It's increasingly clear that the folks who nominate the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film endorse the traditional goals of animation -- humor and pathos -- and are less interested in the artistic, original, and thought-provoking. "Tweet Tweet" is all of these things, and though the Academy chose it as Highly Commended, I thought it was stronger that all but one of the nominees (Weekend). It's clear that walking the tightrope is a metaphor for living your life. There may or may not be references to Russian history, based on the transformations of the rope. It's not clear from a first viewing what the small bird symbolizes. But I suspect that the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing and that this will reward multiple repeat viewings -- something you cannot say about Bao (the big favorite as I type) or most other acclaimed animated shorts.
Review of Chik-Chirik
