Pixar Popcorn

When I first heard that Pixar would release some new shorts, I was expecting something along the lines of the five-minute shorts they usually produce. I was disappointed to find out that these are microscopic skits that don't really add anything to the original films. "Popcorn" is not a good title; perhaps "leftover crumbs" would be more accurate. My favourite was the Incredibles doing their chores with their powers. But even at its best, I feel that Pixar's labour would still be better spent just producing more great films instead of these harmless but pointless diversions.

These short films are decently cute and fun but completely pointless. Nearly zero dialogue. The ducky and bunny episodes are the only ones with actual talking. I was looking forward to these but pretty underwhelmed. Something seems off or different with the animation as well. It's not terrible or unwatchable, but noticeably different than the quality from the respective movies. I'd say if you're a hardcore Pixar fan they're still worth a quick watch. You can watch all of them in about twenty minutes. But don't expect them to add anything meaningful to the story or any character development. They're okay for what they are.

They must be paying the voice actors by the word because nobody spoke through all 11 of the short except Ducky and Bunny from Toy Story 4. Dory gasps and I think I heard her saying "Wow" but that is literally it. At first I thought they were doing it that way so they didn't have to pay them at all, but Ellen and Craig T. Nelson (at least) did get credited.

Given these shorts are all only about two minutes long this is harmless enough project but you do keep asking yourself what the point is. The animation is of course excellent but the lack of voices on a couple of them is a real shame and a few seem like deleted scenes from the parent movie that were rightly excised.

For me the most interesting part was the popcorn themed variations on the Luxo Jr. opening logo.

This is a series of very short films that usually have a cute gag or two in them. I watched them all in about 30 minutes and none really stay with you. I think the problem is the shorts are left over gags from the films-apparently at least. The animation doesn't seem quite as polished as normal. Moreover, the shorts have very little dialog, voicework. That seem less a commitment to being cinematic than a budget decision to not pay Tom Hanks again.