Witness the Emotional Journey of Kobe Bryants Oscar Win in This Mesmerizing Animation

He approached the former Disney animator Glen Keane after seeing his film “Duet.” Bryant explained in an interview in 2017, “Animation can capture the emotion in the story in a much more compelling, visual way than live action.”

“Dear Basketball” illustrated the poem Bryant wrote in 2015 as a farewell to the sport he loved; it served as his announcement that the 2015-16 season would be his last. In the poem, recognizing that his body can no longer bear the game’s demands, he accepts the inevitably of retirement.

Keane’s rough pencil drawings depict Bryant as both a Los Angeles Lakers superstar and as a small boy, executing the same leaps and dribbling maneuvers. The film, featuring a score by the composer John Williams, won both the Academy Award for best animated short in 2018 and the Annie Award, the animation industry’s most prestigious prize.

Why Did Kobe Bryant Win An Oscar? Remembering His Academy Award For Short Film 'dear Basketball'

Looking back Sunday after hearing of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash at age 41, Keane said sadly: “Kobe was the most passionate man who was led by his heart and his intellect. He was a great thinker with an insatiable hunger for learning: As soon as he stepped into animation, he eagerly began soaking up every aspect of it. Working with him was a dream and one of the high points of my career.”

Keane, who hadn’t touched a basketball since high school gym class, insisted at the time that the athlete “couldn’t pick a worse animator for basketball.” In a 2017 interview, Bryant explained why he thought the contrary.

“Glen came to the sport with fresh eyes, ” he said. “Someone who’s been watching basketball their whole lives — and playing it — tends to miss the small moves, the details. When you come at with fresh eyes, you look at every single thing because it’s all new.”

Kobe Bryant's Dear Basketball Wins Best Animated Short Film At Oscars 2018

Bryant and Keane studied game footage together. “Kobe remembers everything about those plays and talked about what was going through his mind, ” Keane said.Credit... Bryan Derballa for The New York Times

The two men bonded through a shared love of Beethoven. Keane, who had animated Beast in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, was amazed to learn that in one championship game, “Kobe structured his performance and the strategy of the game to the rhythms of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.”

Bryant explained in the 2017 interview: “Every game has a structure, just like a piece of music has structure and momentum. You have to be conscious of how that momentum is building to be able to shift or alter it.”

Jlo Receives Mtv's Generation Award

Keane recalled studying game footage with Bryant. “Kobe remembers everything about those plays, and talked about what was going through his mind, ” he said. “It was really important to me to animate not just the physical action, but what he was thinking.”

Keane said that in a way, “I believe I know Kobe better than he does, because he hasn’t had to draw himself.

”I’d see the way his knees would angle in as he was shooting the ball, the way he’d kick his feet out to throw his hips around to give himself some lateral movement, ” he said.

Kobe Bryant Wins Oscar For Short Film, 'dear Basketball'

To score the short film, Bryant asked Williams, the five-time Oscar winning composer for the “Star Wars” series, “Schindler’s List, ” “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” and other films.

They had already begun a relationship of sorts. Bryant had previously reached out to Williams, thinking he could learn a thing or two from another master of the score.

“What makes a John Williams piece timeless?” Bryant mused to The Los Angeles Times. “How is he using each instrument? How is he building momentum? As a basketball player, what I found myself doing a lot was essentially conducting a game, right?”

Vanessa Bryant Sues La County Sheriff Over Photos From Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash Site

And Bryant confessed to an ulterior motive: each night he would lull his daughters to sleep with Williams’s melodies — especially “Hedwig’s Theme” from the “Harry Potter” films — and he wanted to take a picture with the composer to show them.

“I lay them on my chest and I hum it to them, and the vibrations of it just relaxes them, ” Bryant said.

“During my friendship with Kobe, he was always seeking to define and understand inspiration even while modestly, and almost unknowably, he was an inspiration to countless millions, ” Williams said. “His enormous potential contribution to unity, understanding and social justice must now be mourned with him.”

Kobe Bryant & Shaq O'neal Win Nba Finals With The Lakers

Bryant had plans to create animated projects that would attract African-American audiences — and artists, who are underrepresented in the art form.

“I see so much opportunity to add diversity and bring back the beautiful art of hand-drawn characters that allow the animators to deeply express themselves, ” he said in 2017.

On Sunday, Keane said he “can’t help but think about the final shot in ‘Dear Basketball’ of Kobe walking into the light and hearing ‘Love you always, Kobe.’”Spike Lee's bright purple suit trimmed with Lakers' yellow lining and embroidered with the number 24 on his lapels and the back of his jacket was the first glimpse of the 92nd Oscars tribute to the late Kobe Bryant. Coming on the heels of the Lakers tribute to Bryant after his tragic passing, and touching tributes at the Super Bowl and the 2020 Grammys, the Feb. 9 telecast including several moments that honored the NBA star not just as a father and a basketball player, but as an Oscar winner: Kobe Bryant won Best Animated Short Film in 2018 for

Kobe Bryant's Oscar Award: Bond Over Beethoven Led To 'dear Basketball'

After Lee gave an emotional interview to Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet, the tributes continued with former football player Matthew A. Cherry accepting the same award Bryant did in 2018 for Best Animated Short for his film,

Accepting his award with Karen Rupert Toliver, Cherry ended his speech with a nod to Bryant: “This award is dedicated to Kobe Bryant. May we all have as great a second act as he had, he said.

That Bryant's tribute would be part of the In Memoriam segment of the Academy Awards that honors all the people of the film industry that we lost in the last year. I think what's really appropriate is that Kobe was part of the film community, and as such, he will be embraced within the In Memoriam section, Allain said.

Rip Kobe Bryant: Sports, Music And Hollywood Stars Mourn Nba Legend

Bryant's tribute opened the In Memoriam. As Billie Eilish sang Yesterday, a photo of Bryant holding his Oscar with a quote that read, Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged, flashed across the screen.

When Bryant won the Oscar for the short, he thanked a long list of people ending with his wife Vanessa Bryant and his daughters, whom he called his inspiration — not only for the film, but in life.

The five-minute short is an animated version of a poem written by Bryant in 2015 when he was gearing up to retire from the Los Angeles Lakers at the end of that season. The full poem, which can be read here, is Bryant's ode to the sport and how he fell in love with it as a child. He wrote about how much he put into the game and how he felt about leaving it behind, but also how it would also always be a part of him.

South Korea's Parasite Makes Oscars History

And we both know, no matter what I do next, I'll always be that kid with the rolled up socks, garbage can in the corner, :05 seconds on the clock, ball in my hands. 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1.

In the animated short, a young Bryant sinks the basket following that line, just like he did so many times as a professional basketball player.

A one-minute trailer of the short is available for free (above). It contains the aforementioned section above as well as a couple of other clips. The full animated short is available for purchase on Amazon in a collection with the other 2018 Oscar nominated shorts.

Oscars Party Diary: Inside The A List Parties And Events

Bryant said after winning the Academy Award, I feel better than winning a championship, to be honest with you. I swear I do.'' And now he'll be remembered Sunday night in part for that very achievement.

Somos LatinxI Watched Chasing Papi 20 Years Later & It’s As Cringe As ... Rarely do I watch a movie that leaves me truly perplexed. I often have a good sense of what transpired during those two hours, give or take, and don’t reby Mekita Rivas

EntertainmentNetflix’s Chupa Misses the Mark on Reimagining the Chupaca... Latines love entertainment. For years, we have been the top moviegoers — even though the films we watch rarely reflect our communities. While we represenby Nicole Froio

Michael Jordan Remembers Kobe Bryant: 'he Was Like A Little Brother To Me'

UnbotheredA Thousand And One’s Teyana Taylor Left All Her Pain (And ... Major spoilers ahead. There is a quiet rage simmering throughout A Thousand And One, threatening to spill out onto the changing streets of Harlem, from theby Kathleen Newman-B...

EntertainmentThe Theme Of The 2023 Oscars Was Crying If you were expecting to escape the Oscars with dry eyes, we’re sorry to say that you definitely didn’t make it out unscathed. Within the first few momby Katherine Singh

UnbotheredAngela Bassett Doesn’t Owe The Oscars A Thing

Highsnobiety Magazine 10