Disney Plus’ New Pixar Popcorn Shorts Changed How The Animation Studio Works

Pixar Popcorn, a new bundle of 10 shorts hitting Disney Plus on January 22, brings back some favorite Pixar characters in small stories. From Radiator Springs cars challenging each other and a parallel parking contest to Parr family superheroes sneaking around the house to do chores, the shorts encompass a wide array of quirky vignettes. and slice of life unfolding in the worlds of Toy story movies, the The world of Nemo films, the new Pixar feature film Soul, and more. This isn’t Pixar’s first series of shorts to hit the streaming platform, but it’s the first created 100% from the houses of the animators.

The idea for the Pixar Popcorn anthology was born in April 2020, during the first weeks of quarantine. Executive producer Andy Bell decided to ask all the animators who were in between feature films to try their hand at making short films from a few Pixar franchises.

Producer Maureen Giblin, who previously worked on Pixar’s Disney Plus short series Forky asks a question, tells Polygon that the traditional production pipeline had to be revamped for the short film series. Because the animators were all transitioning between projects, they were only available for about two months, which meant the whole project had to be sped up – no scripts, storyboards, or other preliminary steps.

“We started directly with the animation,” says Giblin.

About a hundred animators divided into 10 teams, each led by a different director, and proposed ideas, then immediately launched the animation process once the pitch was approved. Due to time and production constraints, facilitators also had to follow specific guidelines.

Image: Pixar

“They had to use existing characters and sets from our feature films,” says Giblin. “The characters had to act authentically like they would in the feature film. We were unable to record any new dialogue. They had to think of ideas that can be realized in this time frame. “

As a result, most of the 10 shorts are virtually dialogue-free, with a few exceptions, and are one to three minutes long. The anthology is reminiscent of Disney Animation’s “At Home With Olaf” series, where the popular Frozen snowman embarks on wordless micro-adventures.

The biggest hurdle to working from home presented was not getting everyone set up with home workstations, or expedited production, but the transition to meetings through Zoom. There’s a certain brainstorming spark, says Giblin, which is a bit confused when people have to mute. Zoom can’t quite capture the energy of a good brainstorming session full of riffs, laughs and group reactions.

“The other thing too,” she adds, “is that our artists often draw. While they are thinking, they make little sketches. It’s just hard to share via Zoom. “

Shorts have always been a rich part of the Pixar tradition, of the ‘Luxo Jr.’ desk lamp adventure, which began with Toy story 2, to the experimental SparkShorts films available on Disney Plus. Giblin says short projects often give facilitators a chance to try their hand at greater leadership opportunities. For example, the directors of the two of Pixar Popcorn Incredibles shorts, Alan Barillaro and Jae Hyung Kim, both worked on the Incredibles films as animators: Barillaro on both, Kim on the sequel. Thanks to the short film program, they had the opportunity to try their hand at directing. In recent years, some directors of the studio’s popular shorts have moved on to more prominent roles, such as Domee Shi of “Bao,” who will make his directorial debut with Turning red in 2022.

Image: Pixar

Pixar is set to create more short form content for Disney Plus, with Cars and To the top Television shows, as well as a completely original series, are on the way over the next few years. It’s a departure from Pixar’s traditional path of releasing short films, paired with their features or in-house video releases, but Giblin says these short-form projects fit naturally into the studio’s culture.

“People have a lot of fun on short films because it gives them the opportunity to play a bigger role than they can get on a feature film,” she says. “It’s a chance for them to create their own story that they want to tell with these characters.”

Here’s the full list of Pixar Popcorn Shorts:

• “To Fitness and Beyond”: Buzz Lightyear runs an aerobics class for Bonnie’s toys.
• “Unparalleled parking”: the Cars the crew has a friendly parallel parking competition.
• “Dory Finding”: Dory is delighted to find trinkets on the bottom of the ocean.
• “Soul of the City”: New York comes to life in the eyes of a minor character from Soul.
• “Fluffy Stuff with Ducky and Bunny: Love”: Ducky and Bunny from Toy story 4 compete for the sake of children.
• “Chore Day – The Incredibles Way”: The Parrs do chores, great style.
• “A day in the life of the dead”: just your average day in the hereafter coco.
• “Fluffy Stuff with Ducky and Bunny: Three Heads”: Bo’s sheep has three heads. What’s up with this?
• “Dancing with the Cars”: The cars show off their dancing skills.
• “Cookie Num Num”: It’s time for a midnight snack at the Parr residence. So who gets the last cookie?

Pixar Popcorn is now available to stream on Disney Plus.