2026 Oscars Short Film Contenders: ‘Whale 52’ Director Daniel Neiden (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

Welcome to Cartoon Brew’s series of spotlights focusing on the animated shorts that have qualified for the 2026 Oscars. The films in this series have qualified through one of multiple routes: by winning an Oscar-qualifying award at a film festival, by exhibiting theatrically, or by winning a Student Academy Award.

Today’s short is Whale 52, directed by Daniel Neiden and produced and animated by Bill Plympton. The short has screened at several festivals and qualified for the Oscars through exhibition.

Based on a true story, Whale 52 follows an 80-year-old school volunteer and Enam, a selectively mute third-grader, whose bond deepens through a magical pen and journal that allows them to communicate when words fail. Enam eventually shares the story of Whale 52, sometimes called the loneliest whale in the world, which sings at a different frequency than the rest of its kind. Eventually, the viewer learns why Enam feels an affinity for the creature in a well-earned and breath-catching reveal that we won’t spoil here; suffice to say, the short has an organization widely respected for protecting the mental health and well-being of young people attached. Plympton’s scribbly hand is instantly recognizable in the film’s 2D animation, complemented by an uplifting string-led score that perfectly matches the animation’s hand-crafted style.

Cartoon Brew: What was it about this story or concept that connected with you and compelled you to direct the film?

Daniel Neiden: My business and writing partner, Edward Jordon, is the basis of the story. Edward was once a teacher in Florida and had a young, selectively mute student. Edward struggled to find a way to break through, ultimately happening upon the key to the whole thing via a blank book and pen, and carrying the wonder of that connection with him all these years later.  Edward wrote the first version of the script, which won some very fine awards, but didn’t get the film any closer to being made until Bill Plympton said he very much liked the story and would be honored to animate it.

What did you learn through the experience of making this film, either production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creatively, or about the subject matter? 

As the director, I was gifted with an exquisite shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration with our editor, Owen Andrejco, right in Bill’s studio, with Bill conveniently located six to eight feet away, finishing the drawings to be scanned and colored by our intern… if ever there were a “how the sausage is made” experience for an animation fan, this was certainly it. When Bill needed to know the emotional subtleties of, for example, the shudder that comes right after one has been sobbing, I would self-tape it on my phone and send him the video of me doing that. Getting the same emotions back, but in Bill’s incredible depths, always exceeded Edward’s and my expectations. Always. When we began to see this unbelievable array of emotions take form and become our story…there were no weak links.

Can you describe how you developed your visual approach to the film? Why did you settle on this style/technique?

As for the visual approach and technique, Bill chose a minimalist style of decor with no background he had not used since Your Face.

What made Bill the right person to work with on this particular story?

So many of Bill’s characters in his almost 100 films live in isolation, yearning to connect. Over the almost forty years I’ve known him, Bill has often characterized himself as “being in the communication business.” When you watch Whale 52, it is what I know as vintage Bill, channeling all of us as we search for a listening heart.  We recently got a beautiful quote from Sir Ian McKellen saying, “Whale 52 is a thrillingly original creation to watch, and to listen and respond to. Its final revelation took my breath away.” I’m proud to report that, judging by the sounds of the many catch-breaths during our week-long theatrical run at the IFC in New York, Edward’s story has been placed in the best hands possible.