More The Merrier: Second Teaser/Short for 'Coco' Arrives

Well how about that? Another look at Pixar's upcoming original story Coco has been released!

A sort-of teaser/short film, it's a fun watch. There's lots of classic cartoony slapstick here, though I wonder if the movie itself will have that kind of humor. Maybe, maybe not.


Now this was actually shown in other countries. Someone leaked it onto YouTube (it was a recording in a movie theater, and it was in Spanish) a couple weeks back when the American teaser was released, so it's cool to see that Disney's marketing and Pixar have released it here.

Just a month in, and this campaign is pretty strong so far. Definitely a real 180 from how they marketed The Good Dinosaur, which like Coco, was a fall release in 2015 that came off the heels of a summer Pixar event - Inside Out. Coco is the fall Pixar movie this year, Cars 3 is the summer release. Looks like the same mistakes won't be made again.

Now, will they attach this to something in theaters? The next family-friendly Disney release is the Disneynature film Born in China, it could show up before that, but there's already a great teaser out so maybe not. Or maybe they'll combine the two, for Cars 3's first extended look combined the teaser and new footage. (And that "extended look" is rolling in theaters, I catch it frequently at the theater I work at.)

Who knows what they'll do.

UPDATE: I'm hearing it was shown before Beauty and the Beast. I didn't get to catch the preview reels for that at work.

What did you think of the short?

Who's Lou?: New Details on Pixar's Next Short Surface

Who is the star of Pixar's next short? None other than... Lou...

Now, we got word on this one a while back, when director Dave Mullins did a little sketch of the titular character and presented it on Instagram. Now, we have a better look at it thanks to USA Today.

Who is "Lou"? Or better yet, what is Lou? Apparently a living amalgamation of things in a Lost and Found box.

The thing in question goes up against a schoolyard bully who steals his classmates' toys and items. It conceals itself with a red hoodie, and has baseballs for eyes. The story sounds like a much weirder Toy Story, and I also like that it's set to deal with bullying, something a Pixar short hasn't taken on just yet.

It's based on the director's personal experiences, which is unsurprising given the personal nature of some of the latest Pixar shorts. Mullins moved a lot when he was a kid, and how he felt on the new playgrounds he found himself in. Here's what he had to say...

"You either feel invisible because you don’t know the other kids or you’re embarrassed and you want to be invisible. I thought it’d be really cool to have a character who could hide in plain sight..."

On the bully, J. J., he said...

"They’re usually just acting out because they’re awkward or young and don’t have their moral compass set. In a weird way, the bullies sometimes feel invisible, too... If you can find out what their motivations are, maybe you can solve some things. That’s what I like about Lou: True happiness comes from giving. He gets J.J. to understand that and through that, what J.J. wants really is to be accepted by the other kids."

Oddball twist on a done-before premise, themes of bullying and selflessness... Yes, it's a Pixar short. I'm excited.

What say you?

The Banjo of Pixar: 'Borrowed Time' on Vimeo For Limited Time

For a while, we've heard about a little project called Borrowed Time...

It's a short film from two Pixarians, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj. They were working on it for five years while working on the studio's feature-length pictures. Shown at various film festivals since last year, it is not a family film by any means, and is something that Pixar - and before anyone assumes, I do love Pixar and I think they excel at making family films - would probably not think of making.

Before I go on, here's where you can watch it. It's on Vimeo for a limited time, as it is now a Staff Pick. What follows are spoilers...

It's a Western, albeit a very grizzled and moody one. Poignant and very direct, it's about a sheriff who visits the very cliff where his father died. Through brief flashbacks to a wild wagon chase, we see that the sheriff - in attempting to save his father - was responsible. It comes as a shock, but yet none of it ever feels so forced. The short's aesthetic rings similar to Pixar's house style, but very detailed yet very abstract. The humans feel like they're from a Pixar film, but an unmade, PG-13 Pixar film.

Coats himself emphasized the significance of the darker tone, saying "In America, animation has largely become synonymous with kids’ films, whereas elsewhere around the world it’s celebrated as a medium that can be used to tell any story. We feel this cultural difference limits the potential audience and range of themes in American animation, and is a large part of why we chose to make Borrowed Time."

Beautifully said. When I clamor for more adult-oriented animated features here in America, this is the kind of thing I'm asking for. Not lowbrow, middle school-level raunchfests like Sausage Party, or a good chunk of what passes as "adult animation" on television.

Hamou-Lhadj adds, "Having worked on family films with a lot of heart and comedy, we wanted to do something outside of our comfort zone: a serious, action drama. We knew this would be a huge challenge for us."

In a way, this short kind of reminds me of Don Bluth's Banjo the Woodpile Cat. He pitched it during his time at Disney, it got turned down, so he and a couple of the young animators worked on it outside of the studio for roughly four years. It attempted to explore what early-to-mid 70s Disney was staying away from (more classical animation, legitimately perilous situations, less comedic tone), things Bluth pushed for before his exit. Eventually, Disney revisited the bite and the gusto that made the Walt films work, Pixar however has yet to go for the subject matter of something like Borrowed Time. Will they ever? Probably not, but perhaps - hopefully - another American animation studio can do the same. Someone smaller maybe, like Reel FX.

It'll be offline in roughly two weeks...

Uncovered: New Pixar Short Revealed

Well how about that? Information on Pixar's next mini-picture...

It's titled Lou.

The news was broken by Pixar animation supervisor Dave Mullins, who is directing the short. The glimpse comes from his Instagram...

I'm so excited to announce that I'm directing Pixar's next short film "Lou"! #insidepixar #himom

A video posted by Dave Mullins (@dave.mullins) on Sep 28, 2016 at 1:43pm PDT

Interesting... It appears to be about someone disappearing into their toy chest. The title is quite clever, and fits into Pixar's short-and-sweet title league.

Of course, we can all assume that we'll see this in theaters next summer, before Cars 3. Of course, like many Pixar shorts, it'll probably make its debut at a festival or somewhere else before the general release. (i.e. Lava debuting around a year before Inside Out was released.) Either way, it already looks and sounds pretty cool!

Now I wonder if Pixar will get a short attached to Coco. The first time they did a double header, last year, they delivered. Inside Out had a short, so did Good Dinosaur. Walt Disney Animation Studios oddly didn't give us a short with Zootopia, but will with Moana. (Inner Workings) Wonder if they repeat that in 2018, because I'd like to see shorts before both 2018 releases.

I also wonder what kind of tech will be used here. Will it experiment like Sanjay's Super Team did? Or will it be another exercise in near-photorealism?

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?