computer-animated
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
written and directed by Liron Topaz,
Pierre Perifel
Pierre Perifel is a French filmmaker and animator, best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation. He is the director of the feature film ''The Bad Guys'' (2022) and the award-winning short films '' Bilby'' and '' Le Building''. He is an alumnu ...
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...
albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...
chick from the dangers of the
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n
Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...
.
A product of DreamWorks' newly created shorts program, it is based on the studio's cancelled project Larrikins.
Plot
In the Australian Outback, a timid bilby tries to search for food while surviving the harsh environment and evading the deadly predators that live in it. One day, the bilby comes across an abandoned baby albatross turned on its head. Taking pity on the chick, the bilby flips over the chick, which grows attached to him. The bilby wants nothing to do with the chick, but he can't help but abandon his mission to find more food in order to save the chick from all kinds of predators. Time and again, he tries to leave the chick in a new environment, only to find himself constantly trying to survive a wide variety of dangerous situations.
Finally, the bilby and chick stop at an extremely high and steep cliffside that frequently experiences gusts of rising wind. The exhausted bilby decides to leave the chick there, especially since he believes she's ready to fly on her own, only for her to get snatched by a
white-bellied sea eagle
The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...
. Fearful for his new friend's safety, the bilby gains the courage to jump from the cliff and attack the eagle. During this battle, the chick falls from its talons, leading the bilby to free-fall through the air and clutch her. The bilby tosses the chick safely onto the cliff's edge, while he keeps falling and gets blown back up by an updraft. The two friends embrace, and the chick is happy that she can finally fly. The film ends in a
flash-forward
A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward, and more formally known as prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards a ...
to the now-grown albatross landing on the cliffside, where she and her friend now live with an ample supply of food.
Voice cast
*
Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''Codename: Kids Next Door'', ...
as Baby Albatross
*David P. Smith as Bilby (Perry)
Production
''Larrikins''
In June 2013, it was announced that Tim Minchin would compose the music and score for ''Larrikins'', which was based on an original concept from screenwriter Harry Cripps. The film followed a desert-dwelling bilby named Perry who leaves his home under a rock to go on a road trip with a music band in Australia. In June 2016, it was announced that Minchin and
Chris Miller Chris or Christopher Miller may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Chris Miller (writer) (born 1942), American comedy author and screenwriter
*Chris Miller (animator) (born 1968), American voice actor and director
* Christopher Miller (filmmaker) ( ...
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role i ...
Ewen Leslie
Ewen Leslie (born 27 July 1980) is an Australian stage, film and television actor.
Career Theatre
His first work on Sydney stages was performing at the Old Fitzroy Hotel theatre in Woolloomooloo. In 2007 he was cast by Philip Seymour Hoffma ...
were announced to voice characters. The film was slated to be released on February 16, 2018. Illustrator
Peter de Sève
Peter de Sève is an American artist who has worked in the illustration and animation fields. He has drawn many covers for the magazine ''The New Yorker''. As a character designer, he worked on the characters of ''A Bug's Life'', '' Finding Nemo'' ...
was one of the first artists brought onboard the film and helped design several characters. In March 2017, Minchin announced on his personal blog that the project had been cancelled. Minchin wrote on his blog:
Resurrection
The film was brought back as a short, as part of the studio's newly announced shorts program. ''Bilbys three directors had worked together on the ''Larrikins'' animation team; Perifel served as head of character animation, Topaz as a lead animator, and Sans as a character supervisor.
''Bilby'' proved to be a testing ground for various new animation software, including Moonray, a light rendering engine that was used on DreamWorks' feature films beginning with '' How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World''.
Release
''Bilby'' had its world premiere on June 16, 2018, as part of the closing ceremonies for the 2018
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...
. On December 21, 2018, the short was released on DreamWorks' official
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel. In November 2020, however, it was no longer available as the Youtube video was set to "Private".
''Bilby'', along with ''
Bird Karma
''Bird Karma'' is a 2018 American animated short film written and directed by William Salazar and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It was the first short to come from DreamWorks' newly created shorts program, and the studio's first film to utili ...
''Bilby'' received the Jury's Choice Award at the 45th
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...