The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013: Animated

While there are few genuine knockouts, the 2013 crop is an improvement over last year. The animated short film category features a reasonably wide spread of techniques, attitudes, and sources. There’s a mini-“Simpsons” episode, the agreeable 5-minute quickie “The Longest Daycare,” in which baby Maggie endures the terrors of the Ayn Rand School for Tots. Even more hit-and-run is “Fresh Guacamole,” from the anarchic animator PES (real name Adam Pesapane), whose 2001 debut, “Roof Sex,” remains the only porn film for chairs. “Guacamole” envisions avocados made of grenades, tomatoes that get diced into actual dice — an entire microcosm of transfiguration in two minutes.