Weeds

Each year around Oscars time, the films nominated for Best Animated Short are shown at selected venues across the States. However, most years the 5 or 6 nominees are only about an hour long, or less. So they also include several so-called 'Commended films'...ones that apparently are very good but did not earn a nomination.

As for "Weeds", it's really too simple a film to give it a higher score. However the animation is excellent. It's a story about a dandelion that is dying on a dry patch of lang...and what it does in order to try to survive.

After seeing its fellow dandelions struck down by weedkiller, a lone survivor uproots itself and struggles across the dry concrete towards the next well-watered lawn.

This was another of the "recommended" shorts added to bring the Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts of 2018 up to full length. At 3 minutes, it seems a bare trifle, but it is a lovely little tale of struggle and hope and despair. It's writer-director Kevin Hudson's first credit in both those lines -- he's moved up through the animation ranks, but he knows how to bring a basic, understandable character to a common weed. Let's hope he grows and continues to do well in what has always been a difficult branch of the film-making industry to prosper in.