A new kind of experiment.

linkogecko

With new shorts series like Disney's Short Circuit and Pixar's own SparkShorts, it is refreshing to see these studios freed of the weight of their franchises to experiment both narratively and visually.

In Popcorn we see Pixar experiment once more with even shorter shorts and this time with the tricky proposition of playing within their best-known franchises. Not a studio to shy away from a challenge, it is very welcome to see that they are not content with telling stories in a very straightforward manner.

A majority of these shorts are dialogue-free, which is a great surprise. Wall-E showed that Pixar can work with silence, and that is cemented with the Popcorn shorts. Most of them are quite nice small scenes amd gags.

Of these my favorites were the domesticity of the Incredibles ones, the silent comedy of the Coco one and the chill of the Soul one. This Soul short might be the most surprising one, tying to other left-field Disney  projects like Zenimation and the Disney Park Sunrises.

score 8/10

linkogecko 22 January 2021

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6515024/