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Kitbull
Kitbull is a 2019 American animated buddy-drama short film and viral video written and directed by Rosana Sullivan, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the third film in Pixar's SparkShorts program, and focuses on a fiercely independent stray kitten and an abused pit bull, who form an unlikely friendship. The short premiered at El Capitan Theatre on January 18, 2019, before being released on YouTube on February 18, 2019, and has received over 100 million views as of August 2023. The short was also released on Disney+ on November 12, 2019 and was later released in theaters on February 9, 2024 ahead of Turning Red.
Sullivan said that the creation of the short had originated from her enjoyment of viewing cat videos, and Hendrickson stated that the traditional animation had proved to be challenging in the beginning. Critical reception of the short has been generally positive, with critics praising its story, emotional tone, themes, characterization, and animation. The short was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
A kitten lives in the garbage cans behind a building in San Francisco's Mission District. While foraging for food on the streets, the kitten is offered food by a passerby but runs away. He sleeps in a cardboard box in a dilapidated building's garbage heap, nuzzling a stuffed animal. Later, a fighting pit bull is moved to a doghouse behind the building, and chained to a cinder block. Though the kitten is initially very scared of the dog, the two somewhat bond while playing with a bottlecap.
One night, after the pit bull is taken inside the building, he ends up getting heavily injured in a fight and is thrown back outside. The pit bull then goes to help the kitten, who is trapped in plastic pack rings after being scared by a storm, but the frightened kitten scratches the dog upon seeing his fangs. Saddened, the pit bull retreats to his doghouse, where he is later hesitantly joined by the kitten. The next day, the two escape the backyard just before the yard's owner can find them. Some time later, the kitten and the pit bull are playing out on the street when the kitten is found by the passerby from before. The woman is startled when the pit bull appears, but after the kitten shows its affection for the dog, she and her husband adopt both of them. After some time, the two animals play happily on top of a hill and join their new family to see a view of the city.
Kitbull is the third short of Pixar's SparkShorts program, which consists in Pixar giving employees six months and limited budgets to produce animated short films. The short was directed and written by Rosana Sullivan. Sullivan described the SparkShorts program as "a huge game-changer" since the studio had started "investing in the unconventional, unknown and diverse voices". Kitbull was produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Domee Shi, director of the Academy Award-winning short film Bao, Peter Sohn, director of the feature film The Good Dinosaur, and Kristen Lester, director of the short film Purl, were part of Sullivan's story trust on Kitbull. The short was edited by Katie Schaefer Bishop.
Sullivan said that a cat video had initiated the idea behind the short, mentioning that she enjoyed looking at cat videos whenever she felt stressed. According to Sullivan, she "started sketching this little black kitten in 2013" while "working on a feature film project at the time at Pixar". One of her colleagues showed her "a video of a cat arching its back and trying to act tough, then promptly falling off a counter"; Sullivan was "so entertained" by the difference between the cat's "self-perception" and the reality, which prompted her desire to "draw a tiny kitten who embodied" this contrast. She stated that she had "just wanted to draw a little kitten doing something silly and very, very cat-like". She had initially wished to depict something that appealed to her and was enjoyable, but "it evolved into something more personal" to her in the end. Sullivan "started to crave something more", with the story eventually turning into one about "a lonely cat" and a dog forming a connection. Sullivan said she had "always had a deep love for animals", which made her wish "to tell a story through the lens of animal welfare".
Sullivan first encountered pit bulls while "working in shelters during college" and felt they were "sweet, awesome dogs"; at the same time, she started learning that "there was a negative reputation around them". Sullivan commented that all frames are hand-drawn and hand-painted, adding that while the creators had used computers when drawing, "everything was directly from the artists' hands onto the screen". Sullivan said that she "had always wanted to do a 2D animated short" since she had grown up "watching hand-drawn animation". She stated that she had always enjoyed "the charm of a hand-drawn image", mentioning that every artist has their own way of drawing. Sullivan commented that "the kitten could not have been done without the hand-drawn quality" since "the kitten's character itself is unpredictable and spastic". According to her, "the kitten's frenetic energy could best be captured through hand-drawn animation, especially within [the creators'] limited resources and six-month production timeline".
Sullivan stated that the creators of the short had invented their own "pipeline". Arjun Rihan, who had been the director of photography while working on the short, presented all the shots. When it came to the backgrounds, Sullivan "worked closely" with production designer Tim Evatt and Bill Cone. The creators selected "a mix between impressionistic, kind of loose, fast painting, but also still kind of grungy and gritty"; they wished to prevent the short from being "so heavy" by keeping a sense of "levity" and to make "the background loose enough to maintain focus on the characters". The creators "walked around the Mission with a selfie stick, held low to the ground", in order to see the neighborhood from the kitten's point of view. Sullivan said that she had walked "around Valencia Street, looking for abandoned lots, taking pictures of little cardboard boxes in the weeds to imagine if a kitten would actually live in there". The kitten chooses to be alone and manages to remain unnoticed with the help of background elements such as shadows and road signs. According to Sullivan, "Bernal Hill was always the goal" and represented the "conclusion" of the relationship between the kitten and the pit bull, with this being the place "where they rise above the fray". Sullivan said that the short had been inspired "in a way" by her relationship with her husband and her other "close relationships", stating that she would always climb alongside her husband on the Bernal Hill.
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Kitbull
Kitbull is a 2019 American animated buddy-drama short film and viral video written and directed by Rosana Sullivan, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the third film in Pixar's SparkShorts program, and focuses on a fiercely independent stray kitten and an abused pit bull, who form an unlikely friendship. The short premiered at El Capitan Theatre on January 18, 2019, before being released on YouTube on February 18, 2019, and has received over 100 million views as of August 2023. The short was also released on Disney+ on November 12, 2019 and was later released in theaters on February 9, 2024 ahead of Turning Red.
Sullivan said that the creation of the short had originated from her enjoyment of viewing cat videos, and Hendrickson stated that the traditional animation had proved to be challenging in the beginning. Critical reception of the short has been generally positive, with critics praising its story, emotional tone, themes, characterization, and animation. The short was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
A kitten lives in the garbage cans behind a building in San Francisco's Mission District. While foraging for food on the streets, the kitten is offered food by a passerby but runs away. He sleeps in a cardboard box in a dilapidated building's garbage heap, nuzzling a stuffed animal. Later, a fighting pit bull is moved to a doghouse behind the building, and chained to a cinder block. Though the kitten is initially very scared of the dog, the two somewhat bond while playing with a bottlecap.
One night, after the pit bull is taken inside the building, he ends up getting heavily injured in a fight and is thrown back outside. The pit bull then goes to help the kitten, who is trapped in plastic pack rings after being scared by a storm, but the frightened kitten scratches the dog upon seeing his fangs. Saddened, the pit bull retreats to his doghouse, where he is later hesitantly joined by the kitten. The next day, the two escape the backyard just before the yard's owner can find them. Some time later, the kitten and the pit bull are playing out on the street when the kitten is found by the passerby from before. The woman is startled when the pit bull appears, but after the kitten shows its affection for the dog, she and her husband adopt both of them. After some time, the two animals play happily on top of a hill and join their new family to see a view of the city.
Kitbull is the third short of Pixar's SparkShorts program, which consists in Pixar giving employees six months and limited budgets to produce animated short films. The short was directed and written by Rosana Sullivan. Sullivan described the SparkShorts program as "a huge game-changer" since the studio had started "investing in the unconventional, unknown and diverse voices". Kitbull was produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Domee Shi, director of the Academy Award-winning short film Bao, Peter Sohn, director of the feature film The Good Dinosaur, and Kristen Lester, director of the short film Purl, were part of Sullivan's story trust on Kitbull. The short was edited by Katie Schaefer Bishop.
Sullivan said that a cat video had initiated the idea behind the short, mentioning that she enjoyed looking at cat videos whenever she felt stressed. According to Sullivan, she "started sketching this little black kitten in 2013" while "working on a feature film project at the time at Pixar". One of her colleagues showed her "a video of a cat arching its back and trying to act tough, then promptly falling off a counter"; Sullivan was "so entertained" by the difference between the cat's "self-perception" and the reality, which prompted her desire to "draw a tiny kitten who embodied" this contrast. She stated that she had "just wanted to draw a little kitten doing something silly and very, very cat-like". She had initially wished to depict something that appealed to her and was enjoyable, but "it evolved into something more personal" to her in the end. Sullivan "started to crave something more", with the story eventually turning into one about "a lonely cat" and a dog forming a connection. Sullivan said she had "always had a deep love for animals", which made her wish "to tell a story through the lens of animal welfare".
Sullivan first encountered pit bulls while "working in shelters during college" and felt they were "sweet, awesome dogs"; at the same time, she started learning that "there was a negative reputation around them". Sullivan commented that all frames are hand-drawn and hand-painted, adding that while the creators had used computers when drawing, "everything was directly from the artists' hands onto the screen". Sullivan said that she "had always wanted to do a 2D animated short" since she had grown up "watching hand-drawn animation". She stated that she had always enjoyed "the charm of a hand-drawn image", mentioning that every artist has their own way of drawing. Sullivan commented that "the kitten could not have been done without the hand-drawn quality" since "the kitten's character itself is unpredictable and spastic". According to her, "the kitten's frenetic energy could best be captured through hand-drawn animation, especially within [the creators'] limited resources and six-month production timeline".
Sullivan stated that the creators of the short had invented their own "pipeline". Arjun Rihan, who had been the director of photography while working on the short, presented all the shots. When it came to the backgrounds, Sullivan "worked closely" with production designer Tim Evatt and Bill Cone. The creators selected "a mix between impressionistic, kind of loose, fast painting, but also still kind of grungy and gritty"; they wished to prevent the short from being "so heavy" by keeping a sense of "levity" and to make "the background loose enough to maintain focus on the characters". The creators "walked around the Mission with a selfie stick, held low to the ground", in order to see the neighborhood from the kitten's point of view. Sullivan said that she had walked "around Valencia Street, looking for abandoned lots, taking pictures of little cardboard boxes in the weeds to imagine if a kitten would actually live in there". The kitten chooses to be alone and manages to remain unnoticed with the help of background elements such as shadows and road signs. According to Sullivan, "Bernal Hill was always the goal" and represented the "conclusion" of the relationship between the kitten and the pit bull, with this being the place "where they rise above the fray". Sullivan said that the short had been inspired "in a way" by her relationship with her husband and her other "close relationships", stating that she would always climb alongside her husband on the Bernal Hill.