For the Birds to Air in Front of Monsters, Inc.

(October 31, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) Pixar's animated short, For the Birds, will air before Monsters, Inc. which opens in theaters nationwide this Friday. In addition, there will be a trailer for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Lilo & Stitch.

For the Birds first premiered at the Annecy Film Festival in France on June 5, 2000.

For the Birds is a story about a flock of small birds perched on a telephone wire and a larger bird that tries to join them. The unwelcome bird upsets the flock, and they decide to get rid of him. For the Birds continues the Pixar tradition of creating short films that explore the
creative and technical possibilities of animation.

Ralph Eggleston makes his directorial debut at Pixar with For the Birds. Eggleston joined Pixar in 1992 as the Art Director of Toy Story.

"It's exciting that Pixar continues to actively produce and support short films," said Eggleston. "Making For the Birds was hard work and a lot of fun, and our crew's amazing creative collaboration has resulted in a film we believe everyone will truly enjoy."

"Pixar sees immense value in preserving the short film as an art form and using it as a development tool for our creative and technical teams," said Dr. Edwin Catmull, Pixar's Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. "The skills these professionals learn and polish are invaluable as we move toward our goal of creating one feature film a year."

More information has emerged on yesterday's dFX story about DreamWorks THX Shrek surprise being canned by THX. According to Daily Variety, "Lucasfilm and Pixar share deep roots. Lucasfilm holds a financial stake in Pixar, which started as the computer animation unit of Lucasfilm before being sold to Apple in 1986."

The close relationship between the companies may explain the sudden turnaround with DreamWorks THX promo being pulled and Lucas adding the first Star Wars Episode 2 trailer to attract even more attention and box office revenue for Monsters, Inc.