Disney has been spoiling us all with incredibly amusing short films appearing before major animated productions. You may recall award winning Feast as well as Frozen Fever. On 29 July Pixar Animation Studios is releasing a sequel to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, and with that a newly announced short called Piper.
Directed by Alan Barillaro and produced by Marc Sondheimer, Piper tells the story of a hungry sandpiper hatchling who ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline. The only problem is, the food is buried beneath the sand where scary waves roll up onto the shore.
ALAN BARILLARO (Director) joined Pixar Animation Studios in January 1997. Barillaro has worked on almost every Pixar film as an animator, including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and the Academy Award®-winning features Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL•E and Brave. On those last three features, Barillaro was given the role of supervising animator and was therefore responsible for overseeing the team of animators who worked to bring the characters in the films to life.
Following his work on Brave, Barillaro went to work with Pixar’s software development team to help craft an animation tool that would help provide additional creative flexibility to the studio’s filmmaking process. As a proof of concept, Barillaro created a short animation test about a small bird – a sandpiper – on a beach. This animation test soon grew into a full-fledged short film, Piper, directed by Barillaro and debuting theatrically with Finding Dory in 2016.
Growing up in Niagara Falls, Canada, Barillaro’s interest in animation began at a young age. He worked his way up through the ranks at various commercial houses during high school and continued his studies at Sheridan College for Animation.
Barillaro resides in Oakland, Calif., with his family.
Finding Dory swims into UK Cinemas on 29th July 2016.
