Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject, The House of Small Cubes is a bittersweet film which certainly does not look like an anime. The artistic style is totally different, suggesting maybe another age. But that is probably the effect director Kunio Kato was after.

In an oceanic world, an old man lives alone in a house surrounded by water. We soon learn that with the ocean rising, he continues to build upward moving into the newly created space. Upon renting some scuba gear, to retrieve a lost pipe which had fallen to a lower level, the old man travels downward to the original structure and backwards in time reliving old memories.

The story is told with no dialog, but we know exactly what is going on and what the old man is thinking. Kato makes a brilliant use of imagery.

The artwork and animation were created with great care. It is easy to see why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to honor this short film. You can see The House of Small Cubes now on Netflix streaming.