Geri's Game

Infobox Film
name = Geri's Game


image_size =
caption =
director = Jan Pinkava
producer = Karen Dufilho
John Lasseter
Edwin Catmull (executive)
writer = Jan Pinkava
narrator =
starring = Bob Peterson (as Geri)
music = Gus Viseur
cinematography =
editing = Jim Kallett
distributor = Pixar Animation Studios
released = November 25, 1997
November 25, 1998 (with "A Bug's Life")
runtime = 4 min
country = United States
language =
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0131409

"Geri's Game" is a five-minute 1997 animated short film made by Pixar. It was written and directed by Jan Pinkava. It was the first Pixar Short created after the creation of "Toy Story", the previous short being "Knick Knack" in 1989. The film won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

Plot

The film is set in an empty park during autumn. The title character, Geri (voiced by Bob Peterson), plays a game of chess against himself, 'becoming' each of the players in turn by moving to the other side of the chessboard, where he changes his personality and either puts on or takes off his glasses to show this change. As the game progresses, it seems as though there are two people playing (at one point they are both in frame). Non-Glasses Geri (playing the black pieces) appears to be on the edge of victory, all his pieces still are on board, with glasses Geri (playing the white pieces) having only his king left (in check). Geri outsmarts black-side Non-Glasses Geri by distracting him by faking a heart attack and rotating the board around when Non-Glasses Geri looks under the table where Geri fell, meaning that now Non-Glasses Geri has only his king left. Black-side Geri, who had been the white Geri the rest of the game, the one with glasses, wins and the other Geri gives his false teeth to the winning Geri. The camera pulls back and the audience sees there is, in actuality, only one Geri.

Development

The first Pixar production to have a human main character, "Geri's Game" was produced with the goal to "take human and cloth animation to new heights". [ [http://www.pixar.com/shorts/gg/behind.html Pixar - Geri's Game - Behind the Scenes ] ] [ [http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/meet-geri.pdf B Robertson - "Meet Geri: The new face of Animation", Computer Graphics World 1998] ] [ [http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~decarlo/readings/derose98.pdf T DeRose, M Kass, T Truong - "Subdivision surfaces in character animation", Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1998] ]

The face of the character "Geri" resembles actor Jonathan Harris, who also provided the voice of Geri for his later appearance in "Toy Story 2".

The film's director, Jan Pinkava, says the character is loosely based on himself and his elderly relatives, particularly his grandfather who played chess very often. [ [http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/jan/interview.html Pixar Artist's Corner - Interview with Jan ] ]

Release

"Geri's Game" was attached to the theatrical release of "A Bug's Life" and was subsequently featured on that film's VHS and DVD releases. It can also be found on the Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 DVD.

Awards

*1998-Academy Awards, USA-Best Short Subject, Animated Films
*1998-Anima Mundi Animation Festival-Best FIlm x2
*1998-Annecy International Animated Film Festival-Jan Pinkava
*1998-Annie Awards-Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject
*1998-Florida Film Festival-Best Short
*1998-World Animation Celebration-Best 3-D CGI by Professional Jan Pinkava
*1998-Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films-Internet Favourite

References

External links

* [http://www.pixar.com/shorts/gg/index.html Pixar's home page] for "Geri's Game"
*imdb title|id=0131409|title=Geri's Game