There’s not much of an interesting plot but I didn’t really care because I loved the hand painted animation so much. I would love to see more films in this style.

Part II of IV of the 2020 Oscar’s Honorable Mention Animated Shorts

SAD WHALES DON’T CRY. 
SAD WHALES DON’T CRY.
SAD WHALES DON’T CRY.
SAD WHALES DON’T CRY.
SAD WHALES DON’T CRY.

It was aight. Very “poetic.” Laboriously crafted animation. Good job? 

🤷‍♀️ Verdict: 2.5/5

A familiar story for sure but the animation alone should had gotten this a nomination. It’s all painted and it’s gorgeous and the music was stunning as well.

Ok to get my criticism out of the way first, I think the story is.... bad? Like it had an intriguing set-up but I really don’t get the point of it ending up how it did? (Maybe I am just not understanding something.) 

WITH THAT SAID, I am not exaggerating when I say that the hand-painted animation of this short is quite possibly among the most beautiful things I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life, and it is worth watching The Bird & The Whale if only for the incredible artistry of the aesthetic it achieves.

I wish this had been nominated but at the same time I don't know what I would've replaced it with because all the nominees were also great. This was so beautiful and sweet and sad and BEAUTIFUL

Very reminiscent of the Fantasia philosophy of marrying music and animation. Quite stunning in sequences, but the narrative is LIGHTWEIGHT.

Story was thin, but the animation was so beautiful I didn’t really care! It did what it set out to do, which is to say, it showed off how closely the animators studied the movement of a wave and how cool paint looks on glass.

honorably mentioned short films 

beautifully done, as far as visuals. the paintings look incredible, but other than that it was meh

3/5

Really nice handpainted animation and a sweet story. I preferred it to Sister and Hair Love.

I likes it even though there is not much going on other than some nice paintings

Hand painted on glass so theres something. Uh, I think the whale eats the bird or something? I don't exactly remember.

This reminded me of a segment from Fantasia.

Incredible animation but the ending...

Extremely simple story mostly used to elicit some basic emotion and display the beautiful handpainted animation technique. Really worth it for how pretty it looks.

the painted glass animation is pretty stunning but that’s really it