Self

Self is a Pixar Animation Studios experimental short that was released on February 2, 2024 on Disney+. It is directed by Searit Huluf and is considered part of the SparkShorts series.^[1]

Synopsis

A wooden puppet who desperately wants to fit in makes an ill-fated wish upon a star, sparking a journey of self-discovery.

Plot

Self, a wooden puppet (rendered in stop-motion animation), enters the city. The inhabitants of which are all gold-skinned people (rendered in CGI) who communicate by tapping themselves, making bell noises as they do so. Self attempts to speak with them, but they either do not see or ignore her. When she attempts to communicate the way they do, she only makes wooden noises. She accidentally breaks her hand and runs away in shame.

While moping on a roof top, Self sees a wishing star and makes a wish. Shortly afterwards, a golden hand falls near her and she replaces her wooden one with the new hand. Not satisfied with only having one body part change, more golden body pieces fall from the sky throughout the day. Self continues to replace her body pieces with the golden ones, resulting in her becoming more CGI and less stop-motion. Only her head is left as she sees a golden face fall from the sky and she rushes and jumps off a building to grab it, falling to the streets below.

Self successfully replaces her face and sees other people who appear ready to communicate with her. When she walks over to speak to them, she steps on her old face which cracks and sees her old wooden body parts lying around. Realizing what she has done, Self agonizes over changing who she was. She removes her gold face and puts her cracked wooden face back on, approaching the gold people and tapping her face. The gold people respond, ready to finally communicate with her.

During the credits, art of Self removing her gold pieces and reattaching her wooden ones are shown.

Cast

• Searit Huluf as Self

Gallery

Trivia

• This is the first Pixar short to contain stop-motion.
  • This is also the first Pixar short to be VFX stop-motion by Tippett Studio.
  • This is the first SparkShorts since Nona in 2021.

References

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