Disney’s Animation Studios is world renowned. The ideas, the development and the animation itself is some of best (if not the best) in the world and have been taking audiences by storm since the 1920’s. They almost never seem to disappoint and their messages always reach audiences with the right amount of gusto and vigor. In 2016, Disney created one of its most memorable animated shorts to date, Piper. Piper depicts the story of a young bird living near the ocean. She (Piper) struggles to find food like her mother and the other birds in the area as she is inexperienced and unfamiliar with the ways of the world. One morning, when once again struggling to find food for herself, she experiences something traumatic and is immediately scarred. Her view of the world begins to change, until she meets a new and unexpected friend; her view of the world then changes drastically for the better. She now begins to grow and appreciate the difficulties in her life, but, even better, is able to fill her belly.
As usual, Disney makes it a point to have a number of underlying themes strewn throughout Piper. These themes include perseverance, friendship and flexibility. The first theme, perseverance, is an important one, and one that every audience has heard a million times from every single film Disney has ever created. I am certainly not knocking this particular theme, however it does not seem to be one that needs to be revisited, as audiences around the world are familiar with it.
The second theme is friendship. Again, audiences have become all too familiar with the theme of friendship, and, if we are being real, we all have come to understand the importance of friendship in the real world through either good or bad scenarios (or both). Not to disregard the theme or make it appear that it has no value, but I might feel like I am beating a dead horse if I sit here and ramble about it for a couple hundred words.
The final theme depicted in writer-director Alan Barillaro’s Piper is that of flexibility, a theme that is not often covered in a short film (or any film for that matter). Barillaro is able to dive deep into the idea that having a one-track mind is never the way to go. Being flexible and understanding others’ point of view (and accepting that they are plausible and useful) comes in handy when trying to solve problems. Children are not always too open to the idea of flexibility, so, finding a way to reach young audiences and convince them that flexibility is necessary is a tall task. Like Disney does time and time again, they find ways to use their animation, as bright and vibrant as it is, to engage these audiences and provide them a new way of seeing things. Allowing them this opportunity is enough to express to the youngsters that there are often more than one way to skin a cat.
It does not take much to appreciate a film created by Disney, but it sometimes takes a bit to understand those all-important themes that lie just beneath the surface of vivid imagination and stellar animation. Alan Barillaro does a wonderful job of making sure that the necessary messages in Piper reach the audience (both young and old) and begin to make an impact on the way they view the world and themselves. Piper is currently available on Disney+.
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