Geefwee Boedoe honed his CGI chops during a seven-year stint at Pixar Animation Studios, but when it came time to make his Oscar-nominated short satire Let’s Pollute, he chose an old-fashioned grease pencil for most of the heavy lifting.

“If you rely on too many computer tricks, you feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that before,’” Boedoe told Wired.com in a phone interview.

As seen in the Let’s Pollute clips above and below, Boedoe’s perky faux-educational film uses scanned-in wallpaper patterns, watercolor smears and fabric samples for backgrounds, with the artist’s hand-drawn figures taking center stage.

“Everything eventually went through the computer but I tried to bring in as much tactile texture from the real world as I could,” said the San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker.

Boedoe said it can be difficult to get studio backing for a film like Let’s Pollute, which exhibits a political edge. “Some of the bigger studios don’t want to stick their necks out too far,” he said.

One of five contenders competing for the Best Animated Short Academy Award on Feb. 27, Let’s Pollute is currently playing in limited theatrical release as part of Shorts International’s Short Films 2011 Oscar showcase. The short will be available on iTunes starting Feb. 22.

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