Aug 21, 2019

DreamWorks' new short film "Marooned" opens this weekend in the U.S.

Until now, "Marooned" (pictured above) has only played at a handful of film festivals. That changes this week: DreamWorks' newest short film will screen at AMC theaters across the country as part of a retrospective of the studio's best-known feature films, which runs from August 23-29.

"Marooned" is the third film to emerge from DreamWorks Animation's new short film program. It tells the story of C-0R13, a rusty old robot marooned on a remote lunar outpost, longing to return to Earth. He asks his partner for help, only to find he doesn't have enough battery power left to get them both home. This 7:35 minute film was directed by Andrew Erekson, story artist for Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Home, and How to Train Your Dragon 3, and the upcoming He is also the story supervisor for the upcoming "The Boss Baby 2".

"There were two ideas that inspired 'Marooned,'" Erekson told Indiewire. 'The first, I liked the idea of a character stranded on a deserted island. I was thinking of a different take on that, and I came up with the moon. The next thing that intrigued me was the idea of a character sacrificing his or her ultimate desires so that someone else could benefit. I felt that idea was something many of us could relate to."

The producer is Jeff Herman, who developed the DreamWorks Shorts program. The program started last year with "Bird Karma," a hand-drawn story by William Salazar about a long-legged bird in pursuit of fish, and "Bilby," made in a more typical DreamWorks-like 3D style by Liron Topaz, Pierre Perifel, and JP Sands. The three shorts released so far were chosen from dozens of suggestions from employees, with more in the pipeline.

The studio outlines the program's various goals, including improving artists' storytelling and creative skills, developing new technologies, creating unique collaborations, exploring new stories and characters for feature development, and discovering new talent within the company

[12] [13] [14] [15] "The program is designed to help companies develop new skills and new ideas.

"Marooned" premiered at Annecy in June and was subsequently screened at SIGGRAPH. As part of DreamWorks Animation Week, it will be preceded by all feature films to be screened: The Cruise, Trolls, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, and Madagascar. For a complete list of participating venues, visit the AMC website. The studio's latest film, "Abominable," opens in theaters on September 27.