Bird Karma

Last updated

Bird Karma
Bird Karma.jpg
Promotional image
Directed byWilliam Salazar
Written byWilliam Salazar
Produced byJeff Hermann
Edited byJames Ryan
C. K. Horness
Music byNora Kroll-Rosenbaum
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • February 24, 2018 (2018-02-24)(NYICFF)
  • March 21, 2018 (2018-03-21)(with The Boss Baby in Japan)
Running time
5 minutes
CountryUnited States

Bird Karma is a 2018 American animated short film written and directed by William Salazar and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It was the first short to come from DreamWorks' newly created shorts program, and the studio's first film to utilize only traditional animation since Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas in 2003. It is also the first DreamWorks Animation production to be distributed by Universal Pictures following parent company NBCUniversal's acquisition of the studio in 2016.

Contents

Plot

On a foggy lake, a long-legged bird flies into the water and, to a musical beat, catches and eats some fish. Eventually, he sees a sparkling orange fish jumping out of the water and vainly attempts to catch it until it begins to rain. The next morning, the bird again spots the fish and gives chase, but his attention is soon diverted by the fish's ability to create rainbow trails when he jumps from the water. But despite his amazement of the sight, the bird lures the fish into a false sense of friendship and proceeds to catch and eat it. However, this meal causes the bird to grow sick, turn orange and fall over dead, after which the fish in the lake begin to devour his corpse.

Production

The idea for Bird Karma originated in the mid-1990s, when director William Salazar created a pencil test of a long-legged bird while working at Amblimation in London. After moving to Los Angeles to work at DreamWorks Animation, his work laid untouched in his attic for two decades. When DreamWorks announced an internal shorts program, Salazar revisited his idea and, over a period of three months, expanded his test into a three-minute animatic and pitched it to the program.

Besides Salazar, who animated over 75% of the film, other animators on Bird Karma included Jakob Jensen, Simon Otto, Kristof Serrand and Stephen Wood, most of whom had worked with Salazar since The Prince of Egypt . Salazar intended for the animation to have a "clean-rough" style; thus, the animators had to clean up their drawings on their own without a separate clean-up crew.

Production designer Raymond Zibach ( Kung Fu Panda , The Road to El Dorado ) painted all the backgrounds for the film, whose visual style was inspired by the works of J. M. W. Turner. [1]

Release

Bird Karma made its world premiere on February 24, 2018, when it was included on a program of shorts as part of New York International Children's Film Festival, and was then attached to the Japanese theatrical release of The Boss Baby the following month on March 21 [2] before it was shown as the opening program of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival that June. On December 21, the short was released on DreamWorks' official YouTube channel. [3]

Bird Karma, along with Bilby , was included on home video releases of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World on May 21, 2019. [4]

The short can also be found on the owned-and-operated over-the-top video streaming service by DreamWorks' owner NBCUniversal Peacock. [5]

Reception

Bird Karma has met positive reception. It won the Audience Award at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival, and was lauded when screened at CalArts, Gnomon and the CTN Animation Expo. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Productions of America</span> American film production company (1941–2000)

United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio and later distribution company founded in 1941 as Industrial Film and Poster Service by former Walt Disney Productions employees. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures such as the Mr. Magoo series. In 1956, UPA produced a television series for CBS, The Boing-Boing Show, hosted by Gerald McBoing Boing. In the 1960s, UPA produced syndicated Mr. Magoo and Dick Tracy television series and other series and specials, including Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. UPA also produced two animated features, 1001 Arabian Nights and Gay Purr-ee, and distributed Japanese films from Toho Studios in the 1970s and 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DreamWorks Animation</span> American animation studio

DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 49 feature films, including several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. Its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, The Wild Robot, was released on September 27, 2024. They have an upcoming theatrical slate of films, which includes Dog Man on January 31, 2025, The Bad Guys 2 on August 1, 2025, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie on September 26, 2025, and Shrek 5 on July 1, 2026.

<i>Shrek</i> (franchise) DreamWorks Animation media franchise

Shrek is an American media franchise of DreamWorks Animation, loosely based on William Steig's 1990 picture book Shrek! The series primarily focuses on Shrek, a bad-tempered but good-hearted ogre, who begrudgingly accepts a quest to rescue a princess, resulting in him finding friends and going on many subsequent adventures in a fairy tale world. It includes four animated films: Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010), with a fifth film, Shrek 5, currently in production for a 2026 release. A short 4-D film, Shrek 4-D, which originally was a theme park ride, was released in 2003. Two television specials, the Christmas television special Shrek the Halls (2007) and the Halloween television special Scared Shrekless (2010), have also been produced. Two spin-off films were made centered around the character Puss in Boots: 2011's Puss in Boots and its sequel, 2022's The Last Wish. Additionally, a stage musical adaptation was made and premiered at Broadway for more than a year (2008–2010).

<i>Lifted</i> (2006 film) 2006 American film

Lifted is a 2006 American animated science fiction short film written and directed by Gary Rydstrom and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. This is the directorial debut of Rydstrom, a Academy Award-winning sound designer, editor and mixer, and the first produced by Katherine Sarafian, who went on to produce Pixar's Brave released in 2012.

The International Tournée of Animation was an annual touring program of alternative animated films that started in 1965 as The First Festival of Animated Film with each selected and assembled from films from many countries around the world and which existed from the 1970s to the 1980s-90s.

<i>Megamind</i> 2010 animated film by Tom McGrath

Megamind is a 2010 American animated superhero comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pacific Data Images, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, the film stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of Megamind, a highly intelligent alien supervillain; after defeating his long-time nemesis Metro Man, Megamind creates a new hero to fight but must act to save the city when his "creation" becomes an even worse villain than he was.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Animation Studios</span> American animation studio

Universal Animation Studios LLC is an American animation studio and a division of Universal Pictures, which is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It has produced direct-to-video sequels to Universal-released feature films, such as The Land Before Time, An American Tail, Balto, and Curious George, as well as other films and television series.

<i>Feast</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Feast is an American 2D animated romantic comedy short film written and directed by Patrick Osborne from a story of Raymond S. Persi and Nicole Mitchell, and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It made its world premiere on June 10, 2014, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and debuted in theaters with Big Hero 6 on November 7 of the same year. The short is about a Boston Terrier named Winston, his experiences bonding with his owner, James, over the food they share and his owner's relationship with a waitress named Kirby.

<i>The Boss Baby</i> 2017 animated film by Tom McGrath

The Boss Baby is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee, it was directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Michael McCullers, and stars the voices of Alec Baldwin as the title character, along with Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Miles Bakshi, and Tobey Maguire. The first installment in The Boss Baby franchise, the plot follows a boy helping his baby brother who is a secret agent in the war for adults' love between babies and puppies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MoonRay</span> Open source renderer

MoonRay is an open source renderer developed by DreamWorks Animation. It is continuously under active development, boasting an extensive library of production-tested, physically based materials. It features an Universal Scene Description (USD) Hydra render delegate and supports multi-machine and cloud rendering through the Arras distributed computation framework.

DreamWorks Channel, commonly known as DreamWorks, is a pay television network owned and operated by the NBCUniversal International Networks division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. First launched in Southeast Asia on 1 August 2015, it expanded to the rest of Asia as well as Europe, Africa and Oceania. Its programming is mainly sourced from DreamWorks Animation.

TVPaint Animation is a 2D paint and digital animation software package developed by TVPaint Developpement SARL based in Lorraine, France. Originally released for Amiga in 1991, version 3.0 (1994) introduced support for other platforms. In 1999, the last Amiga version 3.59 was released as free download. TVPaint Animation currently runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Kids</span> American childrens television channel

Universal Kids is an American children's television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of NBCUniversal, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast.

Pierre Perifel is a French filmmaker and animator. He is best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation, including directing the short film Bilby (2018) and the feature film The Bad Guys (2022).

<i>Abominable</i> (2019 film) Film by Jill Culton

Abominable is a 2019 animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation, Pearl Studio, and Zhong Ming You Ying Film. Written and directed by Jill Culton and co-directed by Todd Wilderman, the film stars the voices of Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, and Tsai Chin. The film follows a teenage girl named Yi (Bennet) who encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, names him Everest and embarks on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth along with her mischievous friends Jin (Trainor) and Peng (Tsai), but the trio of friends will have to stay one-step ahead of Burnish (Izzard), a wealthy man intent on capturing a Yeti, and zoologist Dr. Zara (Paulson) to help Everest get home.

<i>Bilby</i> (film) DreamWorks animated short

Bilby is a 2018 American animated short film written and directed by Liron Topaz, Pierre Perifel and JP Sans in their directorial debuts, and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It centers on a bilby trying to protect an albatross chick from the dangers of the Australian Outback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DreamWorks Animation Television</span> American television animation studio and production company

DreamWorks Animation Television is an American animation studio that serves as the television production arm of DreamWorks Animation, itself a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. Founded in 1996, the entity was formerly named DreamWorks Television Animation. Its first programs from the 1990s and early 2000s used the live-action television logo, and were produced by DreamWorks Television, before DWATV and its parent company were spun off into an independent company in 2004 and later purchased by NBCUniversal in 2016. In total, the division has released 59 programs, with 7 in development.

<i>The Boss Baby</i> (franchise) DreamWorks Animation media franchise

The Boss Baby is a media franchise made by DreamWorks Animation, loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee. The franchise began with the 2017 film The Boss Baby and has since grown to include a 2021 sequel, Family Business; two television series, Back in Business (2018–2020) and Back in the Crib (2022–2023); two short films; and a 2020 interactive special, with a third film in active development.

Megamind is an American media franchise created and owned by DreamWorks Animation, which began with the 2010 animated film of the same name written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. The franchise follows the adventures of a supervillain named Megamind who suddenly gets a chance to defend Metro City from the forces of evil after the superhero Metro Man retires.

References

  1. Wolfe, Jennifer (December 3, 2018). "EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Bringing a 2D Touch to DreamWorks Animation Short 'Bird Karma'". Animation World Network . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  2. Amidi, Amid (November 15, 2017). "Dreamworks Is Going To Start Adding Shorts In Front Of Its Theatrical Films". Cartoon Brew . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Wolfe, Jennifer (December 21, 2018). "WATCH: DreamWorks Animation Releases 'Bird Karma', 'Bilby' Shorts Online". Animation World Network . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  4. "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 4K Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  5. "Watch Bird Karma Streaming Online | Peacock".