Jun 11, 2014

Short Film Review: Disney's "Feast

Click to enlarge teaser image of Disney's Feast.

Disney's "Feast" was unveiled yesterday at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival to a packed house, along with previously unseen clips from the studio's next film, "Big Hero 6." Following the premiere, "Feast" director Patrick Osborne and production designer Jeff Turley gave a presentation on the project's conception and production techniques.

As suggested by the released teaser image (above), the film uses the same non-photorealistic rendering techniques pursued in the Academy Award-winning short "Paperman," but this time the effects are richer and more immersive. Unlike "Paperman," which relied heavily on character outlines, "Feast" pursues an aggressive stylization, minimizing exterior lines and immersing the viewer in the possibilities of color, form, and form. If you have ever looked at the concept art in an "art of" book and wondered why the finished film doesn't look like that, wonder no more. This film brought the concept art to life.

I'll keep what's not mentioned in the synopsis out of the way, but the story is basically the same as "The Paper Man" and Pixar's "The Blue Umbrella." Osborn's clever directorial choices broaden the scope of this age-old tale by avoiding sentimental narrative and a willingness to push cinematic language beyond the conventions of Hollywood animated filmmaking. Osborne adopts a unique point of view, showing us the world from the shallow depth-of-field perspective of his dog, Winston. By fragmenting the narrative, he gives the film a contemporary feel that recalls the blink-and-you'll-miss-it edits of Vine and Instagram videos. (This technique was actually inspired by one of Osborn's personal digital projects, a video diary of one-second snapshots of meals recorded over the course of a year.)

The film's narrative is also inspired by the film's own personal history.

Food plays an important role in this film. At yesterday's presentation, Jeff Turley joked that all the artists involved in the film gained weight during production for "research." But their weight gain paid off. Feast is the first film in my memory where CGI food actually looked appetizing on screen. It is certainly the most powerful film in Disney's recent revival of short-film production and suggests exciting possibilities for how the studio can combine hand-drawn craftsmanship and digital technology in future projects.