Jan 28, 2010

Controversy for the Birds

The Internet, always looking for a good controversy, is trying to create a controversy over a Pixar short film. Lineboil.com noted a recent survey on Rotten Tomatoes asking if Ralph Eggleston's "For the Birds" (2001) was similar to the 1993 It noted that the director of Small Fry is Stevie Wormers-Skelton, who also directed the recent Goofy short "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater" and Disney's holiday special "Prepure and Landing," which he co-directed.

Here are the two films in question:

Small Fry

For the Birds (edited version with different music and sound)

The basic settings of the shorts are similar, but not unique enough to be considered "evidential similarities," as the legal term is used. From that point forward, the two works take very different paths: in Wormers' "Small Fry," the small birds keep the big birds from landing on the power lines, while the small birds in "For the Birds" move to make room for the big birds to land. Because of the difference in situation, none of the gags are similar. In fact, there is not much in "Small Fry" that even resembles a gag, until the punchline. The short story most resembles the last, in which a small bird gets its unintentional comeuppance at the hands (or wings) of a larger bird, but the idea works better in "For the Birds," because the small bird's actions cause their misfortune.

There is another aspect to consider: although For the Birds was released in 2001, Eggleston came up with the idea much earlier. When I interviewed Ralph about the genesis of "For the Birds" in my book "The Art of Pixar Short Films," he told me that the idea was born when he was a student at CalArts, in the early 1980s. The following is an excerpt from the book:

"For the Birds" began as a design assignment that Eggleston created for Bob Winquist's class, who taught design at CalArts in the early 1980s. Classmate Ken Bruce suggested that Eggleston turn his concept sketch into a film. He said, "I actually drew part of that sketch on the board at CalArts. Since his idea had no ending, he carried the project over to another day.

If there is a tangible connection between these works, it is Ken Bruce's name in the credits of "For the Birds" and "Small Fry." As noted above, Bruce was a classmate of Eggleston's who encouraged him to turn his design assignment into a film.

Perhaps the best evidence in support of the innocence of For the Birds is this drawing by Eggleston published in The Art of Pixar Short Films. In this book, it is dated 1985, eight years before "Small Fry".