With every computer-animated film I see, my esteem for the medium decreases. At first, I was rapturous. " Everything looks so real! " That may be the problem. The computer-animated films in this year’s series look a little too good. There’s a clinical precision to them, a coldness that’s as real as the difference between a CD and a warm-sounding LP.

" The Last Drawing of Canaletto, " for instance, is Cameron McNall’s majestic 3-D reimagining of a work by the 18th-century Venetian. All towering arches and sunlight filtered through a Gothic window, it’s breathtaking. But it feels drafty. Bruno Bozzetto, on the other hand, uses only simplistic representations of the Italian and the EU flags, and his " Europe and Italy " is a riotous analysis of the two cultures. " Brother " is Adam Elliot’s bittersweet remembrance of his sibling; its clay caricatures convey a humanity that a computer can’t. Michael Dudok De Wit’s " Father and Daughter, " a 2000 Oscar nominee, is striking in its technical proficiency and its pathos. But another 2000 nominee, Don Hertzfeldt’s " Rejected, " is my favorite. With its foul-mouthed stick figures and the physicality of its background, it shows what can be done with just a black marker and paper. No computers necessary.