With Finding Dory due out next month, Pixar are also putting the final touches to their latest short film, as they do before every feature. The next 6-minute masterpiece from the Disney-owned animation studio is entitled Piper – and here’s a few seconds of footage.
According to Pixar, Piper “tells the story of a hungry sandpiper hatchling who ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline”. Wee little Piper has to square up with “scary waves” in order to get a decent meal.
Judging by the footage, it’s going to be a blend of near photo-realistic animation and quite unbearable cuteness. Alan Barillaro is directing the short, having worked for Pixar almost since their founding. Barillaro started out as an animator on A Bug’s Life way back in 1998, and most recently working as a supervising animator on Brave. With nearly two decades spent in Emeryville, it’s safe to assume he’s familiar with the Pixar way of working.
Finding Dory – the sequel to Finding Nemo – arrives in UK cinemas on July 29, and we now find ourselves getting excited about little Piper, too.