Pixar sparkshorts Plan: Use 10-minute short film to understand a lifetime of issues

To create a Toy story that belongs to the world of toys, "the" Undersea story ", which emphasizes Rakuten's difficulty in facing life, and the" Brave Legend ", which has turned on the traditional fate of self-subversion, have you seen several of the animated long films that flip the impression of" childlike fun "? What do you know about the spirit you want to convey behind many works? Leading cartoons to jump off the age layer, creating animated film boom one of the driving force behind, is Pixar animation studio, a dream and give courage of the Dream team.

Pixar's long animated films can satisfy children's surprise and curiosity about the world, but also make adults reflect, with a simple eye to see many of the life problems that were once thought to be unsolved. In addition to the long films that always resonate, Pixar launched the Sparkshorts program in 2019, allowing different animation teams within the company to produce animated short films for 6 months, inviting emerging animators to create new stories from a fairy tale perspective, while also creating experimental animations.

As of February 20, 2019, Sparkshorts plans to release a total of three animated short films, namely: "Purl", "Smash and Grab", "Kitbull", three short films with different styles, including realism, science fiction, human vulnerability and so on, It also proves that in addition to being able to make long animated films, the short film story is difficult to fail the Pixar team. (Recommended reading: Pixar classic Animation teaches me things: fear, because you don't know yourself enough )

The first nine-minute short film, "Purl," tells the story of women in the male cultural workplace. 10 minutes less than a time, what kind of spark will appear? Let Pixar tell you.

"Purl": Can you really be happy to change yourself to cater to others?

"Pink hair ball"purl into the dream of a long time in the company, the heart of countless enthusiasm and yearning for the job, but in the group life encountered difficulties-only because she is the company full of male employees, the only female employees, and also a pink hair ball. "

Picture | "Purl" stills

Purl in the tea room to tell jokes colleagues do not understand, in the meeting proposed method no one to believe, can not smoothly integrate into the workplace environment, she decided to hide their own nature, and strive to cater to everyone's shape of the workplace culture. She put on a suit that was the same as the rest of the staff, used the same style of speaking, continued to stand with her colleagues after work, and booze the wine.

Purl, who seems to be gradually adapting to the workplace culture, suddenly recalls that she was so unique and curious and has a special point of view about the world after the arrival of another female clerk, Lacy.
"Purl" story plot, from the director Kristen Lester's own experience, when Kristen full of enthusiasm into the animation industry, launched the first animation work, the entire studio only one of their own physiological women. In order to continue to do the love of the work, Kristen change their own culture to cater to male colleagues, hiding the femininity. It was only after entering Pixar to meet other female employees that it was discussed together that it was a common experience for female animators.

Picture | "Purl" stills

The desire for a sense of belonging and expectation of being understood by others is a common feature that people will have regardless of age, time and place. But when the desire to belong is strongly over, we may instead change our original self and try to cater to the "norms" of others. How to strike a balance between integration into the environment and retention of self is still a life issue for many people.

Pixar animation has always been good at using animation and lens language, to convey deep value to the audience, and the Sparkshorts program's debut film "Purl" is less than 10 minutes, awakening the true self that sleeps in the hearts of many people.

"Smash and Grab": Not free, rather dead

How much are you willing to pay for freedom?

Picture | "Smash and Grab" stills

"Smash and Grab" tells the story of two robots that need to connect energy to operate, doing repetitive work day after day on the train, they are boring to life, and they crave free air outside the train. One day a robot saw the outside world and found that he could move freely without being tied up with energy, so he could let go of the hunted, and Bo out the freedom he had always longed for.

It's just that the process of jumping out of energy control is not as simple as it might be, and they are both at risk of life, and at the last moment of their lives, they depend on each other's help to survive and move together towards the land of freedom.
The animated short film was created by Brian Larsen, the story of the Academy's best animated short film and the best cartoon, which took the debut of the Little Snipe and the legend of bravery. In "Smash and Grab", the machine people did not open their mouth to say any word, all the plot depends on the body and the lens language to tell, his deep film narrative ability is also in the film panoramic.

Picture | "Smash and Grab" stills

It is human nature to yearn for freedom, and even robots are no exception. The production team was originally inspired by everyday life, and some had to bow to the real environment and live a regular life while yearning for a free and free group. (Recommended reading: Pixar Animation: Embracing the frailty of adults with a child's eye )

Let the "Robot", which has always given people a cold sense of technology, interpret such a plot full of temperature and human nature, Brian Larsen uses images to subvert the average person's imagination of sci-fi films, but also for the people who can not pursue freedom in real life, injected a dose of power from the future, Encourage people to always get up and act for the freedom they want.

"Kitbull": Cats and dogs, from fear to acquaintance

How can you arm yourself in front of the strong and not show your frailty and helplessness? The spark plan's third animated film, "Kitbull," released a few days ago, and the previous "Smash and Grab" is the same, the whole film still does not have a line. In Pixar's past animations, animals, toys and so on are able to speak, but director Rosana Sullivan deliberately arranged the protagonist "little Black Cat" can not speak, simply because-that is what the cat should look like.

Picture | "Kitbull" stills

Sullivan also incorporated his shy personality into character creation, and the little black cat was timid, but had to disguise himself for wandering on the streets. Viewers can see the cruelty and ruthlessness of humans through the clear eyes of black cats, and they can also understand cats and dogs from an animal's point of view, and how two seemingly unsuitable animals become close friends and start a new life with each other.

"Kitbull" in particular, looks like a traditional 2D animation, in fact, is actually hand-painted technology plus computer CG synthesis works. Animation Factory brand recently set off an old thinking of the innovative direction, including the recent "Spider-Man: The New Universe" also used this technology. Producing 2D-style cartoons in 3D may be able to see more development in future animated long films.

Picture | "Kitbull" stills

Pixar has launched the Sparkshorts program to train emerging animators, allowing animated viewers to enjoy more relaxed short film creations in addition to the theater support animated long films, and the three animated short films that have now been released have been exposed for less than a week, all of which have exceeded 1 million points on Youtube. Shows the demand and preference for animated short films in the increasingly compressed time.

If you also want to understand adult problems from a child's point of view, take a look at the Sparkshorts program!