For the Birds

This three-minute cartoon won an Oscar for Best Animated Short For 2000. It also won numerous other awards. It can be seen as a feature on the "Monsters, Inc.," DVD. I agree with reviewer "Jack The Ripper 1888" that it was enjoyable and pretty good....but what's all the fuss about? To me, it was "cute" and the animation was terrific, but Pixar's animation is always top-of-the-line, so there was no surprise there. The story is simple: little birds make fun of big, dumb-looking bird who gets the last laugh when the little ones' nastiness goes too far. I guess the fun in here wasn't the one joke, which you could see coming, but the little things that led up to it. I enjoyed the noises the little birds made, the music in this animated short and the facial expressions, of course. It's cute, it's clever but it's no big deal.....sorry. I enjoyed the other cartoon in this DVD, "Mike's New Car," more than this one, although both were fun to watch.

Like everyone else who saw this quaint, little animated short, I had to see it before I could watch MONSTERS, INC. But, unlike everyone else, I don't see what is so great about this. (And I looked through every single comment written on this, they are all positive). I just really don't understand what was so funny about this short. I even watched it again after finding that everyone (literally) loved this short film. I still don't see anything good in it, other than the animation which was very well done, but other than that, I did not find it funny in the least. I even thought the birds were a little cruel until I discovered that that was done on purpose. FOR THE BIRDS is nothing special in my opinion, but the animation was good as hell. I recommend you wait until the end of the actual film for MIKE'S NEW CAR which also was nothing to brag about. I will even give it another try, but I don't think it'll do much. FOR THE BIRDS gets 3/5 (that is average on my scale...and those points are only for the animation).

I was fortunate to be at one of the first ever screenings of this short, presented by John Lasseter at the Disney Institute. Once again Pixar leaves you rolling in the aisles. Bird owners are sure to get a special kick out of this one. I don't think any of today's animation companies exhibit the true spirit of animation like Pixar does.

I saw For the Birds when I first saw Monsters, Inc. in the theater. It was alright, but I don't think that the humor was the best part of it. For me, the complexity of the animation was what I enjoyed the most. The incredible detail of each individual feather had to (and did) take years to perfect. If you can look past the attempts to be funny, For the Birds was an excellent example of computer animation, and it deserved to win an Oscar for Best Short Animated Film.

This is a wacky little short that is about one big and dumb bird and his dealings with lots of mean little birds. The big guy just wants to be friends, but the nasty little guys want him to go away and don't care what they have to do to make it happen--leading to a very funny conclusion where the little jerks get theirs! Think about it...for the category of Best Animated Short Film for the Oscars for 2002, you have several independent productions made on shoestring budgets...and this WHOPPING production made by the pioneering geniuses at Pixar Films! It's a definite case of "David versus Goliath", though in this case Goliath definitely wins! Pixar couldn't help but win--the graphics were, as usual, superb, the writing was spot on and brilliant and it was just so gosh-darn cute and entertaining. So for the "little guys", it's definitely a huge struggle to beat such a great combination. This film definitely earned the award, but you gotta wonder how tough it must feel to be one of these other filmmakers. Perhaps, in an odd way, this film might be a metaphor about this struggle.

This short little gem was screened before Monsters Inc. And it was the best part of the coming 2 hours or so. It's endearing, it's hilarious, and it's cute and adorable. It got more laughs in its 5 minutes than Monsters Inc got during its 90. I'd highly recommend this short movie to anyone. Perfect entertainment.

Shown before Monsters Inc., this short was arguably the most fun-filled five minutes of my entire life! Monsters Inc. was a great great great film, fantastic in all aspects (10/10), and yet, "For the birds" was the biggest impression of the lot, when you left the theatre. At times, I caught myself thinking: "Would you please hold the jokes for just a minute!! I need to catch my breath here!!!!!!!!". It really was THAT hilarious. I've always been a HUGE admirer of Pixar, and have seen all their shorts and real films (Tin Toy, Nick Nack, Geri's Game, Toy Story 1 and 2 to name but a few), but "For the birds" is their finest hour as of yet!! Their humour is just so indescribably good!! For everybody who likes justice, animals and most of all, to laugh, this is for you! I can't imagine who would think this isn't humour at its very best! Thank you, Pixar! 10/10 is simply too little for your latest short, but the scale doesn't go any higher. It is at times like when I saw "For the birds" that I wish my life had a rewind button, so that I could experience this for the first time over and over again.

For The Birds is the side-splittingly hilarious short animated film that preceded the rather unimpressive Monsters, Inc, and all this hype that you may have read about For The Birds in the comments index here on the IMDb is pretty accurate, with the exception of the occasional grump who calls it forgettable or just amusing or some other such nonsense. Pixar is becoming more and more famous for the hilarity of their films (especially the short ones, if only because they are virtually uniformly hilarious), and For The Birds is definitely no exception. What you have here is a story that is about as simple as they come - a bunch of tiny egg-shaped birds on a telephone wire who are approached by a big goofy bird, and they are all contemptuous toward her and do everything they can to get rid of her. It's the conspiracy that these little birds come up with to get rid of this ostrich-looking bird (yes, I know it's not an ostrich, by the way) and the fact that Pixar is able to communicate it to the audience without a single piece of dialogue other than these hilarious cheeps and grunts that the birds make that makes the film so impressive and funny and, yes, MEMORABLE. The Academy Award that For The Birds won for Best Animated Short Film for 2001 was even less of a surprise than the one that Shrek won for Best Animated feature! It was a given! For The Birds is not the kind of short film that you watch before a rather short animated film and serves no other purpose than to make you feel like you got your money's worth because the feature film is rather short. This is not just something to keep you in your seats for a little longer (how much of a difference would three minutes really make in that case?), this is something that Pixar throws into the mix because they're so good at what they do that they can deliver pure entertainment even with such a short film. The old Roger Rabbit short films are the kind that are mildly amusing on a more childish level and that can be forgotten rather quickly, but For The Birds is something else entirely. Like all the Pixar shorts - not the least of which is Geri's Game (which should not be confused with Gerald's Game, which is a strikingly different story!), one of my personal favorites - For The Birds is the kind of short film that you enjoy for only a few minutes but remember for years. My only hope is that Pixar will someday come out with a special DVD just for all of their short films. Bravo!