Look for Glago's Guest by Chris Williams to be among the Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short next year. © Disney.

Glago's Guest
The final film for this month's "FFF" is Glago's Guest by Chris Williams, the director of Disney's much-anticipated upcoming theatrical release, Bolt. The short is expected to be the first of many, as Disney ramps up its production of original shorts for release with its live-action and animated features.

The title screen that kicks off the short sets the tone for a fun viewing experience, as Mickey Mouse (back in the Steamboat Willie days) whistles a happy tune while the logo for the Walt Disney Animation Studios makes its appearance onscreen. This immediately gives way to a Russian folk tune as the Glago's Guest title card appears, in stark black letters set against a red backdrop. And yes, that's an inordinate amount of time spent discussing the title sequence of a short film, but Disney, now under the auspices of Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, has shown new signs of life since their much-publicized acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, and even Disney's opening credits seem to have taken things up a notch in the past two years.

Since a great many readers of this column are likely to view this short in theaters, I'll avoid going into great detail on the film's plot. Glago is a lone Russian soldier stationed at a remote Siberian outpost, and his duty is a tedious one. He has spent many long months, probably years, guarding an outpost where nothing ever happens, and he sees very little action apart from kicking the occasional rock or brushing snow from the sign outside his cabin. He derives some small measure of comfort from books and listening to records on his Victrola, but seems resigned to an uneventful, unexciting life in the frozen wastelands.

His entire worldview comes into question when he receives a mysterious visitor one afternoon, and the fate of the entire world may come down to Glago's reaction to his Guest.

It's a beautiful film, with bold art direction and graphics. The stark white expanse of the Russian landscape provides a striking contrast to Glago, his home and the Guest. The Guest is wonderfully animated, and moves in very sharp contrast to Glago, in a way that will capture the attention of every audience member who sees it. John Brion's score is brilliant, and Glago's Guest is an excellent start to what promises to be a long run of high-quality Disney CGI shorts. Don't be surprised if Glago's Guest joins Pixar's Presto when the Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short are announced next year.

Andrew Farago is the gallery manager and curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum and the creator of the weekly online comic serial The Chronicles of William Bazillion.