The Oscar winning short, titled in full The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, was co-directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg entirely in Louisiana at Moonbot Studios in Shreveport. The film is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. "Morris Lessmore is old-fashioned and cutting edge at the same time," their description says. No wonder it won the Oscar, it's very much the Hugo (or even The Artist) of the animated category. However, I personally loved Enrico Casarosa's La Luna (review here), the Pixar short playing in front of Brave this summer. I still think that's my favorite animated short of last year, but this was wonderful as well. For more info on Morris Lessmore, visit their official site.

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Filed under Awards, Cool Stuff, Indies, To Watch

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