(Pixar Short) Day and Night

In my analysis on La Luna, I mentioned that there are other short films before feature length Pixar films. Besides La Luna, Day and Night, is my other favorite Pixar short. Day and Night was presented before the official showing of Toy Story 3, just as La Luna was presented before Brave. Both shorts have decent stories, for short films, and send good messages to both children and adults. But unlike La Luna, Day and Night's visual design gambles more with it's innovation. Making the two central characters hand drawn animated externally and their thoughts and feelings described through environmental imagery as well as simple sound effects, was a brilliant work of genius. The film as a whole, is effective both visually and philosophically.
Like La Luna, the story of Day and Night is very simple; One of the main characters, Day, wakes up on a beautiful summer morning and begins his morning stroll. He deviates from his stroll when he finds a sleeping Night, dreaming of jumping sheep. Curious to know who this stranger is, Day wakes Night up and becomes fascinated by his night time physique. Unimpressed by Night, Day brushes him aside and continues on with his walk. Night, in an aggravated manor, chases after Day trying to prove to him that the night is just as impressive as the day. Before long the two attempt to one-up each other with their different elements.
After the fight is done, Night sees the image of a woman laying on the beach sunbathing inside of Day. Hoping that the woman will still be on the beach, Night tries to place himself in the same position day was at, but unfortunately, due to the night hours, the beach is empty inside of Night. While this continues, Day notices the beautiful imagery of fireflies flying around inside of Night, and becomes very impressed. Before long, Night comes up with the idea of the two of them not one-uping one another, but entertaining one another with the imagery they have inside of them. through a series of images of sumer-time fun, the two find themselves at a Vegas-like casino area dancing to the swing music.
Coming across a radio station playing the music, Night begins to hear a message being broadcasted about, "the fear of the unknown." Both Day and Night listen to the broadcast talking about how people do not give new things in this world a chance because it is unfamiliar to them, and that the most beautiful things in life are the most mysterious things. Based on this message, Day and Night finally accept one another because of their differences. While this remains, they both notice the sun rising and setting inside themselves. Day becomes Night and Night becomes Day. In the end, Night gets the woman on the beach he wanted as the new Day, Day gets the swing music he wanted as the new Night , and the two join each other in their new lives.
Out of all the Pixar short films existing today, Day and Night is by far the most impressive short film. The film's writer/director Teddy Newton merged both hand drawn animated characters and computer animated imagery, using the hand drawn characters as blank canvases. When Toy Story 3 was released, it was marketed as a 3D showing. Naturally watching Day and Night in 3D made the animation all the more impressive. Newton did in fact make this short for 3D showings, giving the imagery inside both Day and Night more depth and connecting both dimensions more creativly.
Many film reviewers have often spoken of the Monolith from 2001: a Space Odyssey as the cinema screen, when viewed horizontally. In that case, the Monolith can also be viewed as a blank canvas. Not that I'm implying that Newton intended his audience to think of Day and Night as anything like 2001. However, like 2001, Day and Night, does make it's audience think and question about our own universe, based on the universe shown to us in the film. This is the kind of message that most children's stories are meant to send to us. They are meant for us to look at what is beyond our own universe, if there is anything.