Oscar-Nominated ‘Weekends’ Animator on Channeling His Boyhood With Divorced Parents
ShortList 2018: “As a kid, you have an emotional reaction to what’s happening to your parents,” Pixar animator Trevor Jimenez tells TheWrap
Jeremy Fuster | January 23, 2019 @ 10:40 AM
Last Updated: January 23, 2019 @ 11:10 AM
Trevor Jimenez remembers the long car rides to Toronto and back through the woods of Ontario. He remembers his father’s antique collection, and flitting back and forth from his mother’s quiet, loving arms to the rock ‘n’ roll weekends with his dad.
And then he turned all of that into the basis for his animated short “Weekends,” including the part where that travel-heavy life was abruptly turned upside-down.
“It grew from this really simple idea about how a divorced family’s life changes over time,” said Jimenez, whose 15-minute dialogue-free short was a finalist in TheWrap’s seventh annual ShortList Film Festival. (Update: The movie received an Oscar nomination on Tuesday for Best Animated Short Film.)
“Weekends” follows a young boy dividing time between his divorced parents as they begin dating other people (one of them abusive) through evocative dream sequences and solemn moments where the child walks alone through the corridors of his house.
“At first it took place in a single weekend,” said Jimenez, a story artist at Pixar who has worked on some of the Disney-owned studio’s recent hits like “Finding Dory” and “Coco.”
“But then as I started developing the different segments at the mom’s place and the dad’s place and started talking with friends, I expanded out from there, and it turned into a story where he starts out close to the dad, but as circumstances begin to chance, he ends up having a closer relationship with his mom.”
Jimenez worked on “Weekends” — which won the short film audience award at the Annecy Animated Film Festival in 2018 — through the studio’s co-op program, which gives artists and animators time to work on their own projects.
Though the specifics of “Weekends” come from personal inspiration, Jimenez said he’s grateful that it has resonated with so many people who grew up in divorced households.
“A lot of people have told me they really connected with how the boy’s inner thoughts are expressed,” he said. “As a kid, you have an emotional reaction to what’s happening to your parents and a sense of what’s going on, but you don’t have the full grasp of what’s happening as you would if you’re an adult.”
15 Most Beloved Disney/Pixar Animated Shorts, Ranked (Videos)
Both Disney and Pixar have left a mark on animation that no other studios can match, and for both, their origins can be traced to animated shorts. Pixar has accompanied all of its feature films since its second feature film ("A Bug's Life") with opening shorts, and Disney has recently followed suit with shorts that range from groundbreaking experiments to revitalization of their most classic characters.
15.) "Tin Toy" (1988) -- This is the short that saved Pixar from financial ruin, became the first CGI film to win an Oscar, and led to Disney making a deal with Pixar to create "Toy Story." The baby that chases after our toy hero was stuck in the Uncanny Valley when the film first came out and looks even worse in the years since. Still, it went a long way to showing the world the sort of storytelling that could be made with computer animation.
14.) "Lorenzo" (2004) -- Designed for a "Fantasia" film that never got completed, "Lorenzo" features a spoiled fat cat who makes a big mistake when he mocks a black cat for not having a tail. The black cat hexes the tubby feline, causing his tail to come alive and wrap him into a dance scene set to an Argentinean tango.
13.) "One Man Band" (2006) -- A whimsical tale with Pixar's most creative use of music. Two street performers play multiple instruments simultaneously in an attempt to win the money of a young girl who wants to see a show.
12.) "Geri's Game" (1997) -- Pixar put its short film projects on hold during the 90s to focus on building profits with feature films and commercials. They returned to the format in a big way with an Oscar-winning short featuring an old man playing chess against himself. It's notable for being the first Pixar project with a human main character after years of toys and insects in the lead.
11.) "For The Birds" (2001) -- Pixar's third Oscar-winning short featured a large, gangly bird trying to befriend a bunch of snobby little birds that wanted nothing to do with him. To animate the film, Pixar developed a new animation tool to allow for the birds to have feathers that moved individually.
10.) "Sanjay's Super Team" (2015) -- A deeply personal Pixar short made by director Sanjay Patel to show the internal conflict he felt as a kid between his family's Hindu traditions and the pull of modern Western culture. The cartoon features Sanjay as a kid imagining Hindu deities as superheroes much like the ones he watches on Saturday morning.
9.) "The Little Matchgirl" (2006) -- Here's a rarity: a Disney film that doesn't have a happy ending. Set to a string quartet piece by Alexander Borodin and based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale, the story depicts a girl stuck in the cold streets of Moscow at Christmas.
8.) "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater" (2007) -- In the 40s and 50s, Goofy became a prominent member of Disney's stable with the "Everyman" shorts, a series of cartoons where he would clumsily struggle to do things like play baseball and do a waltz while a droll announcer provided instructions. Disney brought back the format with a topic every sports fan can sympathize with: setting up an HDTV and surround sound in your living room.
7.) "Runaway Brain" (1997) -- A common complaint about Mickey Mouse is that in modern times he has become more of a corporate mascot than a cartoon character. The Disney shorts restore him to greatness, particularly this macabre tale in which a mad scientist switches Mickey's brain with that of a monster named Julius, leading to the creepy sight of Mickey's face turning into a sharp-toothed visage.
6.) "The Blue Umbrella" (2013) -- A dramatic change in Pixar's visual style. The story of two umbrellas befriending each other is what one expects from the studio. What's unexpected is the realistic city the story is set in, swapping out Pixar's usual cartoon style with an attention to detail you'd see in "Batman: Arkham Knight."
5.) "Get a Horse!" (2013) -- A hilarious and powerful retrospective on the evolution of Disney animation. What starts as a throwback to Mickey Mouse's 1928 roots quickly transforms into a fourth-wall breaking blend of 2D and 3D animation. The cartoon also reuses archival audio of Walt Disney for Mickey's voice.
4.) "Piper" (2016) -- The newest and most detailed Pixar short to date, starring a baby sandpiper bird who overcomes his fear of the waves to forage for clams on the beach. The shore is rendered with the same attention to detail as "The Blue Umbrella," culminating in an underwater scene where you can see every grain of sand.
3.) "Paperman" (2012) -- The most visually striking work Disney has produced this decade. This short features a cubicle worker trying to get the attention of a woman in the next building over with paper planes. Presented in black and white with a blend of computer and traditional animation, it was the first Disney short to win an Oscar since 1969.
2.) "Day and Night" (2010) -- Two 2D animated characters symbolizing day and night squabble over which of them is better. In addition to having one clever sight gag after another, the short provides commentary on prejudice and fear of the unknown without its characters saying a single word.
1.) "Destino" (2003) -- Disney has made nothing like this before and likely never will again. In 1945, Walt Disney began a collaboration with Salvador Dali that was shuttered due to financial struggles. Over fifty years later, Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney, commissioned the company's French animation studio to make a short based on Dali's perplexing storyboards. The result is a cryptic but beautiful short that brings Dali's paintings to life.
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From Mickey Mouse to “Paperman,” “Tin Toy” to “Piper,” Disney and Pixar have created animated gems with their recent shorts
Both Disney and Pixar have left a mark on animation that no other studios can match, and for both, their origins can be traced to animated shorts. Pixar has accompanied all of its feature films since its second feature film ("A Bug's Life") with opening shorts, and Disney has recently followed suit with shorts that range from groundbreaking experiments to revitalization of their most classic characters.
