Bilby
Film poster
Directed byLiron Topaz
Pierre Perifel
JP Sans
Written byLiron Topaz
Pierre Perifel
JP Sans
Based onCharacters
by Harry Cripps
Produced byKelly Cooney Cilella
Jeff Hermann
StarringDee Bradley Baker
David P. Smith
Edited byMichelle Mendenhall
C. K. Horness
Music byBenjamin Wallfisch
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • June 16, 2018 (2018-06-16) (Annecy)
February 22, 2019 (home video release with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryUnited States

Bilby is a 2018 American animated short film written and directed by Liron Topaz, Pierre Perifel and JP Sans in their directorial debuts, and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It centers on a bilby trying to protect an albatross chick from the dangers of the Australian Outback.

A product of DreamWorks' newly created shorts program, it is based on the studio's cancelled project Larrikins.

Plot

In the Australian Outback, a desert-dwelling bilby tries to search for fruits while he escapes from a goanna, but bilby comes across an abandoned albatross chick turned on its head. Taking pity on the chick, the bilby flips over the chick, which grows attached to him. The bilby wants nothing to do with the chick, but he can't help but abandon his mission to find more food in order to save the chick from all kinds of predators. Time and again, he tries to leave the chick in a new environment, only to find himself constantly trying to survive a wide variety of dangerous situations, such as facing a pack of dingoes, swimming in a lake of piranhas, passing to spiky echidnas, jumping in a lake full of crocodiles, dodging running emus, being eaten by a great white shark, escaping from a bushfire and many more.

Finally, the bilby and chick stop at an extremely high and steep cliffside that frequently experiences gusts of rising wind. The exhausted bilby decides to leave the chick there, especially since he believes she's ready to fly on her own, only for her to get snatched by a white-bellied sea eagle. Fearful for his new friend's safety, the bilby gains the courage to jump from the cliff and attack the eagle. During this battle, the chick falls from its talons, leading the bilby to free-fall through the air and clutch her. The bilby tosses the chick safely onto the cliff's edge, while he keeps falling and gets blown back up by an updraft. The two friends embrace, and the chick is happy that she can finally fly. The film ends in a flash-forward to the now-grown albatross landing on the cliffside, where she and her friend now live with an ample supply of food.

Voice cast

Production

Larrikins

By June 2013, Tim Minchin was attached to compose the music and score for Larrikins, which was based on an original concept from screenwriter Harry Cripps.[1] The film followed a timid bilby named Perry who leaves his home under a rock to go on a road trip with a music band in the Outback. Three years later, Minchin and Chris Miller were attached to direct the film while Margot Robbie, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Jacki Weaver, Josh Lawson, Damon Herriman, and Ewen Leslie were to voice characters. The film was slated to be released on February 16, 2018.[2] Illustrator Peter de Sève was one of the first artists brought onboard the film and helped design several characters.[3][4] In 2017, Minchin revealed on his personal blog that the project had been cancelled. Minchin wrote on his blog:

I've recently been working in 3 different continents, missing my kids a lot, sleeping too little and not playing piano enough. And then a couple of days ago, the animated film to which I've dedicated the last 4 years of my life was shut down by the new studio execs. The only way I know how to deal with my impotent fury and sadness is to subject members of the public to the spectacle of me getting drunk and playing ballads.[5][6]

Resurrection

The film was brought back as a short, as part of the studio's newly announced shorts program. Bilby's three directors had worked together on the Larrikins animation team; Perifel served as head of character animation, Topaz as a lead animator, and Sans as a character supervisor.[7]

Bilby proved to be a testing ground for various new animation software, including Moonray, a light rendering engine that was used on DreamWorks' feature films beginning with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.[7][8]

Release

Bilby had its world premiere on June 16, 2018, as part of the closing ceremonies for the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. On December 21 of the same year, the short was released on DreamWorks' official YouTube channel, but in November 2020, the short was no longer available as the Youtube video was set to "Private".

Bilby, along with Bird Karma, was included on home video releases of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World on May 21, 2019.[9]

Reception

Bilby received the Jury's Choice Award at the 45th SIGGRAPH conference, as well as the Audience Award at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films.[8][10]

References

  1. ↑ Kemp, Stuart (June 7, 2013). "DreamWorks Ani Picks 'Matilda' Musical's Tim Minchin to Score 'Larrikins'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ Anita Busch (June 1, 2016). "'Larrikins' Sings With Aussie A-Listers For DreamWorks Animation". Deadline. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ @peterdeseve (March 6, 2017). "Very sad to hear DWA killed LARRIKINS, their Aussie project. I was the first designer on that and had high hopes. Silly me. Fun though!" (Tweet). Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via Twitter.
  4. ↑ @peterdeseve (April 6, 2017). "A few more from LARRIKINS, now six feet down under. #characterdesign" (Tweet). Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ Amidi, Amid (March 7, 2017). "Dreamworks Kills Tim Minchin's 'Larrikins'". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  6. ↑ "NEW YORK! TIM – GETTING DRUNK AND PLAYING BALLADS AT FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW TOMORROW NIGHT!". timminchin.com. March 5, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Failes, Ian (August 13, 2018). "EXCLUSIVE: Dreamworks Directors On How They Made 'Bilby', And On The Studio's New Shorts Program". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Wolfe, Jennifer (December 10, 2018). "VIDEO: DreamWorks Animation Short 'Bilby' A Testing Ground for New Production Tools". Animation World Network. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  9. ↑ "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 4K Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  10. ↑ Giardina, Carolyn (July 11, 2018). "SIGGRAPH: Animated Short 'Hybrids' Wins Best in Show". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.