{"id":6739,"date":"2019-01-05T17:23:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T22:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/?p=6739"},"modified":"2019-01-05T17:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T22:23:54","slug":"geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Geri's Game – The Pixar Short Of The Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d is one of Pixar\u2019s most memorable shorts, despite it being over 20 years old now. It came out in 1997, and was then played before A Bug\u2019s Life in November of 1998. Even though its age means that current technology has totally surpassed the level of detail they were able to include in \u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d, the short has aged incredibly well and is still fondly recognised as many people\u2019s favourite animated short.
\n\u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d, directed by Jan Pinkava (who went on to co-direct Ratatouille<\/em>), tells a simple but effective story of an old man (Geri) playing a game of chess against himself. There is only one character in the short, but the clever use of editing, camera angles, and animation give the illusion of there actually being two \u2018Geri\u2019s competing against each other. It\u2019s the animation especially that makes this illusion so endearing \u2013 one Geri is frail and withdrawn, peering uncertainly through his glasses and moving each of his white chess pieces with shaky hands, while the other Geri sits confidently with a smug look on his face. He doesn\u2019t seem to need his glasses to plan out his next move \u2013 as soon as takes his place at the chess table he moves each black pawn, knight or rook quickly and decisively.
\n

\"\"

“Geri’s Game” shows how important facial expressions and gestures are in determining a character’s personality. Here, the Geri playing with the black chess pieces oozes confidence.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"\"

The Geri playing with the white pieces is withdrawn and unsure.<\/p><\/div>
\nThe confident Geri is somehow the much better chess player, but the other Geri manages to win the game in a more unconventional way \u2013 he fakes a heart attack and spins the chessboard around while his foe is distracted. And the prize for winning? Geri\u2019s very own pair of dentures.
\nThe story is silly, but it also shows a heartwarming insight into an old man facing the loneliness head-on – loneliness is a huge issue with the elderly, but it’s lovely to see Geri having fun in his own company, even if it’s a little crazy. At the time it was released, it must have really shown the potential 3D animation had for creating characters full of personality and illustrating stories that people feel invested in. \u00a0It won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and you can see why \u2013 while modern day 3D animation generally looks much more detailed and impressive, \u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d made good use of its limited technology. Geri\u2019s character model may not be staggeringly beautiful by today’s admittedly high standards, but the animation is wonderful \u2013 next time you watch the short, pay attention to how his elderly hands shake, how he walks carefully and deliberately, and how different his two personas move and behave. Pixar shorts are often used as a form of practice in a way, and you can tell \u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d was used to focus on improving their animation and modelling of humans.
\n

\"\"

Concept art by director Jan Pinkava<\/p><\/div>
\nSome fun facts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • There is one shot where both \u2018Geri\u2019s can be seen at once. Pinkava assures us this was an intentional joke.<\/li>\n
  • Geri appeared again in Toy Story 2 <\/em>as the toy repairman who made Woody look as good as new. The toy repairman was a last-minute character addition, so using an old model as a starting point saved them a lot of time.<\/li>\n
  • Geri is voiced by Bob Peterson, who has also lent his voice to Dug (Up<\/em>), Roz (Monsters Inc.<\/em>) and Mr. Ray (Finding Nemo<\/em>).<\/li>\n
  • Brad Bird (director of\u00a0The Incredibles, Ratatouille,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Incredibles 2<\/em>) told Pinkava that one of the reasons he came to Pixar was because of “Geri’s Game” – it showed him that human animation was possible using 3D techniques.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d is one of Pixar\u2019s most memorable shorts, despite it being over 20 years old now. It came out in 1997, and was then played before A Bug\u2019s Life in November of 1998. Even though its age means that current technology has totally surpassed the level of detail they were able to include in …<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,339,50,271],"tags":[351,340,272],"yoast_head":"\nGeri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d is one of Pixar\u2019s most memorable shorts, despite it being over 20 years old now. It came out in 1997, and was then played before A Bug\u2019s Life in November of 1998. Even though its age means that current technology has totally surpassed the level of detail they were able to include in …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Upcoming Pixar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/upcomingpixar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.wasabisys.com\/upcomingpixar\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Geris-Game-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joanna Peaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@upcomingpixar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@upcomingpixar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joanna Peaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/\",\"name\":\"Geri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e16bb17a8d3a83de45fd3f3f675d971\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Geri's Game – The Pixar Short Of The Week\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Upcoming Pixar\",\"description\":\"A Pixar News Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e16bb17a8d3a83de45fd3f3f675d971\",\"name\":\"Joanna Peaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a74fca175728163d485566dc7c0b62?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a74fca175728163d485566dc7c0b62?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Joanna Peaker\"},\"description\":\"Joanna Peaker is a Senior Correspondent for Upcoming Pixar. Joanna's love for Pixar blossomed after watching Up for the first time in 2009, and it has continued to grow ever since. Joanna brings an artistic eye to Upcoming Pixar, delivering a unique editorial perspective on Pixar's aesthetics.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/joanna-p\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Geri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Geri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar","og_description":"\u201cGeri\u2019s Game\u201d is one of Pixar\u2019s most memorable shorts, despite it being over 20 years old now. It came out in 1997, and was then played before A Bug\u2019s Life in November of 1998. Even though its age means that current technology has totally surpassed the level of detail they were able to include in …","og_url":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","og_site_name":"Upcoming Pixar","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/upcomingpixar","article_published_time":"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.wasabisys.com\/upcomingpixar\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Geris-Game-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joanna Peaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@upcomingpixar","twitter_site":"@upcomingpixar","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joanna Peaker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","url":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","name":"Geri's Game - The Pixar Short Of The Week - Upcoming Pixar","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-05T22:23:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e16bb17a8d3a83de45fd3f3f675d971"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/geris-game-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Geri's Game – The Pixar Short Of The Week"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/","name":"Upcoming Pixar","description":"A Pixar News Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e16bb17a8d3a83de45fd3f3f675d971","name":"Joanna Peaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a74fca175728163d485566dc7c0b62?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a74fca175728163d485566dc7c0b62?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Joanna Peaker"},"description":"Joanna Peaker is a Senior Correspondent for Upcoming Pixar. Joanna's love for Pixar blossomed after watching Up for the first time in 2009, and it has continued to grow ever since. Joanna brings an artistic eye to Upcoming Pixar, delivering a unique editorial perspective on Pixar's aesthetics.","url":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/joanna-p\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/upcomingpixar.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Geris-Game-1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/upcomingpixar.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Geris-Game-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Joanna Peaker","author_link":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/author\/joanna-p\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}