SparkShorts

SparkShorts is an American independent animated short film series developed by Pixar Animation Studios. It consists of a program in which Pixar employees are given six months and limited budgets to develop short films that are subsequently released on Pixar's YouTube channel.

Purl, Smash and Grab, and Kitbull, the first shorts of the SparkShorts program, were released at SIGGRAPH on August 14, 2018. The shorts later had a limited release at El Capitan Theater on January 8, 2019. Purl was officially released on February 4, 2019, while Smash and Grab was released on February 11, and Kitbull was released on February 18. Subsequent shorts will be released on November 12, 2019, on Disney+. The series was praised for its more mature themes compared to previous Pixar productions.

Development
Pixar first announced the SparkShorts program on January 18, 2018. The program consists on giving employees at Pixar six months and a limited budget to develop indie short films, all of them based on personal experiences. The program was developed in order to find new filmmakers at Pixar. Bobby Rubio, writer/director of the SparkShort film Float described the program as "different film from the kinds of films" developed at Pixar, while Lindsey Collins said that the shorts are referred to as SparkShorts because Pixar "[wants] to discover that creative spark" in its employees, and Jim Morris said that "[t]he SparkShorts program is designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows", and said that it "[provides] an opportunity to unlock the potential of individual artists and their inventive filmmaking approaches on a smaller scale than [Pixar's] normal fare".

Purl
A humanoid ball of yarn named "Purl" becomes the first ball of yarn to work at the company B.R.O. Capital, which causes her to be discriminated by her fellow human employees. Purl then changes her appearance and personality in order to fit in. However, she soon finds out it may not be the best idea.

Smash and Grab
Two robots, named Smash and Grab respectively, must fight their way to freedom after choosing to escape from their work routine.

Kitbull
An independent kitten forms an unlikely friendship with an abused pit bull, whom he eventually chooses to help escape from his owners.

Loop
An autistic girl and a chatty boy must learn to understand each other in order to fullfill a canoeing trip in an urban lake.

Wind
A grandmother and her grandson find themselves scavenging debris after being trapped together in an endless chasm, and soon realize their dream of escaping.

Float
Upon discovering his son's ability to fly, a father tries to hide his son's ability from the world, but when his son's ability becomes public, the father must choose between going on the run or accepting his son.

Themes
The shorts in the SparkShorts series had been noted to have more mature themes than previous Pixar productions. Purl was praised by many as an allegory for gender inequality and feminism,   which Meghan Mehta, of Study Breaks noted was "mature for Pixar’s target audience". Alex Reif ofLaughing Place' said that Smash and Grab is "[an] story about two workers who don’t get the same luxuries as those who control them". Nick Skillicorn of Idea to Value felt that the SparkShorts program "enables the staff to flex their creative muscles in new ways, and try ideas which would never be accepted into a feature-length film aimed at families".