Two Short Films

Both of these shorts feature either Buster Keaton or a character that looks like Buster Keaton!

Cops (1922)
Although Cops is now ninety years old it has aged surprisingly well. Some of the gags such as the bars in opening and the scene where Buster buys a horse totally caught me off guard and had me laughing. This is pretty impressive for such an old film since different generations often have different types of humor and jokes can get old very quickly.
Besides the aforementioned gags, the physical comedy is also very good. This is even more amazing considering the fact that Buster Keaton performed all of his own stunts.
Cops is a great short from Buster Keaton and a reminder that I need to seek out more of his work.
You can watch it on YouTube here.
9/10

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won this year's Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Our main character Morris Lessmore is a Buster Keaton look-alike who runs a library after his hometown is destroyed by a hurricane. The company that created this short is from Louisiana and there are references to Hurricane Katrina.
The film concerns the themes of collective memory, preservation of the past, and film history while always being entertaining and never too preachy.
Although I still think that The Ballad of Nessie short shown before Winnie the Pooh (2011) should have been nominated for the Oscar in this category, I am glad that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won. To be fair though I didn't see any of the other shorts nominated for the category this year.
You can watch it on YouTube here.
8/10

In my next post we'll be back to feature length films as I still have plenty of movies I've seen in the last few months to write about.