And yet you are never lost because the plot is so relatable. Following the path of one of my favourite Pixar films, Wall-E, the short relies on character expression and action to tell the story rather than dialogue. The simplicity of Piper is what makes it so brilliant. The visuals are almost photo-realistic and so the careful details of the feathers, combined with the audio, are how the character emotions are given out. Apparently it began life as an experiment, trying to re-jig a bird from Brave into a baby sandpiper, and then everything else grew from there. Can we say inciting incident? Desperate hunger and a little help from a baby crab eventually lead Piper to conquer her fear in the cutest way possible.Īs with other Pixar shorts, the animation is gorgeous and groundbreaking.

She at first has success but then the waves crash to shore and drench the poor little bird, starting her fear of the water.

The protagonist initially expects to be fed by her mum, presumably as she has always been, but mum prompts her to try for herself. Piper starts with a gorgeous shot of sandpipers digging clams out of the sand before the waves reach the shore and then running away.

Pause for a second and think about how cute that is – a little bird hero versus a giant ocean villain. Piper is the story of a baby sandpiper who is afraid of the water. As much as I enjoyed the larger film, Piper was by far the best part of that cinema experience. Alan Barillaro’s Piper, the short that accompanies Finding Dory definitely does not disappoint. To me, each short displays the best of the company’s inventiveness in both animation and story telling. My favourite part of any new Pixar release is the short that comes with it.

Piper short film full video