Pixar - Short but Sweet

I’m a bit of an insomniac; when I’ve got something on my mind I find it really hard to switch off and fall asleep. (It’s 3.20 am as I’m writing the first draft of this). Reading makes my eyes hurt, listening to music just makes me want to sing along, and if I start watching films I want to see them through to the end (which would take me to about 5.40am).

So tonight I opened up YouTube with the thought of watching some videos to try distract me from my thoughts. Something on the homepage brought Toy Story 3 into my mind and suddenly the characters from the film’s preceding short Day & Night strolled into my head.

When I first watched it at the cinema Day & Night was like nothing I had ever seen before (or probably will again for quite some time). It’s not easy to explain, and in doing so you take away some of its brilliance; it needs to be seen to be fully appreciated, so if you haven’t already, then take 6 minutes out of your day to be blown away.

This 6 minute short presents one of the most culturally relevant topics of our society - prejudice - but instead of feeling like I’ve had a moral message thrust down my throat by some poorly scripted overacting and rather than feel like I'm being preached to, I feel like I can actually engage with it.

This is what’s so brilliant about Pixar, in recent times they seem to have become fearless. They touch whatever topic they want, and present it how they want; which more often than not is in a new, interesting and unconventional manner:

Day and Night teaches us to not judge on first appearance, to look beyond what is on the exterior and find common ground, through a fantastically animated, silent film-esque short which combines classic disney, with 21st century Pixar.

Presto teaches us of the importance of mutual respect, that success requires teamwork and an appreciation of those that we work with, by having a rabbit humiliate his magician partner until he is given the carrot he deserves.

Wall-E warns of the state of our future if we continue to live life in the consumerist manner that we do today, but presents it’s story through the eyes of a robot who can’t even communicate with us. That is, can’t communicate verbally - Pixar build so much emotion and empathy into those E.T. eyes.

Up teaches us about tolerance, patience and the importance of friendship - whoever that friendship might be with - a talking dog, a brightly coloured prehistoric bird, or an old man who flies his house to Paradise Falls with helium balloons.

Pixar have never patronised us, but recently they have begun to realise that they can do more than just make computer animated features; they have developed a platform upon which they can go anywhere they want and in doing so have touched upon some topics that modern cinema often chooses to overlook. Hidden underneath their shiny computer graphics are some serious moral messages which other commercial filmmakers often choose to forget.

Possibly the most amazing part of this is that these films are for children; some of the most intelligent, insightful, moving films are for the youngest generation of filmgoers. They may be for children, but they are far from kid’s films, and if some of their messages can penetrate the minds of our youngsters, that can only be a good thing.

Pixar films are, without question, one of the most exciting things to happen to cinema in the 21st century. They have given us some of the most interesting and thought provoking cinematic experiences of modern times.