Picture book version of “Day & Night” preserves the wit & charm of this Pixar short

Jim Hill

14 years ago

For those of you who haven't already seen Pixar's latest short, "Day & Night" is a charming if somewhat impossible to describe film. Given that …

SPOILERS ALERT: If you haven't yet seen "Day & Night" and don't want to learn about key plot points of this sure-to-be Academy Award-nominee before you eventually view this new animated short, now would be a very good time to bail out of today's JHM article.

Still here? Okay. Here goes …

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d7ID_-ALTM]

… it stars these two 2-dimensional characters who are actually windows into a 3-dimensional world. Which is odd unto itself. But where "Day & Night" gets truly bizarre is that – as this new Pixar short is getting underway — these 2-dimensional characters are chronologically out of sync. Which means that one shows you the daytime view of that 3-dimensional world, while the other features the nighttime view.

Which — I know – sounds like a pretty convoluted premise to build a six minute-long short around. But Teddy Newton (who's probably best known for the character design work that he's done on such acclaimed Pixar productions as "The Incredibles " and "Ratatouille") took this idea and just ran with it. Using the clever juxtaposition of actions by these 2-D characters and images that we see while peering into the 3-D world to turn "Day & Night" into this funny & ultimately quite touching tale of tolerance & acceptance.

Teddy Newton confers with his "Day & Night" production team. Copyright
2010 Disney / Pixar. All rights reserved

Well, thanks to Mr. Newton and the nice folks at Chronicle Books, "Day & Night" has recently made the transition from the screen to the page. With the picture book version of this new Pixar short hitting store shelves earlier this month.

Mind you, this isn't a verbatim translation of "Day & Night." Recognizing that it will mostly be younger readers who will be paging through the picture book version of this new Pixar short, Teddy has (quite wisely, I think) excised some of the more adult elements found in the original film. While – at that same time – preserving much of the wit & the charm that made this animated short so much fun to watch.

Long story short: This new Chronicle Books release will make a fine addition to any animation fan's library. What's more, JHM actually has an autographed copy of "Day & Night" to give away today. And all you have to do in order to win this picture book is be the first person to post the correct answer to the following question in the Feedback section that you'll find directly below today's article.

And that question is: Which abstract Chuck Jones short did Teddy Newton cite (while he was out doing publicity for this new Pixar short earlier this year) as providing inspiration for "Day & Night"?

If you already have an JimHillMedia.com account, please sign in before taking part in today's contest. If you don't, please sign up for JHM ASAP so that we then know who to send this prize to.

And if you'd like learn more about how the book version of Pixar's "Day & Night" actually came together, please check out this short video slide show.

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJRoBdKWsGw]

Good luck, everybody!