Since Disney's acquisition of Pixar, the Mouse House has followed Pixar's lead in establishing its own shorts program. In the past, Disney produced Lorenzo, directed by Mike Gabriel. © Disney.

New York's Blue Sky Studios, creators of Robots and the Ice Age, features first made a splash with its Oscar-winning 1998 short Bunny. "It took eight years to make Bunny, recalls writer/director and studio kingpin Chris Wedge. "It wasn't made as a calling card, but it did help us focus and develop advanced rendering software like our radiosity renderer." Like Disney and Pixar, Wedge looks at his studio's shorts program as "a focus for developing creative talent."

Pixar's shorts precede its features in the theaters and accompany them on its DVD releases (as Boundin' did with The Incredibles, or One Man Band with Cars). In addition, the studio's DVDs include an original bonus short or two starring the film's characters. On the just-released Cars DVD, Mater the tow truck returns in Mater and the Ghostlight, while on The Incredibles DVD, Jack-Jack Attack reveals what's taking place back home while the family's out adventuring. A second, hysterically funny Incredibles short features a "commentary track: from Mr. Incredible and Frozone (Craig T. Nelson and Samuel L. Jackson, as their movie characters) fulminating over Mr. Incredible and Pals, a cheesy TV cartoon supposedly based on their adventures.

Destino brought a 1940s Dali/Disney collaboration to fruition. © Disney 2002.

Shurer admits that, "all of us fall in love with the world and the characters we create. Spending more time with them there is the strongest motivation, but it's also nice to be able to include something exclusive to the DVD. It's a chance for the audience to see a little more of that movie's world -- and it gives them a reason to buy the disc."

Adding an original short starring the film's characters (or breakout character) as an incentive to buy the DVD is now standard operating procedure, from Mater to Ice Age's Scrat and Madagascar's penguins. When it was Over the Hedge's turn, "everyone gravitated to Hammy because he was a real sticky character," reports Will Finn, referring to the movie's manic, Steve Carell-voiced squirrel. As one of Hedge's storyboard artists (and with directing credits at Disney and DreamWorks), Finn was tapped to direct Hammy's Boomerang Adventure. "I was sort of the default director for ancillary things. After four years the directors took hiatuses as soon as post-production ended. I knew the movie and the characters were a lot of fun to work with. I wasn't in any hurry to say goodbye to them."

Unlike the studio's Christmas-themed theatrical short starring the Madagascar penguins (who are slated to star in their own Nickelodeon TV series), DreamWorks looked at the Hammy short as strictly a DVD extra. "We needed to do something economical. We had to make this brief and stick to existing characters." The solution was a Punk'd-style spoof seen through the viewfinder of a video camera as Hammy battles a boomerang that won't leave him alone. Finn was fortunate enough to piggyback onto the movie's final recording sessions and get all his dialog from the original performers. "They had a bit of a glassy-eyed look-- after four years, it was like 'we're not done yet?'"

Lifted is the newest short to come out of Pixar. Oscar-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom moved into directing with Lifted and will soon be directing a feature for Pixar as a result. © Pixar Animation Studio.

Between young and hungry independent animators working on their labors of love, and CGI studios cranking out high-profile and high-budget prestige pieces, there's no shortage of shorts to choose from. Smith sees the overall quality of the independent shorts as on the upswing. "There's a nice combination filmmakers have been achieving: professionally produced, very cinematic efforts that still have the human touch and a single-minded director's vision."

Smith goes on to view lengthier efforts like John Canemaker's Oscar-winning The Moon and the Son (clocking in at close to 30 minutes) and Chris Landreth's 14-minute long Ryan as exceptions rather than forerunners of a trend. "It depends on the subject matter. Would Canemaker's film work in five minutes? He needed that half hour. Dialog films run longer -- it takes time to say stuff. Pantomime that's based on a simple idea tends be shorter."

In the age of YouTube, podcasts and Flash animation, no one should overlook the Internet's potential to earn a superior piece of work widespread attention. On the Cartoon Brew website, Amid Amidi recently reported on the amazing success of Kiwi! a poignant, funny and brilliantly realized thesis film by New York SVA student Don Permedi:

"It is currently the most linked-to video on the blogosphere according to Technorati.com, it's in the top 15 all-time favorite videos on YouTube, and it's racked up nearly two million views in the past week."

Two million views in just seven days... as a calling card alone, it would be surprising if Kiwi! fails to open career doors for Permedi. Internet visionaries have long spoken of creating a system of "micropayments" to help artists make an online living. Imagine those two million people parting with a penny each to view a cartoon like Kiwi!; when and if that day arrives, there will be no shortage of animators earning a living from their short creations.

Joe Strike is a regular contributor to AWN. His animation articles also appear in the NY Daily News and the New York Press.