Piper

Dir: Alan Barillaro

2016

*****

Pixar short animations are always good and 2016's Piper is no exception. It worked well as an introduction to Find Dory too. It's a simple tale of a young sandpiper learning how to catch clams under the sand along the shoreline. He's reluctant to leave the nest at first, until his mother makes clear that there will be no more feeding, all food from now on has to be caught. Fearing the water after an initial mishap, the little sandpiper becomes more and more hungry and ventures once more to the shoreline where he meets a little hermit crab who gives him a few unorthodox ideas on how to catch his meals from there on which leads to hilarious consequences. It's short, sweet and very tender. I think Pixar shorts are almost more successful than their main features a lot of the time, Piper being one of their best. The animation is stunning. I honestly thought they used real film footage behind the animation and couldn't believe it when I read that it was all rendered on computers. I can see why it took them three years to make, every single detail has been painstakingly drawn with meticulous attention. A two dimensional version would have had the same effect as far as story goes but this is something quite special that the studio have given us. What really amazed me was how realistic the birds looked while they were clearly cartoon. They give very human-like expressions but are totally believable as real sandpipers. It's absolutely stunning and animation of the highest calibre, with every single second of those three years being worth it.