Baseball

“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

Home » The Vine

The Vine: September 21, 2012

Submitted by on September 21, 2012 – 10:25 AM21 Comments

I’ve been desperately trying to come up with the name of this animated short I saw a while back. I was convinced — CONVINCED — it was Pixar, but after browsing the Pixar shorts wikipedia (God bless the internet), I can’t find it. From what I remember, I was younger, possibly in high school or early college (I’m 25 now), and the short featured an old man who was trying to teach a bird to fly. First he’s annoyed at the bird, of course, but over the course of the short he begins to help it, and at the very end he launches the bird off some kind of vehicle (a bus or a car) and it flies off. He looks after it fondly as it flies away. Definitely animated, in that sort of specially cartoonized Pixar style — but not Pixar. I remember crying because I’m a huge sap. Help me with the title? 

Best,
Cartoon Conundrum

Share!
Pin Share


Tags:      

21 Comments »

  • Jenn C. says:

    Cartoon,

    Could it have been First Flight by Dreamworks?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Flight_%28film%29

  • Cartoon says:

    Ahhhh! It is First Flight, definitely! You guys are the best. Now I can tell my family I was not hallucinating animated shorts (although that would be a cool mental illness).

  • Cartoon says:

    Also, just watching a clip of it I found on Vimeo made me cry again. I need help.

  • scout1222 says:

    Help being more awesome? If I had a nickel for every time I wept at an animated movie/short, I wouldn’t be posting this from work.

  • MinglesMommy says:

    Sounds beautiful – I have to look that up!

  • Jen S 1.0 says:

    Cartoon, come sit by me! I was totally blindsided by both Iron Giant and Lilo and Stitch. BWAA–HAWW-HAWWW! (Those are sobby sounds, not laughing sounds.)

  • FloridaErin says:

    I have yet to make it through Tangled without losing it at least once. Most recently, Brave did me in, but that very well could have been pregnancy hormones. Yeah. Thats it . . .

    So you’re not alone, here!

  • Natalie says:

    @Jen S 1.0 I seriously cannot understand how anyone can make it through the Iron Giant without sobbing. It kiiiills me.

  • Leah in SoCal says:

    I watched the Iron Giant as an adult, with my mom, my sister, and a good friend. We absolutely all cried. The expression on my dad’s face when he walked into the room and saw four grown women crying at an animated film is one of my more valued memories.

  • Jen S 1.0 says:

    Of course, if you really wanna lose it, two words…

    Jurassic. Bark.

  • Lisa says:

    Y’all are my people. Here, have some soggy Kleenex.

    We took our kids to see Up, thinking it would be a hilarious! movie! about a fat kid! and a grumpy old man! and I ended up sobbing into my popcorn after FIVE MINUTES.

    I swear there’s a department at Pixar that is just people sitting around a room thinking of ways to jerk our tear ducts.

  • Jeanne says:

    What Lisa said. Aside from Cars and Cars 2, every single Pixar movie has at least one hanky worthy scene. Toy Story 3 destroyed me.

  • Ami says:

    Did anybody see that five-minute thing Disney made out of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl”? I think they included it with “The Little Mermaid” on DVD. Holy sucker-punch, batman!

  • Lisa says:

    @Jeanne – My son, age 2, LOVED the original Toy Story. Loved, at aged 7, Toy Story 2.

    So you can IMAGINE what it was like at our house when Toy Story 3 came out THE YEAR HE GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL OMG PIXAR WHAT THE HELL. I didn’t even go see it in theaters, but waiting until it had been out on DVD for weeks. Then I sat in solitude in my bedroom, sobbing into a hand towel.

    Well played, Pixar. You fuckers.

  • Julie Brook says:

    Ditto on Toy Story 3 – watched it in the theater, with my college sophomore son (it was summer vacation). I kept putting my arm around him and sniffling – I’m lucky he didn’t dump his popcorn on my head. Of course I totally cried in Toy Story 2 when Jessie gets left by her former owner.

  • Amy says:

    I cried during Tangled, too, and my niece looked at me and said, “Are you crying?” I told her that I cry during sad movies so she put her head on my shoulder to comfort me.

  • Meri says:

    Pixar: Making people cry in theaters since 1995.

    And if you’re (like me) inclined to cry at the drop of a hat, don’t watch Kiwi! Or do, because it’s wonderful and sweet, but make sure you’ve got tissues handy.

  • Bubbles says:

    Jen S 1.0, not cool with invoking Jurassic Bark. I used to be able to muddle through it, but then there was the night that my favorite of my in-laws’ dogs attacked and killed the family favorite in attempt to take over their little pack. Which then meant my fave couldn’t be kept, because she was a killer and a danger to the other dogs. The episode on that night was Jurassic Bark. Can’t watch it anymore. I just can’t deal with all the puppy sadness.

  • Profreader says:

    I also cry at animated movies … that’s when sitting in the dark is helpful.

    What’s the short where the penguin wants to fly … ? At the end it has to do with him “flying” down a cliff – they shift the camera perspective so you see him flying horizontally. I’m not explaining it well but it was absolutely devastating to watch. I think it might have been fifteen years ago?

    I’m afraid to look it up because it was so beautifully sad … in my memory, at least.

  • Emmers says:

    Proofreader – that’s a kiwi, not a penguin. I cried too.

Leave a comment!

Please familiarize yourself with the Tomato Nation commenting policy before posting.
It is in the FAQ. Thanks, friend.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>