Created by former Pixar art directors, 'The Dam Keeper' is one of five nominees for Best Animated Short at the Oscars (Tonko House)

Last week, "Remember This Scene" paid homage to the best category at the Oscars: Best Animated Short. More than any other category, the nominees that get picked for this award are at the cutting edge of their craft, showing the kind of creativity that comes when animators don't have to come up with ideas that can spawn monstrous franchises (looking at you, "Minions"). 

Now, it's time to take a look at this year's batch of nominees, which feature a mix of hand-drawn, stop-motion, and computer-generated works, sometimes within the same feature. The animators come from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, and Disneyland. The subject matter involves pigs, dams, food, bicycles, family, love, purpose in life and mortality. In other words, there's no such thing as Oscar Bait to be found here, so let's dive in!

"A Single Life"

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The shortest and bleakest of the contenders, and it comes to us from Dutch animation team Job, Joris, & Marieke. The short features a woman who discovers a vinyl record that allows her to travel through time and experience different parts of her life. It's similar to the trippy time-jumping seen in "Slaughterhouse-Five," but features a much bleaker ending and its brevity adds to its punch.

"The Bigger Picture"

Here's another piece about death, but with the end of life coming through much more natural means. Here, we have two brothers trying to resolve their differences to care for their ailing mother. The behind-the-scenes hook for the film is that the stop-motion was done on full-size sets, combining characters who were painted on the walls with three-dimensional objects. It's the most mature piece in this year's race, and it comes in hoping to add an Oscar to the truckload of honors it has received while making the festival circuit in Europe.

"Feast"

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Being big in Europe does not make you an Oscar contender. But being a Disney film will. Coming in as the third straight nominee in this category from the House of Mouse, "Feast" tells the story of a Boston Terrier who gets fed all sorts of junk food scraps from his owner, until a girlfriend comes along that changes both of their eating habits. It's sweet and sentimental, like you'd expect from Disney, and the fact that it's been exposed to the masses as the opening short for full-length feature nominee "Big Hero 6" means that it won't have to rely on voter screenings for its campaign. Featuring a cute puppy animated through a mix of 2-D and 3-D doesn't hurt, either.

"The Dam Keeper"

There are few things worse in life than being disrespected by people who would be in a world of trouble without your efforts. "The Dam Keeper" explores such a situation. A pig in a small town is charged with taking up his late father's job: maintaining a dam that protects his small town from a cloud of poison. Despite this job, he is constantly picked on at school and has no friends — until a fox arrives at school and changes everything.

Directed by former Pixar art directors Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo, this film has the look of a moving painting, done through a mix of Photoshop and hand-drawn sketches. It's an unbelievably charming film, with a heart-wrenching story, beautiful soundtrack, and great narration by "Sherlock" villain Lars Mikkelsen.

"Me and My Moulton"

The simplest and most child-like of the nominees, "Me and My Moulton" tells the autobiographical story of director Torill Kove trying to deal with her embarrassing hipster parents while growing up in Norway. The short is purely hand-drawn with a minimalist style and told through narration that sports the cadence and tone of a mother reading to her child. While the other nominees go for dark reflection or heartstring pulling, "Me And My Moulson" keeps things light and funny.

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So which one is going to win? Well, if you want to conquer your Oscar pool, your best bet is probably "Feast." A big chunk of the Academy voting bloc is present and past Disney animators, so there's a chance the voters might go for familiarity.

That said, being a short from a major American studio doesn't make you a lock. Last year's Disney offering "Get A Horse!" lost out to "Mr. Hublot," a steampunk comedy from Luxembourg. If the Academy REALLY wants to go out there and reward something avant-garde, they're probably going to go with "A Bigger Picture." Ambitious animating plus tense family conflict narrative equal cutting edge film.

My personal pick, though, is "The Dam Keeper." This is such a warm, heartwrenching story that can appeal to everyone regardless of age. The character design is cute and simple, and the use of lighting gives the town a sundreched feel. It speaks volumes that Kondo and Tsutsumi told The New York Times that they had arrived at Pixar by the time it had become established as the animation behemoth it is known for today, and despite their success there on films like "Ratatouille" and "Toy Story 3," they wanted to make their own animation studio so they could experience the excitement and creative freedom that Pixar animators enjoyed during the studio's early years. The result is a debut work that shows Pixar influences yet takes bold new directions in style and story, and I hope Kondo and Tsutsumi's big risk pays off with a pair of Oscars with their names on it.

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Reach Staff Reporter Jeremy Fuster here. Follow him on Twitter here.