A New Disney+ Short Took Three Years To Produce Two Minutes Of Animation
Animated feature films are incredibly complex. They require hundreds of people working for multiple years to produce. At any time significant story changes could be made that could require throwing out entire scenes and starting over again. Surely, an animated short film, especially one only a couple of minutes long, must be easier -- and much faster -- to produce. Not always it seems, as Ryan Green, the director of the new Disney animated short Crosswalk told me his film took three years to complete.
On August 4, Disney+ will release Season 2 of [Short Circuit animated shorts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShortCircuit(shortseries). The five short films each run only about two minutes long; however, they run the gamut of tones, emotions and animation styles. Each new director pitched his or her project to a group within Disney animation who then decided which projects would move into actual production. Then the new directors had to put together their teams and get to work. These shorts were always a secondary priority to making features, and so they frequently had to start and stop. In fact, _Crosswalk had to start and stop a lot, as director Ryan Green shared with me in a recent interview. He noted:
Crosswalk is perhaps the simplest of the new batch of Short Circuit shorts, at least as far as its plot is concerned. It's about a guy, standing at one end of a crosswalk, wanting to cross the street. He's seeing that there is no traffic at all, and struggling with his desire to just cross the bloody street even though the sign is telling him not to do it.
While the other directors also had to make room for other projects in their schedules, it seems they were also able to dedicate a block of time to getting the short done. Green's team's plan was more about finding the time to work in between other priorities. Of course, there was a little thing called a global pandemic that also caused problems. Green shared more about the story behind how Crosswalk ultimately got made, revealing the scheduling shuffled around a lot as many people worked from their homes.
All of the directors of the Short Circuit animated shorts are likely feeling glad they are done, but I'd be willing to be Ryan Green is perhaps feeling a bit more relieved than others after the time it took to get Crosswal ready for Disney+. The second season of Short Circuit animated shorts debut on Disney+ August 4.
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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis. Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.