A Lesser-Known Pixar Short Marked 1 Studio First, 7 Years Before The Incredibles Did

Pixar has a great number of industry firsts when it comes to animation, but it also reached an in-house milestone with an innovative short, and the achievement wasn’t matched by the studio until The Incredibles came along in 2004. All the Pixar movies are visually spectacular, and they all have a wonderfully original storyline to go with the studio’s signature aesthetic. For all of Pixar’s successes in the movie industry, they also produce shorts as well that can be just as entertaining in a much shorter space of time.

Some Pixar shorts are better than certain movies that come out of the legendary studio, proving that the length of a production doesn’t necessarily dictate its quality. In 1997, Pixar was still a relatively young studio, with only 1995’s Toy Story as its sole feature-length release. However, a short came out in 1997 that represented one of many firsts for Pixar, and it was an event that opened up several opportunities going forward.

Pixar’s 1997 Short Geri’s Game Was Its First Project With A Human Main Character

Geri’s Game came two years after Toy Story and the year before A Bug’s Life

Geri’s Game was Pixar’s seventh short overall, and while that isn’t particularly interesting, Geri’s Game is the first ever Pixar project to feature a human as the story’s main character. The chess-based narrative features one man competing against himself under two separate personas. Geri isn’t Pixar’s first human protagonist ever, as 1995’s Toy Story had human characters like Andy Davis, Andy’s Mom, and Sid Philips. However, all previous human characters before Geri had supporting roles only.

Pixar’s previous five shorts before Geri’s Game date back to 1984’s The Adventures of André and Wally B. The older shorts all had anthropomorphized objects as characters rather than humans. For instance, 1986’s Luxo Jr. focuses on two lamps and a ball, which became huge symbols for Pixar in later years. 1987’s Red’s Dream starred a living unicycle. The shorts all varied in length, but often clocked in at around 2-5 minutes. The difference is, the gap between Geri’s Game and the previous short, 1989’s Knick Knack was eight years, whereas the longest wait had previously been two years.

Speaking with Computer Animation History, Geri’s Game writer/director Jan Pinkava stated the short was, “Done with a part-time team, apart from the core research group. The whole project took about a year, which at the time seemed long to me.” So, the delay between shorts wouldn’t seem to be due to the presence of a human character. What’s more likely is that Pixar weren’t prioritizing shorts while Toy Story was being made. If Geri’s Game came out in 1997, then, by Pinkava’s statement, production would have begun in 1996, a year after Toy Story‘s release.

Pixar Didn’t Have A Human Lead In A Feature Length Movie Until The Incredibles

The Incredibles has an all-human ensemble cast

Just as Geri’s Game was the first Pixar short to have a human lead, 2004’s The Incredibles was the first feature length Pixar movie to boast the same achievement. In an interesting parallel to Geri’s Game, The Incredibles was also Pixar’s sixth feature length movie, meaning the five that preceded it lacked a human hero. The superhero story didn’t hold back either, with an ensemble cast that more than made up for the deficit of people in Pixar’s past works.

Like Toy Story, other pre-Incredibles Pixar movies had humans in them, but they were side characters, bit players, or even villains rather than protagonists. For example, Toy Story 2 brought back Andy Davis, but also introduced Al from Al’s Toy Barn. Coincidentally, Geri even has a cameo in Toy Story 2 when he’s called to repair Woody. By contrast, 1998’s A Bug’s Life doesn’t feature any humans at all, while Monsters, Inc. and 2003’s Finding Nemo made use of them sparingly.

Pixar Now Strikes A Good Balance Between Movies That Are & Aren’t About Humans

The best Pixar movies use human and non-human characters together

The Incredibles‘ landmark human cast didn’t mark the end of Pixar’s penchant for heroes in all forms. While human characters are much more commonplace in Pixar movies nowadays, the studio has also remained steadfast in its fantastical stance of bringing inanimate objects to life as well as humanizing animals. For instance, Cars was released just two years after The Incredibles and featured exclusively sentient vehicles. However, 2007’s Ratatouille and 2008’s WALL-E found a happy medium for their characters from human and non-human camps.

Movies like 2009’s Up and 2017’s Coco are great examples of Pixar repeating the casting formula from The Incredibles and having mostly human faces at the heart of the story. Many of Pixar’s best movies tend to be productions that stick to the studio’s fantastical roots while also having recognizable faces guiding them through the narrative. As such, Geri’s Game and The Incredibles gave Pixar a much-needed tool in its chest for future efforts.

Source: Computer Animation History