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• Key Cinemas

In "Peter & the Wolf," part of an all-shorts program at Key Cinemas, creatures steal the show. (Photo provided by Key Cinemas)

Sometimes a message is more powerful when boiled down to a fast story.

Brief tales shine in the 2007 Academy Award Nominated Shorts, a program of 10 films from the U.S., Canada and Europe. The program of five "animated" and five "action" shorts doesn't have a movie clocking in at more than 40 minutes.

How refreshing! Each movie is quick and fairly punchy; after all, when you have less time to tell your message, there's less time to ramble.

The five action shorts are "At Night," "Il Supplente" ("The Substitute), "Le Mozart des Pickpockets" ("The Mozart of Pickpockets"), "Tanghi Argentini," and "Tonto Woman."

"At Night" (Denmark, 40 minutes) tells of three young women spending the holidays in a cancer ward. The film is bleak but beautiful, with lovely, understated performances.

"The Substitute," (Italy, 17 minutes) features a sub teacher just like the ones you might remember from school days; that is, crazy and yelling -- with a twist.

Two quirky thieves take a young, deaf boy home with them in "The Mozart of Pickpockets" (France, 31 minutes), only to find out he is the answer to their problems.

Andre, an office worker, asks co-worker Frans to teach him the tango in "Tanghi Argentini" (Belgian, 13 minutes), a story that plays out a bit like an O..Henry novel.

The wind rattles and whines through the set of "Tonto Woman," (U.K., 36 minutes), based on an Elmore Leonard story and set in the American Southwest. Commanding performances pour from the cast as a cattle rustler woos a well-to-do man's wife, who's been forced into solitude.

Animated flicks are "I Met the Walrus," "Madame Tutli-Putli," "Meme les Pigeons Vont au Paradis" ("Even Pigeons Go to Heaven"), "My Love" ("Moya Lyubov") and "Peter & the Wolf."

In 1969, a 14-year-old sneaked into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto to tape a five-minute interview with the rock star. "I Met the Walrus" (Canada, 5 minutes) puts Lennon's words to animation, and each word rolls into its own picture.

A nervous woman climbs aboard a train for an odd adventure in "Madame Tutli-Putli," (Canada, 17 minutes). Most striking about the film are the animated puppets, which have footage of live actors' eyes cast on their faces, making for an innovative juxtaposition of animation media.

In "Even Pigeons Go to Heaven," (France, 9 minutes) a priest tries to sell an old man a machine that will get him guaranteed entry into heaven. Whimsical and detail-oriented, this tightly written short is puppet-animated.

"My Love," (Russia, 27 minutes) features paint-on-glass animation, which swirls and churns like an Impressionist painting come to life. If the story of a teenage boy in love with two very different women gets a tad long-winded and angsty, just sit back and watch the beautiful pictures blend and roil on the screen.

Finally, "Peter & the Wolf" (U.K. and Poland, 27 minutes) is a more modern animation set to the famous symphonic piece (Peter wears a puffer jacket, but don't worry -- there's still a real wolf). The waxy-faced people-puppets in this have creepy, dead eyes set in cute faces; it's the animals here -- especially the fat, furry cat -- that steal the show. This "Peter & the Wolf" got a touch of Jan Svankmajer's creepiness as well as a dose of bleak/funny Eastern European humor.