Sunday Short Theatre – Pixar’s Automaton (2021)

This week’s Sunday Short Theatre, we’re going to go a little experimental. The source of the short film are no strangers to shorts, matter of fact a lot of their feature films have a short before the main feature. That studio is Pixar and below is the animated short Automaton.

The film is directed by Krzysztof Rost, whose experience is a special effects artist/Animator. He has worked in the animation industry for over 23 years, debuting in Antz (1998), working right up to more recently Soul (2020). Like any creative industry when you stick to certain tropes and you know your tools of the trade can do more, you want to experiment.

This four minute animate short created by Rost and the Pixar FX team is not creating a film in the traditional narrative. More a film showcasing the power of their software (Houdini 3D I believe) and what it can do. What is on show is wonderful and if there is any characters in this, it’s nature itself. All those little extras that give anything an extra edge, like at a theme park.

What is Automaton? “a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being“. Pixar have being doing this for a long long time well before they unleashed their animated feature talents. Nearly 40 years (possibly more) with Star Trek II: Wraith Of Khan one of their big highlights.

Pixar Animation Studios is proud to present Automaton. A poetic interlude between a reality and an abstraction, this experimental short was produced by artists from Pixar’s Effects team, working in collaboration to create a startlingly original piece of filmmaking.

Source: Collider


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