Day & Night (2010 film)

Last updated
Day & Night
Day & Night poster.jpg
Promotional release poster
Directed by Teddy Newton
Written byTeddy Newton
Produced byKevin Reher
Starring Wayne Dyer
Edited byGreg Snyder
Music by Michael Giacchino
Production
companies
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date
Running time
6 minutes
CountryUnited States

Day & Night is a 2010 American animated short film written and directed by Teddy Newton in his directorial debut and produced by Pixar. [1] It was 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]

Contents

Plot

Day & Night follows two 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 Day or Night express or receive. 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, they are uneasy about each other. They are dismissive of each other because each perceives the other as being different, and their prejudices result in a physical altercation between the two. However, as the characters discover the many fascinating events that occur in each other, they learn to appreciate them and learn to like one another. At the end of the film, the Sun descends in Day and rises in Night, so that when the Sun is at the same height above the horizon in each, both characters appear to be identical. As the Sun continues its course, 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 the short 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 need not be something to fear, which is echoed by a 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 composer Michael Giacchino. [10]

Reception

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]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animation</span> Method of creating moving pictures

Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.

<i>Toy Story</i> 1995 Pixar film

Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the franchise of the same name, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. It was directed by John Lasseter and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, from a screenplay written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow and a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft. The film features music by Randy Newman, and was executive-produced by Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull. The film features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, and Erik von Detten.

The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for the best animated film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixar</span> American computer animation studio

Pixar Animation Studios is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.

Modern animation in the United States from 1987 to 2004 is referred to as the Silver Age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following a dark age during the 1970s to mid 1980s. During this time the United States had a profound effect on global or worldwide animation.

<i>Monsters, Inc.</i> 2001 American computer-animated film

Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Mary Gibbs and Jennifer Tilly, the film was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, and produced by Darla K. Anderson, from a screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson. The film centers on two monsters, the hairy James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (Goodman) and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski (Crystal), who are employed at the titular energy-producing factory Monsters, Inc., which generates power by scaring human children. However, the monster world believes that the children are toxic, and when a little human girl Boo (Gibbs) sneaks into the factory, she must be returned home before it is too late.

<i>Toy Story 2</i> 1999 Pixar film

Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The second installment in the Toy Story franchise and the sequel to Toy Story (1995), it was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich, and produced by Helene Plotkin and Karen Robert Jackson, from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, and Chris Webb, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, Brannon, and Pete Docter. In the film, Woody is stolen by a toy collector, prompting Buzz Lightyear and his friends to rescue him, but Woody is then tempted by the idea of immortality in a museum. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf reprise their roles from the first Toy Story film and they are joined by Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Estelle Harris, Wayne Knight, and Jodi Benson, who play the new characters introduced in this film. This is the last Toy Story film to feature Varney as the voice of Slinky Dog before his death the following year.

<i>The Incredibles</i> 2004 film by Brad Bird

The Incredibles is a 2004 American animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it stars the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and Elizabeth Peña. Set in a retro-futuristic version of the 1960s, the film follows Bob and Helen Parr, a couple of superheroes, known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, respectively, who hide their powers in accordance with a government mandate, and attempt to live a quiet suburban life with their three children. However, Bob's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with a vengeful fan-turned-foe.

<i>Nicktoons Film Festival</i> American TV series or program

The Nicktoons Film Festival was an annual event that was created by producer Fred Seibert and produced for its first three years by his Frederator Studios.

<i>Knick Knack</i> 1989 film directed by John Lasseter

Knick Knack is a 1989 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar that was written and directed by John Lasseter. The short is about a snow globe snowman who wants to join the other travel souvenirs in a summer-themed party. However, the glass dome that surrounds him prevents him from doing so, thus leading to his many tries to break out of his snow globe. Knick Knack is Pixar's fourth short and the final short produced during the company's tenure as a hardware company.

<i>Toy Story 3</i> 2010 Pixar film

Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the Toy Story series and the sequel to Toy Story 2 (1999). It was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor of the first two films and the co-director of Toy Story 2, produced by Darla K. Anderson, and written by Michael Arndt, while Unkrich wrote the story along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, respectively, director and co-writer of the first two films. The film's ensemble voice cast includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and R. Lee Ermey, reprising their roles from previous films. Jim Varney, who voiced Slinky Dog in the first two films, died on February 10, 2000, 10 years before the release of the third film, so the role of Slinky was passed down to Blake Clark. The returning cast is joined by Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt, and Jeff Garlin, who voice the new characters introduced in this film. In Toy Story 3, Andy Davis (Morris), now 17 years old, is going to college. Woody (Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Allen), and the other toys are accidentally donated to Sunnyside Daycare, a daycare center, by Andy's mother (Metcalf), and the toys must decide where their loyalties lie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lasseter</span> American filmmaker (born 1957)

John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the Head of Animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Docter</span> American filmmaker (born 1968)

Peter Hans Docter is an American filmmaker and animator. He has served as the chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar Animation Studios since 2018, and is best known for directing the animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020). He has been nominated for nine Oscars and has won three for Best Animated Feature—for Up, Inside Out and Soul—making him the first person in history to win the category three times. He has also been nominated for nine Annie Awards, a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award. He has described himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Digital 3-D</span>

Disney Digital 3-D is a brand name used by The Walt Disney Company to describe three-dimensional films made and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures mostly under the Walt Disney Pictures label and shown exclusively using digital projection.

Ralph Eggleston was an American animator, art director, storyboard artist, and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for For the Birds.

Teddy Newton is an American animator and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios.

Doug Sweetland is an American animator and filmmaker. He directed the short film Presto (2008) and the feature film Storks (2016).

<i>Toy Story</i> (franchise) Disney media franchise created by Pixar

Toy Story is an American media franchise owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys that feature a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.

<i>Borrowed Time</i> (film) 2015 film

Borrowed Time is a 2015 American animated Western short film directed by Pixar artists Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj.

References

  1. ↑ Sciretta, Peter (March 11, 2010). "First Look: Pixar's Day & Night". /Film . Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Exclusive: First Look at Pixar Short Day & Night!". ComingSoon.net . March 12, 2010. Archived from the original on March 16, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  3. ↑ Goldberg, Matt (June 22, 2010). "New Pixar Short Film Day & Night Now Available on iTunes". collider.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  4. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Amidi, Amid (March 12, 2010). "Day & Night by Teddy Newton". Cartoon Brew . Archived from the original on May 18, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  5. ↑ Shank, Don (March 12, 2010). "Day & Night". shank pile. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Day & Night Production Information". Big Cartoon DataBase. April 13, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Day & Night: The Quote". Pixar Talk. June 26, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  8. ↑ Erbland, Kate (July 8, 2010). "Fun facts about Pixar's new short, DAY & NIGHT". Gordon And The Whale. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  9. ↑ Dyer, Wayne W. (May 10, 2010). "Birthday Blessings". Heal Your Life. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  10. ↑ Scott, Mike (June 18, 2010). "Day & Night, Pixar's new animated short, is long on artistry". NOLA.com. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  11. ↑ Morgenstern, Joe (16 July 2010). "An Ode to 'Toy'". Wall Street Journal.
  12. ↑ "Day & Night (2010) - Movie Review". 18 January 2011.
  13. ↑ "The Projection Booth: Viewing Log #3". 19 August 2010.
  14. ↑ "Day & Night (2010) |".
  15. ↑ "'Day & Night,' Pixar's new animated short, is long on artistry".
  16. ↑ "Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  17. ↑ 38th Annual Annie Nominations – Winners noted in gold color Archived December 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ 9th Annual VES Awards
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.