Day & Night (2010 film)
Day & Night | |
---|---|
Directed by | Teddy Newton |
Written by | Teddy Newton |
Produced by | Kevin Reher |
Starring | Wayne Dyer |
Edited by | Greg Snyder |
Music by | Michael Giacchino |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 5:57 |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Day & Night is a Pixar animated short film, directed by Teddy Newton and produced by Kevin Reher.[1] It was packaged to be shown in theaters before Toy Story 3,[2] and has been released to purchase on iTunes in the United States.[3]
Unlike most other Pixar shorts, the animation style combines 2D and 3D elements,[4] and Up production designer Don Shank says it is "unlike anything Pixar has produced before".[5]
Synopsis
Day & Night follows two anthropomorphic characters, Day and Night. Inside Day is a day scene with a sun in the center, and inside Night is a night scene with a moon in the center. Whatever goes on inside of Day or Night expresses normal events that typically occur within a day or night, respectively, and these events often correspond with actions or emotions that the characters Day or Night express. For example, when Day is happy he will have a rainbow inside him, and when Night is happy he will have fireworks inside him.
Day and Night meet and at first are uneasy about each other. They become jealous of each other due to the events occurring in their insides, and end up fighting at one point in the short. Eventually they see the positives in each other and learn to like each other. At the end of the film they see the things they saw in each other in themselves, as Day becomes night, and Night becomes day.
Production
The short uses a novel effect of combining 2D and 3D animation. The outlines of both characters are hand drawn and animated in 2-D, while the scenes inside their silhouettes are rendered in 3D;[6] the use of a masking technique allows the 2D characters to be windows into a 3D world inside them.[2] The Day & Night is Pixar's second short film to be partially animated in 2D, after Your Friend the Rat.
The voice used in this movie is from Dr. Wayne Dyer and was taken from a lecture he gave in the 1970s. The director of the movie incorporated the ideas taken from Dyer's lecture to show that the unknown can be mysterious and beautiful, and doesn't at all have to be something to fear. The themes of the lecture date back to similar speech by Albert Einstein,[7] who said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious".[8] Pixar honored Dyer by providing him with a private screening of the film.[9]
Fear of the unknown. They are afraid of new ideas. They are loaded with prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on … if something is new, I reject it immediately because it’s frightening to me. What they do instead is just stay with the familiar. You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe are the most mysterious.
The score was created by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino, who also created the score for The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Up.[10]
Response
Critical reception
The short has been critically acclaimed.
The Wall Street Journal described Day & Night as a "sensationally original short", and said it "looks like nothing you've ever seen, and plays like a dream of glories to come".[11] Antagony & Ecstasy gave the film 10/10, writing "Newton's ability to finesse a remarkably difficult conceptual hook into a supremely easy cartoon is proof enough that he has storytelling skills much the equal of anybody working at Pixar. Yet this is also, possibly, the least of the film's achievements: it is technically, formally, and thematically a work of great accomplishment, and merely being able to tell a weird story coherently is just cake at that point".[12] The Projection Booth rated the film 4.5 out of 5, writing "Still superior [to the feature film Toy Story 3] is the preceding short Day & Night (directed by Teddy Newton), a morally and politically charged look at our perception of reality (and each other) and easily the best of Pixar's shorts to date".[13] Cinema Crazed said the short is "ultimately very evocative of the classic Warner and MGM animated experiments that appealed to all audiences and didn’t talk down to its respective theater going crowd".[14] NOLA.com described it as an "artful snatch of 3-D whimsy".[15]
Awards and nominations
Day & Night was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.[16] It won the award for Best Short Film at the 38th Annie Awards.[17]
The Visual Effects Society also gave Day & Night an award for the Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short.[18]
References
- ^ Sciretta, Peter (March 11, 2010). "First Look: Pixar's Day & Night". /Film. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ a b "Exclusive: First Look at Pixar Short Day & Night!". ComingSoon.net. March 12, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ Goldberg, Matt (June 22, 2010). "New Pixar Short Film Day & Night Now Available on iTunes". collider.com. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
- ^ Beck, Jerry; Amidi, Amid (March 12, 2010). "Day & Night by Teddy Newton". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ Shank, Don (March 12, 2010). "Day & Night". shank pile. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ "Day & Night Production Information". Big Cartoon DataBase. April 13, 2010. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
- ^ "Day & Night: The Quote". Pixar Talk. June 26, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Erbland, Kate (July 8, 2010). "Fun facts about Pixar's new short, DAY & NIGHT". Gordon And The Whale. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Dyer, Wayne W. (May 10, 2010). "Birthday Blessings". Heal Your Life. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Scott, Mike (June 18, 2010). "Day & Night, Pixar's new animated short, is long on artistry". NOLA.com. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704289504575312602886439646
- ^ http://antagonie.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/movies-i-missed-in-2010-hegel-for.html
- ^ http://projectionbooth.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/viewing-log-3.html
- ^ http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2010/11/17/day-night-2010/
- ^ http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/06/pixars_new_animated_short_is_l.html
- ^ "Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- ^ 38th Annual Annie Nominations – Winners noted in gold color
- ^ 9th Annual VES Awards