Oscarless Cartoons Part 9

Oscarless Cartoons Part 9: Tick Tock Tale (2010)

In this underappreciated short film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Tick Tock Tale is about a defective green alarm clock who lives in a clock shop. He is ridiculed and bullied by the other clocks because of the jingle he makes, as well as the embarrassing wooden man on his head.

After being made fun of, Green Clock attempts to remove the wooden man by several means, including cutting it off with a knife, using a door stopper, and even wedging it between one of the cash register buttons.

Suddenly, a bugler comes in and steals all the clocks in the store, except for Green. Luckily, there was a cop outside. The burglar hid, but Green could see and even hear the cop.

When the coast was clear, the burglar exited the store. Luckily, the door was swung open to give Green enough time to catch up with him.

When Green Clock made it outside, he played his jingle so the burglar could hear. Unfortunately for Green, the burglar stepped on him, and broke the poor clock. Luckily, a cop saw him and started chasing the burglar.

The next morning, the clock owner was sad to see one of his clocks broken, and he had no choice but to throw it away. However, when he looked at the trash bin, there was nothing in there. The clock was on a table next to a sign that said "No repair is too small".

Upon seeing that, the store owner decided to fix up Green. When he was finished, Green was good as new, and the discount sticker from below was ripped off.

One of the clocks tuned Green so it said 7:00, and the clock started playing his jingle. This time, all the clocks congratulated him, as Green was the savior of the clock store.

Since many of the CG animators at Disney were busy with either Tangled or Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs Nice at the time, the animators on Tick Tock Tale were only trainees. However, they did a rather fine job.

I have honestly never heard of this gem until I rented Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection from my local library. Tick Tock Tale was one of the shorts on the set, and I enjoyed it a lot! I find it surprising that it didn't get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film. In fact, I liked it more than Pixar's short film that year, Day & Night. Tick Tock Tale, along with other contemporary favorites like Paperman, Feast, Get a Horse, Tangled Ever After, and Frozen Fever, are all on this set: Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection, now available on DVD and Blu-Ray!

That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Cartoon. Tune in next week when we venture into the human body through another Disney short, 2016's Inner Workings!