For the Birds won the
Oscar for Best Animated Short!
Two brief things to add to artshek's great writeup:
- Generally, Pixar shorts demonstrate some new technical feat, a technical improvement, or a test of some new technology. In Tin Toy, it was realistic animation of a human character. (the baby) In Geri's Game, it was the cloth of Geri's coat. In For the Birds, it was the feathers. Watch how Neurotic's feathers stand up on end when he is surprised by the big bird, or how Bully ruffles his feathers when he settles in. Subtle and impressive. Those birds are so expressive without saying a word.
- See a peek of it here: http://www.pixar.com/shorts/. The full version plays with Monsters, Inc. and will hopefully be available on the web eventually, with the other Pixar shorts.
"For the birds" is also an
idiom meaning that something is of poor,
crummy quality. Maybe of such low quality that it is below human standards, only worthy of being fed to birds. e.g. "
artshek's writeup is thorough and well expressed, while
kdribbs' writeup is
strictly for the birds."