Analysis of a Short Film: Geri's Game

Geri's Game
Director: Jan Pinkava

‘Geri’s Game’ is a short film directed and written by Jan Pinkava. It is an animated short film made by Pixar, which is a well known computer animation film studio best known for films such as the Toy Story, Cars etc.  The duration of the film is 04.41 seconds. Geri’s Game was the first Pixar Short created after Toy Story, the previous short being Knick Knack in 1989. The genre of this film is animation as it’s a completely animated film. The film was the first Pixar production to have a human main character; Geri's Game was produced with the goal to "take human and cloth animation to new heights". The face of the character "Geri" resembles actor Jonathan Harris, who also provided the voice of Geri for his later appearance in Toy Story 2. In Toy Story 2, Geri is a toy repairman who fixes Woody's torn arm. Chess pieces can be seen in his carrying case, in a nod to the short. The film's director, Jan Pinkava, says the character is loosely based on himself and his elderly relatives, particularly his grandfather who played chess very often. The film was praised and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1998. Considering its quite an old film now it has a good viewing figure on YouTube, with its views currently standing at:  1, 761, 734. Geri's Game was attached to the theatrical release of A Bug's Life and was subsequently featured on that film's VHS and DVD releases. It can also be found on the Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 DVD. There was also a VHS released in 1998 with only this short which is exceedingly rare. The target audience for this would be of the younger generation that being children due to it being attached to A Bug’s Life which was a film aimed at young children and that it was made by Pixar who’s films are always targeted at children, although they attract many different age ranges due to how successful and adaptable all their films are. 

The narrative of this short is set in park in autumn. It follows the story of Geri, an elderly man who is playing a game of chess against himself, as he physically moves from one side to another as he plays from black to white. As he changes from side to side his personality progresses and changes along with it, he either puts on or takes the glasses off to show the change. The two sides become more distinct with the “white” player being more thoughtful and the “black” side being more aggressive in his decisions. Black Geri nearly wins the game, however white Geri fakes a heart attack to distract black Geri and turns the board around, which leads to white Geri winning and Black Geri hands over a set of false teeth him, almost as a prize.

The film opens with a close up on Geri’s hand hovering over the chess board, obviously playing the game. From the very beginning and throughout a piece of incidental music is played, it has a happy upbeat tone to it and sounds as if it would be something a brass band would play, which is music you would stereotypically assume old people listen to. It was a quite slow temp as well and seems to compliment Geri’s personal character. A medium shot is then used to show Geri standing up at the chess table about to sit down, a medium close up is next used of Geri sitting down at the chess game as he puts his glasses on whilst sitting on the white side, and this is the first indication of the glasses being used to show different characters. 

The camera then cuts to a long shot of an empty park to establish where the location is. After this is a close up of Geri putting his glasses on the table to show a character change is about to happen and we then see this character change as there is a long shot of Geri walking around the table to get to the other side and is followed by a medium close up of Geri now playing on the black side. Yet again a long shot is used next to show him walking back around to the other side. An extreme close up is used to show a white chess piece being moved. Suddenly the editing pace quickens as there are cuts of black Geri vs White Geri as the game becomes more intense, now the incidental music has stopped to, to show the concentration of both Geri’s and to allow the viewer to understand each Geri more by his behaviours e.g when black Geri knocks a white peace off he has an cunning tone to his laugh, whilst white Geri is seen as pondering and nervous of what move to make next; during this sequence of shot reverse shot of the game,  there are close ups, extreme close ups and medium shots, also the incidental music starts again. As the game progresses, it seems as though there are two people playing; at one point, the hands of both "opponents" are in frame. A medium shot is then used to show white Geri’s over dramatic fake heart attack, we then seen white Geri sneakily peak over the table and turn the game around so that he is now winning. 

Finding that now he is the one with only his king left and discovering what has happened, Black Geri resigns the game and hands over a set of false teeth as the prize. White Geri puts them in, then chuckles and grins, and the camera pulls back to reveal him alone at the chessboard. The editing throughout this short film is all seamless cuts.