Hey everyone! I hope we’re all well and safe in these strange times. These days, I’m looking for animations or art that will help me write my essay in the coming weeks. Therefore, I wanted to find films with a similar theme and I came across this short called ‘For The Birds’ by Pixar. I’ve seen this many times. However, the raw message of it really hit home when I searched for it [1].
My thoughts:
The first time I watched this, I found this so humorous! It’s so cute and funny. It depicts a story of bullying and how the bullies suffer from their own actions in the end.
Themes:
– Being different: The theme of being left out for being different is a key theme here. Visually different. The bird that joins is visually bigger and a different breed altogether.
– Strength in numbers: A natural instinct really. If it were one bird vs one bird, the scenario may play out different, especially as the bullied bird is much bigger and perhaps stronger.
– Belonging: A sense of longing to belong to a group. We see the singled out bird is eager to join in and make friends – as he perches himself right in the centre of the row of smaller birds.
– The last laugh: A lesson here for the bullies out there. You reap what you sow. This is a playful film with a serious message and educational value to youngters.
Title:
– I’ve been trying to figure out how to place my title for my short film this week and this actually helped alot. I considered modelling a fancy title but when I saw how effective a simple text layered over background could be – especially when time is limited in short films – I took inspiration from this!
The scenario here is not complicated – it is simply one scene – but they’ve managed to convey such a strong message while keeping the audience entertained and engaged – using a strong performance, interesting characters and beautiful visuals – there is so much to learn from here!
I hope you guys enjoyed this share 🙂
Until next week!
Stay safe!
Katie
References:
[1] For The Birds. 2000. [film] Directed by R. Eggleston. Pixar Animation Studios.