January 17th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
A new collection of animated shorts debuts on Disney+ next Friday, Jan. 24. “Short Circuit” is an experimental program that began in 2016 at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The concept: anyone in any department could send a blind email pitch (no name attached). If accepted, the filmmakers could work with anyone at the studio to bring their 2-3 minute shorts to life, using some of the newest and finest technology. But they were only given 4 months.
14 shorts make-up Volume 1 of “Short Circuit”. They were originally supposed to be kept in-house (at the Mouse House), but the emergence of Disney+ also came with the opportunity for millions to check out this innovative work. Brief director commentary accompanies all the shorts on the streaming platform. I recently had the chance to screen these innovative shorts and talk with the makers:
Nikki Mull’s Lucky Toupee, about leprechauns and hairpieces, was the first short of the group put into production. “I ended-up going first just based on how our schedules lined up. I wrote it in a weekend, and then we showed it to some people, and then I re-wrote it in another weekend. And then we had to make it. Because I went first, I wanted the program to succeed, so I felt a lot of pressure to get it down in a matter of time. Because resources were small, I ended-up being my own production designer. I did my own environment modeling. I did all the look of the film by myself – which I loved doing, and it was really fun.”
“Drop”
Trent Correy is the director of Drop, a charming tale of the day in the life of a raindrop. “I wanted to challenge us to do something in CG, in the computer, that was organic and could break apart. And my short was the one that brought back Meander. I think it had been on hiatus since Feast. It hadn’t been updated. Meander is the program that they developed for Paperman to draw the outlines of the character. And we wanted to use it as a different approach to actually color in the characters that way, and not do outlines. So we had a bunch of tech people help out to bring that program back up to speed.”
“Elephant in the Room”
Brian Scott showcases the relationship between a boy and his new animal friend, the Elephant in the Room. “You try to find ways to experiment or push in every part of the process. I was involved in ‘Feast’ as the head of animation on that, so I was inspired by that film and thinking ‘How could we take that look and push it to the next step?’ So that was a fun challenge.”
“Fetch”
A little girl looks for her pet in the forest in Mitch Counsell’s CG Fetch. “[I wanted to] keep the audience very far away from this little girl. Instead of being very clear about what was happening – to try to just do the opposite. So it was very detached, and you didn’t really know what you had been watching up until that reveal. To be purposefully unclear in animation while still being in that Disney spirit and brand… I also was very inspired by Miyazaki films. By the end of it, you’re not necessarily given one specific theme or message – you’re more given something to think about.”
“Downtown”
Inspired by the art scene of Los Angeles, Kendra Vander Vliet presents the fast-paced, colorful Downtown. “I was exploring cinematography. I’ve been inspired by Japanese anime, and 2D animation action scenes have a particular feel. I used really wide lenses. It was really good to experiment with it. And then we actually brought in the “Big Hero” technology of Baymax-vision, where it’s kind of warped on the edges. It kind of gives you this illusion of an organic feel in the camera framing. When you move really fast, it just feels natural.”
“Hair Jitsu”
Hair-Jitsu, from Brian Estrada, focuses on a little girl who wants to literally fight-off getting her first haircut. “I worked with kids in the YMCA growing up. So I’ve seen a wide variety of how kids react. That’s why I wanted to have my main character be a kid. My friend’s daughter had her first haircut at 5 years old. Her hair was down to her legs, and that was the inspiration for the character itself. It’s the idea of facing your fears. I was definitely scared of things as a kid. Going to these imaginative worlds and just getting through them… I think that was a big part of this one.”
“Puddles”
Zach Parrish’s Puddles tells the story of a young boy who goes to extreme lengths to get his older sister to pay attention to him. “We knew from the beginning that we wanted to do a… simple look. To do realistic splashes would’ve felt kind of out of style. An effects artist came to me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been meaning to try this stylized 3D effects things for a really long time. It feels like your short would be perfect for it.’ It is a combination of hand-crafted petals that turn into a simulation and then beat into submission by an artist to actually look more stylized.”
“Lightning in a Bottle”
John Aquino’s Lightning in a Bottle is inspired by the films of Steven Spielberg. And the short is a literal interpretation of the title, as a boy tries to capture… lightning in a bottle. “Believe it or not, in the 4th Grade, we actually had a science fair and someone did have this jar… he was supposed to have some sparking electricity in it, but it never worked. That was my exposure to science back then. In high school, I wasn’t a big science guy until I went to my Chemistry class.”
“The Race”
Terry Moews is a fan of dark humor. He presents a comedic rivalry between a cyclist and the Grim Reaper. “It’s called The Race because it’s a metaphor or another way to think about your life – being a race. What do you want? What do you want at the end of your race? Do you want the cup, or is it about what you did during the race that’s important to you?”
“Zenith”
With inspiration from the iconic Fantasia, Jennifer Stratton’s Zenith combines music and visual wonderment in the stars. “I had images in my head for the most part. The black hole character, definitely, I wasn’t even sure what it was gonna look like or how it was gonna work. We kind of knew what it was gonna look like when we put it together. 2D art: we would paint and use it as a guideline, but once you get it into 3D it looks different. That definitely was a surprise when we saw it. It was a lot of trial and error.”
“Cycles”
Jeff Gipson’s Cycles is the VR short of the group (though you can view the regular 2D version on Disney+). It’s a very personal story about moving loved ones out of the place they’ve called home for decades. “It was an emotional process, for sure. Growing up, I had a special relationship with my grandma. Going through it… moving a loved one into assisted living is hard. So working through this was maybe some healing for my family and I. [My parents] actually viewed the short in VR, and it was a powerful experience.”
“Just A Thought”
Just a Thought asks the question, “What if everyone could see your thoughts?” In this case: “What if a young boy’s crush knew that he liked her?” Brian Menz was definitely influenced by the “Peanuts” stories. “I grew up loving the comics. I’m one of six kids, and we would all race to the door to be the first one to get the newspaper. And if I found one that I liked, I’d cut it out and save it. ‘Peanuts’ was huge… ‘Calvin and Hobbes’… I’ve read all of them. In different periods of my life I’ve gravitated to different ones.”
“Exchange Student”
Natalie Nourigat was also inspired by comics for her short Exchange Student, about a human girl at a school for giant, green aliens. “I come from the generation that grew up reading Manga and Scott Pilgrim and 2D animation, where a lot of the characters have exterior black liner. So we found a way to get that liner procedurally, so artists didn’t have to trace frame by frame. It would come out as a really solid, thick black liner around everything. And then the lighter had control to thin it out – have the line get more or less opaque here and there, so it feels more like a natural pencil line.”
“Jing Hua”
And for Jerry Huynh, who presents the very personal short Jing Hua (“Flower in the Mirror”), having these shorts on Disney+ is a dream come true. “We get to make these because in here we appreciate it and we love it, and we wanted to get a chance to do something with this craft. And now they can be viewed by such a massive platform… seeing animated content out there – the more that we see, the more that we love. The fact that we get to stand in [the Disney+] catalog… I’m gonna cry. It’s really, really cool.”
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