May 16, 2019

Disney Announces New "Short Circuit" Program for Animated Short Films

At next month's Annecy Animation Film Festival, Disney will present the world premiere of three new animated shorts from its newly announced "Short Circuit" short film program.

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Launched in 2016, the setup and purpose of this program is to provide a way for Disney's sister studio Pixar's Spark shorts program. The company explains: "Anyone at Walt Disney Animation Studios can submit an idea and potentially be selected to create an original short film with the support of the studio and fellow artists. The goal of this innovative program is to take risks in both visual style and story, surface new voices in the studio, and experiment with new innovations."

Also like Spark Shorts, Disney has labeled Short Circuit content as "experimental films." As one might infer from Spark Shorts so far, the idea of "experimental" in a $200 billion company is very different from what the rest of the animation world considers "experimental."

If any of the Spark Shorts were actually programmed in competition at international animation festivals, including Annecy, they would be very conventional in terms of narrative structure and stylistic/technical exploration. That is not a knock on the films; these films are not experimental.

Annecy will be the site of three new short films, "Just A Thought" by Brian Menz, "Exchange Student" by Nathalie Nourigat, and "Jing Hua" by Jerry Huynh.

So far, 20 Disney Animation artists have directed shorts, most of which average two minutes in length.

The shorts are expected to debut on the Disney Plus streaming service in the U.S. in spring 2020.

Updated June 18, 2019: Added images of the short films.