Remember The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore? The short film we featured a month ago? Well, it won an Oscar tonight for best animated short film, and we’re bringing it back for one more showing, plus adding it to our list of Oscar films available online.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore offers a modern tribute to an old world. Made with an animation style that blends stop motion with computer animation and traditional hand-drawing, the silent film pays homage to a bygone era when elegantly printed books inhabited our world. The 15-minute short is the first made by Moonbot Studios, a fledgling animation shop in Shreveport, Louisiana. For their efforts, Moonbot’s founders (William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg and Lampton Enochs) received an Oscar-nomination this week (Best Animated Short), putting them in competition with two other films featured on Open Culture: Sunday and Wild Life.
We recommend watching The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore on YouTube, or downloading it for free in HD from iTunes. iPad owners will also want to consider buying the related app ($4.99) that turns the film into an interactive narrative experience.
For more animated bibliophilia, don’t miss:
Spike Jonze Presents a Stop Motion Film for Bibliophiles
Books Savored in Stop Motion Film
Going West: A Stop Motion Novel
Books Come to Life in Classic Cartoons from 1930s and 1940s
Good news, this was a beautiful little story and an award is deserved.
Thx a lot… I just have to say that the movie on iTunes seems not to be free, but 1.99$ or 2.99$ (SD or HD).
Thanks for your work
watching now thanks…and the acceptance speech the two directors gave on TV last night was wonderfull too. William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg appeared on TV at the Oscars, Bill in a black hat, and he refered to themlevs as “just Louisisan boys, Louisaisn swamp rats’ and “we;re ginan go bacjk to Louisaisan now after the show and do what we love to do..” one of the best speeches taht night here in tawian i saw it, danny bloom, 1949-2032
I couldn’t help but to enjoy this film. This was truly amazing. I wish there were an easier way to find these shorts earlier than Oscar season. But until then, I’ll just have to wait until the Oscars come around to hear about them.
I also checked out the iPad app version of the film, and it is remarkable – a full interactive storybook with amazing ways to participate and interact with the story – a new standard for children’s eBooks. I would highly recommend the app to those who enjoyed this film.
It ALWAYS make sense. Although on earth, most often, it is not enjoyable. Even though it could always be …
THANK YOU, makers of this “Books” film, for having increased the time enjoyable :)
May GOD Bless you.
Sadly, no longer available due to a copyright claim. Mr. Oscar seems to change everything :)