Animated Shorts That Define Disney’s Success

Walt Disney was a huge fan of animated short films, as out of 22 of his Academy Awards, a majority were for the category of Best Animated Short Film. But after his death in 1966, the Walt Disney Studios took a long break, about 40 years, from short films, only producing a few every so often. However, all of that changed when Disney merged with Pixar in 2006, with Pixar taking the lead and filling the void of short animated films. With Pixar's help, Disney was back in business and have created some great short animated films over the past few years.

Wired.com ranked the Animated Shorts That Define Disney’s Success, coming to a list of nine short animated films. I personally enjoyed all of the films, but these were my favorite two:

1.) Feast (2014) (Wired.com's number three)

This was my personal favorite because how simple, yet great the idea was. Anyone with a dog knows how dogs love table food and how they will start to crave it over their own food. I personally have four dogs, and can see each of my dogs doing it. I thought the montage was put together very well, I thought the editing was great and on-point, and did a good job of showing the dog over the years in a quick and effective way. It was just a great short to watch.

2.) Paperman Trailer (2012) (Wired.com's number one)

I thought this was another great animation because of how well it was put together. The animation is again so simple, but really tells a great story. I loved how all the papers were used together and how they really added to the story. I also loved the black and white, in this digital age, black and white is rare to see and it is even more rare to see a black and white film done right. And this short animation is exactly that, a black and white film done right. It truly added to the story and just gave it an extra special quality.

To get the complete list and article click here.

Paperman

Here is a short Disney Animation Studios made in 2012. It is meant to be in 3D, but this will suffice. The story, so simple, is told beautifully with amazing animation. It was directed by John Kahrs, who is also known for his work on some of Disney's most popular films including Frozen, Monster's Inc., Wreck It Ralph, to name a few. 

Here's the director, talking about the inspiration of the short.

This is a very short animation I found on YouTube, I believe it's a student animation from some competition. Anyway, I picked it because it does a very good job of telling a story. I won't spoil it for you, but the ending is great, and very unexpected. In just over a minute this animation conveys a sense of tension, whimsy, anxiety, and a plethora of other emotions. I think story really is the most important part of any animation, game, video, website, or whatever you're making. Conveying a feeling or a theme is, in theory, why you're creating whatever it is you're working on. I think the creator/creators of this video did a really good job of conveying a mood, theme, and feeling in this piece. I also think they did a really nice job of leaving some questions in this story. You don't know what this monster is, you don't know why it's chasing this guy or why they're on this train, and I think that's deliberate. There's enough holes in this story for people to make assumptions and fill in the blanks, and that's pretty cool too.

Short is Sweet

Like many of my peers in the class who are still merely in awe of some of the larger and more ambitious projects we've seen as we scour the Internet for examples, references, and inspiration, I feel overwhelmed. Even a project as long as a minute still involves hours of work.

That's why I felt comforted when I found this blog post that showcases the results of a 5 second sandcastle building contest. Below are some of my favorites that highlight the fact that you don't need to create the next feature animation, especially when you're first starting out.

Sandcastle from Zublime on Vimeo.

 

There's An App For That from Mantas Bačiuška on Vimeo.

King For a Day - GSG 5 Second Project from Quin Barclay on Vimeo.

5 Second Project - Sandcastle from Sam Jones on Vimeo.


(VIA: GREYSCALE GORILLA)

An oddly interesting short animated film

Hello everyone,

 So to start off my name is Hunter and I'm extremely excited to be taking MG & A this semester. Since I have a knack for finding interesting things to blog about my first entry will be about a short animated film featuring Dock Ellis & The LSD No No created by James Blagden. This animated film captures the attention of the viewer by incorporating audio from a previous radio interview with Dock Ellis (Former MLB Pitcher) and also creative animation to portray the story. While I don't support how Ellis took LSD in this film I thought the way in which the film was constructed was inspiration for future work (after all whats a product without an idea).  I have a huge interest in telling stories through various mediums such as animation and I hope to only expand my knowledge throughout the course of the semester.
             
                    

Partly Cloudy

Pixar's use of 3D animation is incredible, but you also have to admire their knack for story telling. In just 2 minutes, the creators of this piece were able to develop character, create a conflict, and convey a message. And how inventive is this short! It takes an entirely unique look at the classic stork story by developing character out of a creature conjuring cloud. I think one of the powers of animation is to create characters out of the inanimate and this piece represents that greatly. In no other medium could you create a character out of a cloud and convey such emotion through this character. I think story-tellers of all forms could learn a lot about conflict and character arc through Pixar shorts.

Mark Twain Claymation

Before you watch this video, just know that this is some really creepy claymation. I personally find it really interesting but some people might get kind of bugged out from it. This 5 minute claymation is based off of Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger. It’s the story of three characters who meet a strange creature (satan?) who basically points out the flaws of human nature and our society in general. It’s a very dark piece but the animation is amazing. I can’t imagine how long this video took to make. I saw this video one night on adult swim really late at night once, and thought I was dreaming. “Life itself is only a vision, a dream, nothing exists  save empty space and you” is the closing line in this video and directly out of Mark Twains story. Check it out if you're into satan or claymation 

Logorama

This short animated film is directed by a group who calls themselves H5. Although it’s 16 minutes I highly recommend everyone to take some time out of their night and  watch this. It won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short film and won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Immediately the first thing you’ll notice is all the different logos. In total, this movie used 2,500 different logos/mascots. The extensive use of these logos is a statement of what our society is becoming or what will come. We are run by these major corporations whether we realize it or not. The main characters in this film are all logos from different companies and of course the evil character is Ronald McDonald. The police are trying to take him down because he’s on a shooting spree but simultaneously an earthquake begins and the entire city of Los Angeles falls to pieces and everything explodes and ends. This is a powerful statement about the world we live in and the inevitable demise of it.  Other then the messages, the animation is amazing in this film. The logos come to life and are just as exact as the real ones. 

Timelapse

I'd like to share a video that features New York City when it was mostly without power. The guy who produced this went out on the streets and recorded timeless of the city without power. This was to show how ghost like and odd it was without power. You also have to respect the producer's framing with his time-lapse shots. You can tell they were very carefully chosen.

NYC Dark from Already Alive on Vimeo.

Peter and the Wolf

When I was younger, one of my favorite things to watch was Disney's 1946 animated version of "Peter and the Wolf." It was a classic Disney animation and watching it now for the first time in years makes me very nostalgic. I especially love how different instruments and riffs go with different characters in the story. Here is the original cartoon:

I also stumbled across another version of "Peter and the Wolf." This version was made in 2006through the Polish animation studio SE-MA-FOR and produced by Hugh Welchman. The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 2008. It uses stop motion animation to tell the classic story only this time, it takes place in an industrial wasteland. I found an interview on NPR with producer Hugh Welchman. He talks about the short film and how it was made. He also talks about why they decided to eliminate the narrator in this version. The interview is extremely interesting so I definitely recommend checking it out! Here is the animated version:

It is interesting to see both the Disney version and the stop motion version. They were made in such different time periods with completely different methods, yet both are captivating and tell a great story.