Disney+ “Pixar Popcorn” Review

Unless it is some marquee addition to Disney+ like “WandaVision” or the release of “Soul,” it is sometimes hard to find the new shows that are added to Disney+ each week.  With some many screens and menus, you can scroll through each and to discover new favorites.  We are personally a fan of adding the Disney+ Instagram account (@disneyplus) — they release a story on Fridays with a listing of the new additions to Disney+ so it is easier to track and find new favorites.  This week, we stumbled upon the new addition of “Pixar Popcorn” which is a collection of ten very short shorts (less than 3 minutes each) which allow us to peek in on some of our favorite Pixar favorites.

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We were curious and discovered that the idea for these shorts popped upon at the beginning of April 2020 when many of the animators had small gaps in their schedule between feature projects.  Animators were divided into teams and created these shorts — given the limited amount of time for these projects, there is no dialogue (save for two shorts featuring Ducky and Bunny) and we are somewhat sad that not every Pixar property was featured (as an unabashed Wall-E fan, I was chastened by this fact).  Based on our viewing, though, of these shorts, we are happily excited about the other Pixar content that will be coming to Disney+ as it has already been announced that shows based on Cars, as well as Up will be coming to the platform, along with new original series.

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The Pixar property that was most prominently featured in this collection was “Toy Story” representing three of the shorts.  The first featured Buzz Lightyear as personal trainer to the other toys in the bedroom — you can see Mr. Potato Head attempting step aerobics, Rex attempting push-ups, as well as Forky attempting to do anything physical — all with humorous results.  The two other “Toy Story” submissions feature Ducky and Bunny having humorous, and important, conversations: debating which of the two a child would like more and also talking to Bo Peep’s sheep and why they have three heads.  Fans of “The Incredibles” discover the Parr family in two of the shorts.  We particularly enjoyed both as the family showcase their abilities in making it through the mundane tasks of everyday life — Violet creates her forcefields to clean up lost toys and pieces of clothes from beneath the couch, while Jack-Jack and his igniting ability is put to use for the family to roast marshmallows after a long day during a rainstorm.  The second short has the entire family trying to be very quiet as they fight over the lack cookie since Jack-Jack and Mrs. Incredible are asleep on the couch.

We were surprised (but also ecstatic) about the inclusion of a short from the newest Pixar feature, “Soul.”  Viewers will be treated to wonderful music (we checked the credits, it was written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) while we look in on the smaller, intimate moments of everyday life — a young girl riding the subway, a street performer collecting his tips for the day, as well as Joe playing on his piano.  The submission from “Coco” had me thinking I was watching a classic Roadrunner cartoon based on the physical abuse the characters are taking as they are riding a bike down the street.  Viewers will also enjoy the Dory short where she swims around finding pieces of discarded trash in the ocean and discovering their uses in humorous ways.  Our particular favorite were the glass bottles at the end that had become the new home of some minuscule crustaceans!

Fans of the “Cars” movies and characters will discover two shorts for them — one shows the residents or Radiator Springs attempting to parallel park like it was a road test, while the second short shows the characters gathered at Flo’s V8 Café engaging in a dance competition. 

The entire collection of ten shorts has a total runtime of just over 20 minutes, so it is a perfect addition to your watchlist that won’t take too long to enjoy.  We were also a fan of the Pixar title page changing each time with Luxo bouncing in and interacting with kernels of popcorn and the letters differently.

Have you checked out Pixar Popcorn yet?  Which was your favorite short?  Are there any characters that you missed seeing in the shorts?