100 Greatest Animated Shorts / For the Birds / Ralph Eggleston
USA / 2000
It would be impossible to make such a list as this without a Pixar short and you could probably argue the case for most of them to be in here. The problem is they aren’t readily available to watch free online, and this high quality link I found may be removed sometime soon. Personally I cant see the point in keeping them offline, as they are great publicity for the company, and they aren’t going to make any money out of them. Just an issue of corporate principle I guess.
Going right back to the ‘Adventures of Andre and Wally B’ and ‘Luxo Jr’, Pixar’s policy of producing regular short films serves not only to create accompaniments to the main features (in this case Monsters Inc) but also, as with Lassiter’s role model Walt Disney (see The Old Mill) to test new technologies (in this case feathers?), techniques and approaches before applying them to the bigger projects. These are the kind of things that may be difficult to quantify on a balance sheet, as a short film will never make a profit, but it is one of the ways Pixar stay ahead of the game. It also helps maintain the image of Pixar as the kind of company that gives new directors a chance to prove themselves and some freedom to run with whatever funny, spontaneous and inspired ideas that may crop up. And ‘For the Birds’ is very funny. A tight social group of little round birds unkindly resent the arrival of a solitary big gawky bird and we see how their unkindness towards a ‘different’ outsider backfires. Director Eggleston features also on this list as key animator on ‘Family Dog’ (along with other now famous names). Since those days he has risen to position of art director on many of Pixar’s great features.
Other great Pixar shorts include ‘Geris Game’, ‘Mike’s New Car’, ‘Boundin’ and ‘Night and Day’. Now the Pixar engines misfiring with ‘Cars 1 and 2’ and Dreamworks are roaring into top gear with ‘How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2’, it might be a good time to push the shorts online as a reminder of the company’s uniqueness.
Note: The 100 greatest animated shorts is an list of opinions and not an order of value from best to worst. All suggestions, comments and outrage are welcome but please don’t shoot us, it’s only a list!