{"id":6549,"date":"2018-11-13T19:16:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T00:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/?p=6549"},"modified":"2018-11-13T19:16:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T00:16:23","slug":"piper-the-pixar-short-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/piper-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Piper \u2013 The Pixar Short Of The Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 3 is out on Digital and Blu-ray today – why not give “Piper” a watch and then dive into this little Pixar short exploration?
\nSince premiering before Finding Dory <\/em>in June 2016, “Piper”\u00a0<\/em>has quickly become a firm favourite with Pixar fans, and even went on to win the 2017 Oscar for Best Animated Short. This is our first post in our ‘Pixar Short Of The Week’ series, where our Twitter followers vote on what short they’d like us to delve into next. “Piper” won with over 50% of the votes in this week’s poll – I think that alone tells you how beloved it is. It ticks all the boxes \u2013 very cute, heart-warming message, a sense of humour, beautiful to watch\u2026 And I\u2019ve found that I appreciate it even more now in 2018 than I did when I first watched it in theatres two years ago.
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Piper concept art<\/p><\/div>
\nThis is, in part, due to my new-found passion for birdwatching. I don\u2019t know how many people share this joint interest in Pixar and birdwatching, but if any of you are out there, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree that “Piper”\u00a0<\/em>is the dream<\/em><\/strong>.
\nFun fact (maybe): On pixar.com<\/a>, Piper is described as a Sandpiper \u2013 director Alan Barillaro was inspired by \u2018watching Sandpipers react to waves and run on the beach\u2019. But \u2018Sandpipers\u2019 are actually a large family of birds. Piper is in fact a Sanderling (Calidris alba<\/em>, as opposed to Hungrius Littlus Birdis<\/em><\/a>) \u2013 these are the birds that run in and out with the waves, poking around in the \u2018intertidal zone\u2019 for food. They are also the only birds in the Sandpiper family that lack a hind toe \u2013 and look!
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No hind toe! (Especially obvious if you look at Piper’s mum’s feet).<\/p><\/div>
\nThis is what I love so much about “Piper”\u00a0\u2013 it achieves this perfect balance of realism and magic. On the one hand, the level of detail is such that I can do bird identification<\/em><\/strong>, but it\u2019s also a short about a precious baby bird expressing real human emotions and overcoming her fears through a friendship with a tiny crab. It\u2019s a technological triumph, but \u2013 and this is the key to the success of the film \u2013 it\u2019s also a wonderfully told story.
\n“Piper” actually started out as a project to push the limits of new animation technology, which is made apparent when you see the animation of individual grains of sand, the frothy movement of the waves, and the independent fluttering of feathers. I love that people appreciate the sheer skill that has gone into the creation of the short, but are also able to just enjoy <\/em>it and immerse themselves in it.
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Look at that feather animation! Look at the sand!<\/p><\/div>
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Piper concept art. They even got the Sanderling plumage spot on.<\/p><\/div>
\nThe birds are stylised, but realistic. You can tell the aim wasn\u2019t to fool the viewer into thinking they\u2019re watching a live action sequence. Honestly, it looks better <\/em>than live action. It looks better than real life! The way they experimented with camera movements and depth of field makes it all so captivating. And the “Piper”\u00a0<\/em>crew was able to design the characters in such a way that they can express more emotion.
\nThis is important, because “Piper”\u00a0<\/em>is also amongst the many Pixar shorts that have zero dialogue \u2013 the connection you feel to the characters is not brought about through words, but is instead completely reliant on their facial expressions and behaviour, along with the music (by the legendary Adrian Belew). It\u2019s the subtle yet complex animation that makes all this possible. Barillaro was inspired by Andrew Stanton\u2019s WALL-E<\/em>\u00a0when finding ways to animate communication between non-speaking, non-human subjects. Their gestures are understandable, but the birds haven\u2019t been so heavily anthropomorphised that the \u2018otherworldly charm\u2019 is lost.
\nThe message that I take away from “Piper”\u00a0<\/em>is that fear is there to be overcome, and life will feel all the sweeter once you\u2019re on the other side of it. By the end of the short, Piper not only gets over her fear of the waves, but completely submerges herself in them! It\u2019s not unlike what Poppa told Arlo at the beginning of The Good Dinosaur<\/em> in the warm light of thousands of fireflies: \u201cSometimes you gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side.\u201d
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“You gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side.”<\/p><\/div>
\nSome more fun facts:<\/p>\n