Movies

First Look: Pixar's Day & Night

Day & Night
By Peter Sciretta

ComingSoon has an exclusive first look at Pixar's new short film which will be attached to Toy Story 3 on June 18th 2010. As we previously reported, it is titled Day & Night, and was directed by Teddy Newton, a storyboard artist on The Iron Giant, Character Designer for The Incredibles and Presto, who makes his Pixar directorial debut. What isn't expected:

  • We had assumed, probably incorrectly, that the short film has something to do with the boy and dinosaur art that was spotted on sculptor Greg Dykstra's wall in behind the scenes b-roll footage for Pete Docter's Up.
  • While this is unconfirmed, the title graphic gives the impression that the shot  could be a 2D animated film, and not the computer animated short film we're use to from Pixar. If so, this wouldn't be Pixar's first attempt at 2D animation (see Your Friend the Rat, the short included on the Ratatouille DVD/Blu-ray release).

    • Again, both of the above statements are 100% assumptions on my part, and could be completely wrong. So what is it about? Here is the official plot synopsis:

    When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities–and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world–the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.

    Head on over to ComingSoon to see the image in high resolution.

    Newton is a Cal Arts guy, very respected, considered one of the most influential visual development artists in the field of animation. Composer Michael Giacchino is providing a scrore for the short. The Academy Award-winning composer has been working with Pixar for some time, providing the score for The Incredibles, Ratatoille, Up, and short films Lifted and Partly Cloudy, so it makes sense that he might also be working on the company's next animated short as well. In the late 1990's, Teddy formed a partnership with Giacchino to make animated films, but they apparently couldn't come up with the capital to make it happen.

    Recommended