Going Inward: Another Look at 'Inner Workings'

Disney has been unusually zip-mouthed on Inner Workings, the very cool-looking short that's set to debut with Moana this coming Wednesday...

Entertainment Weekly interviewed director Leo Matsuda, and he went over some things that he already mentioned about the short, like how it's personal to him and both sides of his family (Japanese and Brazilian). He also mentioned how the encyclopedias he read as a kid inspired the short, how the short is ultimately about balancing things out in life, and that it'll be set in a "surreal", Wes Anderson-inspired (!) 80s California...

In addition to that, here are some stills...

I'm really digging the stylized design they went with. Even though I have praised Walt Disney Animation Studios' current output, I do think that their CG should branch out. This short makes me think of Toot, Whistle, Plunk & Boom, which definitely clashed with Disney's then-new house style that was developed in the post-war years. Even the Mary Blair-tinged films! Ward Kimball's abstract ideas dominated the whole short, a style that was definitely at odd ends with what we saw in many of the features of the era, to say nothing of all the short films. Some works pushed into new directions (Mars and Beyond immediately comes to mind), and eventually we got an animated feature that looked unlike any previous Disney animated production... Sleeping Beauty.

Basically, I'd love to see a new Walt Disney Animation Studios film go down an Inner Workings-esque route. Just something completely different, but still very appealing and palatable to audiences. Visually, the newest stuff is nice, but outside of Zootopia I think it's also nothing too special. Frozen, Big Hero 6, and what I've seen of Moana (minus the 2D tattoos) have great lighting and color work, but in terms of the character design and art direction, it's nothing really new. I don't want to say bland because the work is there, the sweat and dedication is on the screen, but...

Zootopia at least played with a very cool-looking city set in another world, and had excellent character designs that translated well to CG. Zootopia to me was Disney Animation's most visually exciting film since Wreck-It Ralph. That film worked off of three different styles of art direction (and even had some variety in its character animation, like the Nicelanders moving like 8-bit characters), it's quite something.

Matsuda confirmed that his short didn't use any new techniques, and that it isn't going to be a Paperman-esque leap forward, but some 2D is still there. Whatever was used, I love the style of the CG, I want to see more of that in the modern Disney feature animation. Hopefully one day we'll get a CG equivalent of Sleeping Beauty, the out-there work of a concept artist blown up into a roughly 100-minute movie.

Another interesting bit is that this short was actually set to be attached to Zootopia... It was delayed because the studio "needed all hands on deck", pushing this short back a bit. I still think Disney could've filled the gap by putting a classic Mickey short in front of the movie, but hey.

What say you?

Inner Struggle: See Footage from 'Inner Workings'

Walt Disney Animation Studios' Inner Workings, the short that will be attached to this fall's Moana, is making the rounds at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In speaking with Toronto's CP24, director Leo Matsuda and producer Sean Lurietalked about the story, and they showed... Some footage!

The CG side of the film is some of Walt Disney Animation Studios' oddest work to date, and that's great! The use of 2D and other styles for the heart and brain is quite exciting too, making it unlike the more recent Disney Animation shorts. Rest easy, it's not another love story. It looks like it'll be very clever, funny, and gorgeous to look at.

I just hope that shorts like these pave the way for Disney Animation films that experiment with bold styles again. Remember how, in the 90s/00s, we got stylized things like Hercules and Atlantis sitting cheek-and-jowl with things like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan? Walt's career had all kinds of visual styles: The European storybook-influenced look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the more abstract works like Fantasia, Dumbo and The Three Caballeros, the Mary Blair aesthetic that dominated most of the 50s films, the scratchy Xerox look of the 60s, Bambi's stunning naturalism, and Sleeping Beauty's one-of-a-kind art direction. I'd like to see WDAS' CG do that, really push some boundaries with character designs and art direction.

Either way, it's good to have a first look at this thing in motion.

What say you?