Geri's Game
Short description
Geri's Game is a short animated film about an old man who sits down at a chessboard in an autumn park with no one to play against, so he takes on both sides of the game himself. Each time he switches seats he becomes a different player: one version of Geri is mild and hesitant, while the other is brash and sure of himself. As the match goes on, the two personalities seem to belong to separate people, and the quieter player finds himself at a disadvantage before the game takes a turn.
The film was directed and written by Jan Pinkava and produced by Karen Dufilho-Rosen for Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar, with Bob Peterson providing the voice of Geri. It runs four minutes and was released in late 1997, an early title in Pixar's run of short films and the project that preceded Pinkava's later work at the studio. The film is a wordless, largely physical piece built around the contrast between its two versions of the same character.
Audience response has been warm: on IMDb it holds a 7.8 rating from roughly 28,000 votes, and on TMDB a 7.6 from about 1,250 votes. Those figures point to a short that has stayed familiar to viewers well beyond its brief runtime.
What's left behind the scenes
- If you follow the movement of the shadows, you can see that the sun moves from right to left, from which it can be concluded that the park is located in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The film, like many other Pixar shorts, was shown before the animated film 'A Bug's Life' (1998).
- The label on the wooden cigar box into which Jerry put the chess pieces reads 'Pt. Richmond Hand Made Pixar Shorts' – Pixar Studio was located in Richmond, California (Point Richmond) at the time of the film's release.
- Jerry's face is very reminiscent of actor Jonathan Harris, who also voiced Jerry in a cameo in the animated film "Toy Story 2" (1999). The film's author, Jan Pinkava, admitted that the character is based on him, as he imagines himself in old age.
- Jerry also appears in a cameo in the animated film "Toy Story 2" (1999) as a toy repairman who worked on restoring the broken Sheriff Woody. Inside his toolbox, a box with chess pieces can also be found.
- The fallen box of chess pieces disappears from the final shots.
- The film contains a shot where both Jerrys can be seen together – it shows Jerry's hand without glasses against the background of Jerry wearing glasses.
- Jerry's last move with glasses is "redundant" – the queen delivers checkmate to the king who is already in check (i.e., black moves twice in a row). White should have been the one to move according to the rules.
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