How many cartoons starring an open and obviously gay character have you seen? And how many in which a robot is exploited by ... another robot? And how many in which the climate of machismo in an office furnished with macho men is discussed and condemned? And how many in which the viewer is invited to enter the space of the drawing itself (and grow old with it)? Let's say HazteOír's driver (or whatever) can go into cardiac arrest shortly beyond the surface of Disney +. On the other side of The Mandalorian and the indefatigable classics of the company, the last platform to arrive hides among its few novelties a true miracle. Or two. Short Circuit (Disney) and Sparkshorts (Pixar)These are the names given to collections of animated short films designed for experimentation. In every way: both technical and artistic, rushing, politically.
"The working mechanism is very simple and little programmed," explains Ed Robbins from Los Angeles . He, of American parents but born in Girona, collaborates in some of the short films. 'The search for Oliver', 'An elephant in my room', 'The race' and, above all, 'Stages of life' bear his signature and much of his eight-year experience already at Disney in two specialties: the coordination of the innumerable parts that make up the movement and the very life of the characters, and the balancing of the fabrics that dress them. "When an entertainer has an idea he presents it from office to office until he passes all the screens. Then he forms the team himself," he says by way of presentation. It is, so to speak, the other part, the non-commercial part, of studies that are too often accused of immobility.
Not far away, Jeff Gibson agrees. He is the director of one of the star movies. The aforementioned ' Stages of life', whose original title is ' Cycles ' (or cycles), is one of the most obvious gems. From the outset, it is the first short film shot in virtual reality by Disney. Logically, home television is not that bad. On the flat screen the story runs in almost a sequence shot of a couple. Everything inside the house. From the first step to death itself. "It is the story of my grandmother and the music of the short film is my mother's. It is the story of my life. Having the option of seeing myself inside a house that I have known since childhood is more than just an emotional journey," he says. Gibson and the tape itself proves him right. For the emotion and for the own rational waste, for technological, that treasures every second in which years are compressed. It is the animated time itself.
"Actually," says the director, "if you learn something at Disney it is to respect history, to focus on seeing how to best explain it. Technology is a means, a tool. The one that my film originally had to do with glasses distance you from it and then get closer and help you live it inside ". Robbins insists on the same idea and adds one more in the same direction. "When you work on a project like ' Frozen ' or ' Rompe Ralph ' you are part of a team and you just do your specialty. In a short film your influence is more global. We all do everything."
To follow the trail of each film placed on Disney + is to hit the surface with an ever-changing proposal that affects both the style, the narration and the content itself. The idea is to take risks and Steven Clay Hunter's ' Get Out ' moves on that precept , which has the same delicacy as sincerity the moment when a son (with the help of his dog) discovers his homosexuality to his parents. It is also the first time that in this case Pixar takes a step further and breaks with the heteropatriarchal way of dividing roles. "In the shorts you experiment. Why not imagine that a similar proposal jumps into a ' mainstream ' movie? That, in short, is one of the objectives of this program," says Gibson.
'Purl', by Kristen Lester, goes one step further to narrate the arrival of a ball of wool (as is) in an office as macho as it is unbreathable. What follows is a fable in the form of a comedy that is there to prick inside. Again, and there are three, we are facing the first time that the social and political reading exceeds the margins of melodrama to use to propose a reflection close to the absurd about something even more absurd: yes, it is feminism.
'Thoughts Uncovered' , by Brian Menz , moves in another direction. Now the idea is to recreate the texture of the old cartoons in a technological display backwards: so retro that it seems true. Or lie. 'Una Vuelta', by Erica Milson , succeeds in also portraying for the first time, and there are four, the universe of an autistic girl . It does so regardless of any common place or ' glamorization ' and with a realistic vocation that places it on the side of the revolutionary . No less surprising is Brian Larsen's 'Smash and Grab ' . And it is for presenting a rather old matter like never before: class struggle . In this case, two robots stand up against their condition of being exploited by other robots just like them.
And so on up to 21 unique experiments . "The level of perfection that animation can achieve is such that, at times, it is very close to the cinema with actors. Pure real. And, on the other hand, the complexity of the special effects is of such a degree that any action film Real ends up approaching simple animation. But in reality, everything is fiction, nothing is real. It doesn't matter what story you want to tell. Nothing more, "concludes Robbins with a perfect Catalan Angelic accent. And obviously we believe him.
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