Pixar is to the short film what Stephen King is to the short story. Using their popularity, both have drawn much needed attention to a largely forgotten form. Likewise, both excel at it, Pixar especially. Of the 14 short films they’ve produced, 10 have been nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, and 3 have won (Tin Toy, Geri’s Game, and For the Birds). They’re of such a high caliber that some would be willing to pay full ticket price just to see the short that precedes every Pixar movie. I wouldn’t go that far myself, but I wish I’d seen WALL-E in theaters, as it’s my favorite movie of theirs, and Presto my favorite short. And though somewhere down the line they’re sure to release a movie I don’t care for, I’m certain that the accompanying short will help ease my pain, as La Luna did for those who were disappointed with Brave.
You can question Pixar’s commitment to storytelling if you so desire, but the results speak for themselves, I think. Out of the 11 movies released prior to Monsters University, all but A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, Cars 2, and Brave were nominated for either Best Original Screenplay or Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards. That’s over half of their output. You can also say that Brave winning Best Animated Feature invalidates all that, that an Academy Award nomination doesn’t say as much as you’d like to think it does, but they must be doing something right, since no other animation studio is a regular in the writing categories like they are.
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