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Animator doesn't like his Oscar chances against Pixar

Pear Cider and Cigarettes in running for Best Animated Short

The 89th annual Academy Awards live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 26, 4 p.m.

A black cat perches on the hospital room’s windowsill like a slinking bad omen.

The room is the temporary home of Techno Stypes, a self-destructive insurance settlement millionaire awaiting a new liver in a Chinese hospital to replace the one shot to hell from booze and a batch of bad blood.

His friend, Rob, is tasked by the doctor to get the cat out of the room, which he does, and does again.

“I continued to remove the cat from Techno’s room every day,” the faceless storyteller tells us in a baritone grumble that sounds like bourbon and basalt

Pear Cider and Cigarettes is a 33-minute animated film about the thin line between friendship and futility.

“I’m not trying to make Techno out to be the nicest guy in the world because he wasn’t. And I’m not trying to tell the saddest story in the world because it’s not,” Hillside secondary grad Robert Valley explains. “It’s a story about a friend of mine and it’s a story about a family that I’m quite familiar with.”

Knowing the family made the project a delicate one, Valley says, explaining they’re still in touch. Although the movie’s unsparing, Valley says the family is generally pleased he created a legacy for their son and brother.

Discussing the movie’s writing process, you get the sense Valley would never cut it in telemarketing. He speaks slowly and doesn’t add one word after he’s said what he set out to say.

“I wrote the whole script in one night,” he says. “I just felt like this was the story I wanted to tell.”

The movie has been nominated for an Oscar for best animated short film, although Valley is doubtful about grabbing a golden statuette Sunday.

“I don’t feel like I’m going to win against Pixar.”

While it’s tough to beat the Mickey Mouse organization, Valley’s movie has received acclaim from A.O. Scott of the New York Times, who referred to Pear Cider and Cigarettes as the “longest, richest and saddest of the (Oscar-nominated short) films.”

To make the movie – which is based on Valley’s graphic novels of the same name – he used Photoshop to animate comic panels. Once animation was complete, he raised $65,000 on Kickstarter.

“I didn’t touch any of that money, it just went right to the record companies and to the lawyers,” he remarks.

The money paid for a soundtrack featuring original music from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and tracks from Black Sabbath, the Dandy Warhols, and longtime Valley favourite Pink Floyd.

As a kid populating notebooks with Marvel superheroes, Valley recalls using Led Zeppelin II and Dark Side of the Moon as inspiration.

“I was big into the Pink Floyd. That kind of opened up my mind.”

It took a while for Valley to find a fit for his open mind, as he sensed his comic book style was amiss in the fine arts atmosphere of Emily Carr.

That changed when Valley squeaked into the school’s animation course.

“I was the last person to get in,” he says. “I could kind of, sort of, see a possible future.”

He graduated in 1992 and quickly found work when a trip to San Diego Comic-Con turned into a gig on MTV’s groundbreaking Aeon Flux anime series.

Even when dealing with addiction and enabling in Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Valley’s love of comic books shines through, such as when Rob’s arm extends Reed Richards-style to snatch a bottle from Techno.

It’s one of several brilliant effects, such as when Rob recalls first seeing Techno as kids playing soccer. In Rob’s recollection Techno jumped high enough to create a partial eclipse. In a stark contrast, we also see an impossibly gangly Techno chugging booze beneath neon.

Shortly afterward, when Techno looks “sketched out,” the colour drops from the animation, leaving a partially formed person.

But before Techno’s hospital days, we see him young and fast, an athlete for whom speed is an act of will.

“There’s no way you could ever catch him,” Rob intones in the movie.

As Techno gets slower and sicker, that line becomes even truer. Techno always seems just a little bit out of range. Even with that extending arm, Rob can’t reach him.