I am going to review The Trenches and Flawed together because they are both short animated films, and I pretty much have the same thing to say about both of them.

As one can expect from animation from the National Film Board of Canada, both are visually interesting and engaging. For The Trenches, animator Claude Cloutier artfully applies India ink to archival and new footage to create a surreal anti-war statement. Some of Cloutier’s earlier work, including the wonderful Sleeping Betty are available via the NFB site.

Flawed is a much different film in which Andrea Dorfman (of How to be Alone fame) animates her animation process by using a stop-motion technique to chronicle her storyboarding process. The film focuses on her reflections about body image when she meets and falls in love with a plastic surgeon. More of Dorfman’s work can be found on her YouTube site.

Both films are wonderful and definitely worth watching. However, I doubt either film will make my short list for the notables committee because their short running times preclude the deeper insights provided by many of the longer nominated titles.