Netflix, AppleTV, Amazon Prime,… Competition is fierce in the world of digital platforms.
It is less so in the niche sector of mainstream animation, in which Disney + floats.
From
Snow White
to
Raya and the Last Dragon
via
The Little Mermaid
and
Vaiana
, the American heavyweight platform launched in 2019 in the United States - then the following spring in France - can pride itself on offering its customers a robust catalog of family fables and classics.
However, this is not the only prerogative of the platform which also relies, in the field of animation, on an ally of choice: Pixar.
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Like other juicy Disney acquisitions, the company concocts for the platform a host of exclusive stories tailor-made for multiple screens and limited attention. Pixar is advancing on several fronts and juggling between its sure values and its new faces. On a smaller scale than the unpublished
films
produced by Lucasfilm with
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
, miniseries adapted from pre-existing Pixar films and universes do not fail to see the light of day. This is the case with
Monstres et Cie: Au travail
- which continues the universe of the films
Monstres et Cie
- or even, more recently,
Bienvenue chez Doug
.
Taking up the characters of the film
Up
,
Bienvenue chez Doug
tells for example the canine tribulations of the chubby dog and speaking of the feature film of 2009. Point of fantastic expeditions, or airborne adventures in the five episodes uploaded on September 1 .
"I wanted to create something warm, family,"
said director Bob Peterson, already at the helm of
Up there
. It's almost astonishing that the dog that appears in the backdrop of
Nona
, also appeared in September on Disney +, is ultimately more noteworthy than the whimsical Doug. The reason may be due to the different nature of these two productions.
Nona
pits a wrestling grandmother against her supercharged granddaughter.
Walt disney studios
Short films for new talents
Less merchandise and more creativity could be the credo of the SparkShorts program. Introduced on Youtube before joining the list of Pixar products offered exclusively on Disney +, this show of animated short films was born out of a constraint. For each title in the series, the studio gives carte blanche to one of the creative talents of its teams, who is thus offered his first production project. This must be delivered in six months, drum beating, with a small team and limited resources, while ultimately retaining the "spirit" of the studio. An instant Pixar, in short. These bursts of creativity have twice already touched the Oscar for best animated short, in 2020 and 2021 with the nominations of
Chatbulle
and
My Terrier
.
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The two new shorts released in September on Disney + could claim it.
“I was very inspired and I learned a lot working with Pete Docter on
Soul,
”
smiles Aphton Corbin. The young woman, who was still an intern at Pixar five years ago, is now the proud director behind the first of the last two SparkShorts. Surprising and ingenious farewell to childhood produced in full confinement, the
twenties
also allow themselves to shed light on the impostor syndrome, this unhealthy lack of self-confidence that young adults can feel. A story inspired by the designer's own journey,and whose symbolic power would perhaps be diluted out of the gathered frame of these
"shorts"
.
The first emotions of youth, there is less talk in
Nona
, the second of the short films released by Pixar in September.
Its director, Louis Gonzales, is not really what you might call a young animation first.
With over twenty years of experience, the artist who has contributed to several studio classics, from
Monsters Inc.
to
Incredibles 2
, operates his first spree at the helm of the production. He draws for the occasion a story of wrestling and grandmother. Nona, that's the heroine's name, swears by her assiduous viewing of ring games, a passionate ritual that her granddaughter disturbs. The cohabitation turns into a rat race, like a touching conflict between the generations, of the past against the present. A handover that finds an unexpected echo with the very formula of the Sparkshorts, and the current advent of the directors of tomorrow. Perhaps the lights of tomorrow will be born from these little Pixar lamps.
