The Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

The cream of this year's crop of Oscar-nominated animated shorts is

• "The Gruffalo,"

with Helena Bonham Carter leading a star-studded cast in a beautiful, fully realized telling of a delightful, classic children's story. I also had a soft spot for 

• "The Lost Thing,"

about an eccentric young man who finds and takes home a huge, mysterious lost object with limbs, tendrils, and bells extending out of its amorphous form. Also worthwhile is 

• "Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage,"

a picture scrapbook of the director's trip to Madagascar come to life. 

• "Day & Night,"

the Pixar production that screened with "Toy Story 3" last year, is the least interesting offering, but still better than "Let's Pollute," a self-congratulatory and ham-handed winky "educational film" about the merits of pollution.