2. Geri's Game
Plays Before: A Bug's Life
Cuteness Level: Carl Fredericksen in Up The first Pixar short made with the intent to attach it to a feature film, Geri's Game is a treasure and a winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1998. Set in an empty area of a park where Geri plays a game of chess against himself, the short showcases Pixar animation at its finest. The accelerated edits wittily showing the two sides of Geri on both sides of the table make for a fast-paced and entertaining short. The angle of the shot changes as the Geri that controls the white pieces and the Geri that controls the black pieces was a simple enough way of highlighting their differences, but the lighting also changes. The cunning and ridiculing Geri that controls the black pieces has a darker and more sinister light surrounding him while the Geri that controls the white pieces has a brighter and effusive lighting tone. If faking a heart attack to convince yourself to switch around a chess board while you play against yourself in order to win your own dentures is what you do in you in your old age, I am looking forward to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IYRC7g2ICg Directed by Jan Pinkava, who went on to co-direct the feature Ratatouille, Geri's Game shows Pixar at its snappy best. It's a fun movie, and perhaps a precursor to the old man character in Up, but it's also an excellent technical piece of moviemaking.