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DAY 255

Pixar's beginnings has been with short films and even with lots of their focus being on full-length films, they never lost that starting point. Every time they'd release a new movie, a new animated short would be shown before the film plays. They'd each be roughly under 5 minutes long, have simple concepts and are generally silent shorts (dialogue-wise that is, with a few exceptions). I know this drawing doesn't have ALL the Pixar shorts, this is just covering the original idea ones. Spin-off shorts of already-existing franchises will have their own separate picture.
Geri's Game was paired with A Bug's Life. A elderly man sets up a chessboard but there's no one to play with, so he decides to play against himself. There's nice accordion music, it's surprisingly suspenseful for a chess game and Geri is so entertaining; both the nervous feeble white team and the aggressive jerky black team. Seeing him get so competitive when there's nothing to loose or gain, you forget that it's just one man! You can't tell if this is all in his head (and he was just sitting on the white team after the first blow) or if he's just that into it, you can go either way. Geri also appeared as the toy cleaner in Toy Story 2 who fixes Woody, chess pieces and all!
For the Birds was paired with Monsters Inc. A flock of birds perch theirsleves on a telephone pole wire and try to get rid of this big stupid gawky bird, literally throwing them off balance. How jerky the little birds are (even from the start with their bickering) is enjoyable, the airheaded persona of the gawky bird is likable, the sound effects are great (they sound like children's bike horns), the cartoony designs and the ending result is hilarious with the birds' comeuppance. The birds would also appear in Cars (which doesn't make sense) and Inside Out.
Boundin' was paired with Incredibles. It tells the story of a little lamb whose glistening white wool is shaved off humiliating him, only for a jackalope to teach the lamb how to cope and how to bound. All the things that make this short great are all due to one person: Bud Luckey who did everything in this short. He wrote the story, he designed everything, he wrote the music and he did all the voices. It's a great hodge-podge of what makes Bud a legend in animation, it feels a lot like the classic Sesame Street shorts Bud made back in the 70s and it's just a feel-good story about what's on the inside, not the outside, wool or no wool. This is one of my family's favorites.
One Man Band was paired with Cars. Two competing one-man-bands try to see who can put on a better performance for a little girl's coin. There's lots of great music with brass vs strings, you can totally see WHY these men are squandering change (it all went into those ridiculous instruments), the escalation, the Greece-mixed-with-France look of the alley and the last minute with the girl will leave you laughing in the isles.
Lifted was paired with Ratatouille. In the middle of nowhere, an alien boy is trying to pass his abduction test, but is failing miserably. The reactions the kid alien has is really flexable (probably from the jello-like skin he has like his... I dunno, is the big alien supposed to be a father or a teacher?), the control panel looks like a nightmare waiting to happen, the man being abducted is a monster heavy sleeper (poor Linguini) and it has so many great "screw with the audience" laughs.
Presto was paired with WALL-E. A rabbit in a magic act refuses to perform because of his starving stomach, only for it to interfere with his magician's act. I don't think there was ever a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs gets involved in magic, but if there were, I feel this is what it'd be like. It feels so different from your average Pixar short and that's where a lot of it shines. I like how this puts a different spin on how the "pulling a rabbit out of a hat" trick works, the movements feel more Tex Avery, the expressions are rubbery, both characters are both antagonists and protagonists in each others' eyes (they do both make up in the end), Statler and Waldorf make a quick cameo (though it's sadly a photograph render and not a CG render) and the comedy is totally on point. From the "how did we end up here again" climax to the multiple ways Presto gets tortured, this is one of the most hilarious shorts.
Partly Cloudy was paired with UP. We see where babies come from: cloud people who have the storks deliver them to homes, but one particular cloud-and-stork team is more rough than the others. The torture humor is hilarious once again, there's good cloud gags, there's a smooth passage of time, this new fictional angle of how babies are made is clever (clouds making baby figures and zapping them to life) and the friendship between the main cloud and stork is believable. The cloud isn't trying to hurt his feathered friend, he just needs practice with his job. Even when the stork "leaves" near the end, it's just for best intentions so they're both work safe and sound again.
Day & Night was paired with Toy Story 3. Two different 2D personas meet face-to-face; one with a world of day inside him and another with night. They don't get along at first but they overcome their differences as they see what greatness the other can behold. This is my all-time favorite Pixar short. The cartoon animation of both Day and Night corresponding with the CGI environments inside them (had to be SO difficult to edit with 3 different layers), the montage of them getting to know each other, the visual gags timing perfectly to the characters' reaction and that radio broadcast speech at the end. Man, is that beautiful.
La Luna was paired with Brave. A boy, his father and grandfather have a very specific task looking after the moon. This has dialogue to an extent but it's really just gibberish trying to sound Italian, the colors are beautiful, it has a subtle "finding you're own identity" arch, I really like how they depict the moon (just the sound effects for when the stars clink and clatter matches how they're depicted perfectly) and it has a wonderful children's storybook feel to it, like the works of Eric Carle or Goodnight Moon. With each new event, you keep thinking "wait, why's that happening" and in the end you just go "oooooohh" and "aaaaaaww".
Blue Umbrella was paired with Monsters University. This is the same story as Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue-Bonnet, only with umbrellas instead. On a rainy day in a city, a blue umbrella falls for a red umbrella, they get separated in a crowd (because, y'know, different destination and people are actually using them) but fate soon joins them together. This feels like the most realistic animation of all the shorts; I mean, the city and crowd shots feel like this was live-action and not all-animated. The story's cute, the sentient faces look believable enough giving a Brave Little Toaster vibe (but the umbrellas' faces could've been better than simple emoji-like face) and it has nice harmonizing music to go along with it.
Lava was paired with Inside Out. It's a musical love story between 2 volcanoes. This is the second only all-dialogue short and it's another short of beauty. The Hawaiian music is wonderful to listen, the singers are great, the way they put faces on the 2 volcanoes doesn't feel tacked on or stupidly designed, the atmosphere matches, there's so many moments where they're just teasing with our emotions (as Inside Out would want) thinking it'll have an uphappy ending and the wishing for romance is so bittersweet you won't stand how beautiful it is.
Sanjay's Super Team was paired with Good Dinosaur. This I can't really talk about since I didn't see the Good Dino. All I know is it's Indian/Hindu-based, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short and the main character looks really scary in his design.
Piper was paired with Finding Dory. Yeah, you read right; not even waiting 'til the DVD comes out! A baby sandpiper learns to hunt for food in the waves and not be fed by his parents. This feels like something out of the CBS' Sunday Morning's Moment in Nature. The story is cute, the animation flow is the most animal-realistic, the setting and attention to little details are incredible, there's a few big laughs that you wouldn't expect, Piper's fear of getting used to water is relatable to all of us and there's a lot of great perspective angles.

DAY 257

Comment & enjoy!

Description
DAY 255

Pixar's beginnings has been with short films and even with lots of their focus being on full-length films, they never lost that starting point. Every time they'd release a new movie, a new animated short would be shown before the film plays. They'd each be roughly under 5 minutes long, have simple concepts and are generally silent shorts (dialogue-wise that is, with a few exceptions). I know this drawing doesn't have ALL the Pixar shorts, this is just covering the original idea ones. Spin-off shorts of already-existing franchises will have their own separate picture.
Geri's Game was paired with A Bug's Life. A elderly man sets up a chessboard but there's no one to play with, so he decides to play against himself. There's nice accordion music, it's surprisingly suspenseful for a chess game and Geri is so entertaining; both the nervous feeble white team and the aggressive jerky black team. Seeing him get so competitive when there's nothing to loose or gain, you forget that it's just one man! You can't tell if this is all in his head (and he was just sitting on the white team after the first blow) or if he's just that into it, you can go either way. Geri also appeared as the toy cleaner in Toy Story 2 who fixes Woody, chess pieces and all!
For the Birds was paired with Monsters Inc. A flock of birds perch theirsleves on a telephone pole wire and try to get rid of this big stupid gawky bird, literally throwing them off balance. How jerky the little birds are (even from the start with their bickering) is enjoyable, the airheaded persona of the gawky bird is likable, the sound effects are great (they sound like children's bike horns), the cartoony designs and the ending result is hilarious with the birds' comeuppance. The birds would also appear in Cars (which doesn't make sense) and Inside Out.
Boundin' was paired with Incredibles. It tells the story of a little lamb whose glistening white wool is shaved off humiliating him, only for a jackalope to teach the lamb how to cope and how to bound. All the things that make this short great are all due to one person: Bud Luckey who did everything in this short. He wrote the story, he designed everything, he wrote the music and he did all the voices. It's a great hodge-podge of what makes Bud a legend in animation, it feels a lot like the classic Sesame Street shorts Bud made back in the 70s and it's just a feel-good story about what's on the inside, not the outside, wool or no wool. This is one of my family's favorites.
One Man Band was paired with Cars. Two competing one-man-bands try to see who can put on a better performance for a little girl's coin. There's lots of great music with brass vs strings, you can totally see WHY these men are squandering change (it all went into those ridiculous instruments), the escalation, the Greece-mixed-with-France look of the alley and the last minute with the girl will leave you laughing in the isles.
Lifted was paired with Ratatouille. In the middle of nowhere, an alien boy is trying to pass his abduction test, but is failing miserably. The reactions the kid alien has is really flexable (probably from the jello-like skin he has like his... I dunno, is the big alien supposed to be a father or a teacher?), the control panel looks like a nightmare waiting to happen, the man being abducted is a monster heavy sleeper (poor Linguini) and it has so many great "screw with the audience" laughs.
Presto was paired with WALL-E. A rabbit in a magic act refuses to perform because of his starving stomach, only for it to interfere with his magician's act. I don't think there was ever a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs gets involved in magic, but if there were, I feel this is what it'd be like. It feels so different from your average Pixar short and that's where a lot of it shines. I like how this puts a different spin on how the "pulling a rabbit out of a hat" trick works, the movements feel more Tex Avery, the expressions are rubbery, both characters are both antagonists and protagonists in each others' eyes (they do both make up in the end), Statler and Waldorf make a quick cameo (though it's sadly a photograph render and not a CG render) and the comedy is totally on point. From the "how did we end up here again" climax to the multiple ways Presto gets tortured, this is one of the most hilarious shorts.
Partly Cloudy was paired with UP. We see where babies come from: cloud people who have the storks deliver them to homes, but one particular cloud-and-stork team is more rough than the others. The torture humor is hilarious once again, there's good cloud gags, there's a smooth passage of time, this new fictional angle of how babies are made is clever (clouds making baby figures and zapping them to life) and the friendship between the main cloud and stork is believable. The cloud isn't trying to hurt his feathered friend, he just needs practice with his job. Even when the stork "leaves" near the end, it's just for best intentions so they're both work safe and sound again.
Day & Night was paired with Toy Story 3. Two different 2D personas meet face-to-face; one with a world of day inside him and another with night. They don't get along at first but they overcome their differences as they see what greatness the other can behold. This is my all-time favorite Pixar short. The cartoon animation of both Day and Night corresponding with the CGI environments inside them (had to be SO difficult to edit with 3 different layers), the montage of them getting to know each other, the visual gags timing perfectly to the characters' reaction and that radio broadcast speech at the end. Man, is that beautiful.
La Luna was paired with Brave. A boy, his father and grandfather have a very specific task looking after the moon. This has dialogue to an extent but it's really just gibberish trying to sound Italian, the colors are beautiful, it has a subtle "finding you're own identity" arch, I really like how they depict the moon (just the sound effects for when the stars clink and clatter matches how they're depicted perfectly) and it has a wonderful children's storybook feel to it, like the works of Eric Carle or Goodnight Moon. With each new event, you keep thinking "wait, why's that happening" and in the end you just go "oooooohh" and "aaaaaaww".
Blue Umbrella was paired with Monsters University. This is the same story as Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue-Bonnet, only with umbrellas instead. On a rainy day in a city, a blue umbrella falls for a red umbrella, they get separated in a crowd (because, y'know, different destination and people are actually using them) but fate soon joins them together. This feels like the most realistic animation of all the shorts; I mean, the city and crowd shots feel like this was live-action and not all-animated. The story's cute, the sentient faces look believable enough giving a Brave Little Toaster vibe (but the umbrellas' faces could've been better than simple emoji-like face) and it has nice harmonizing music to go along with it.
Lava was paired with Inside Out. It's a musical love story between 2 volcanoes. This is the second only all-dialogue short and it's another short of beauty. The Hawaiian music is wonderful to listen, the singers are great, the way they put faces on the 2 volcanoes doesn't feel tacked on or stupidly designed, the atmosphere matches, there's so many moments where they're just teasing with our emotions (as Inside Out would want) thinking it'll have an uphappy ending and the wishing for romance is so bittersweet you won't stand how beautiful it is.
Sanjay's Super Team was paired with Good Dinosaur. This I can't really talk about since I didn't see the Good Dino. All I know is it's Indian/Hindu-based, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short and the main character looks really scary in his design.
Piper was paired with Finding Dory. Yeah, you read right; not even waiting 'til the DVD comes out! A baby sandpiper learns to hunt for food in the waves and not be fed by his parents. This feels like something out of the CBS' Sunday Morning's Moment in Nature. The story is cute, the animation flow is the most animal-realistic, the setting and attention to little details are incredible, there's a few big laughs that you wouldn't expect, Piper's fear of getting used to water is relatable to all of us and there's a lot of great perspective angles.

DAY 257

Comment & enjoy!