Pixar SparkShort Purl Review
Pixar kicked off its new “SparkShorts” program with Purl, a story of an earnest ball of yarn named Purl, who gets a job at a fast-paced, high energy, male centric start-up called Bro. Things start to unravel as she tries to fit in with this close knit group. Purl must ask herself how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for and in the end is it worth it?
Purl is one of the strangest yet more adventurous Pixar short film I’ve ever seen and it’s something I feel is only possible via the Disney+ SparkShorts program. Since this program is designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and most importantly be experimental, which is something to remember when watching this short.
And this short certainly experiments, the core animation style of the main character is very rough, it stands out because it’s not like anything else seen in the short. The other male characters could all appear in any other Pixar movie or short, nor is the office, which could have easily been a location in “The Incredibles”. But Purl stands out, it’s a little jarring at first, but you soon get used to it.
The big takeaway from this short is how it shows a female entering a male dominated workplace, is instantly dismissed but turns them around, by acting like them, rather than herself, until she realises the error in her ways.
It’s a political short, with a forceful message that shows discrimination between males and females within the work environment. Younger kids might not pick up on the undertones of what the story is about, but with a few sex jokes and even a single swear word, will no doubt cause some parents to wonder what’s going on with Pixar. But ultimately, this is exactly what I want from an experiment series of shorts, to push boundaries and this one did just that. It might not be amazing, but I enjoyed it.
Purl might not be for every Pixar fan, but for me, it’s an effective debut for the SparkShorts program.
Rating – 3.5 Stars
And you don’t need to be a Disney+ subscriber to watch this short, you can find it below:
Roger Palmer
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I completely get and appreciate the moral of this short, but as a parent. I could have done without the cuss words and sex jokes to relay the same message. Super disappointing with Disney for having such topic without a warning more than pg. i was guiding my child’s viewing even still, that’s strong language that needs to at least be warned about.
I completely agree with what you said. We watched this movie tonight with my 2 and 3 year old and I was literally shocked and my jaw dropped when the curse word came out of her mouth. I had to doubt check what we was watching. And then I was like where is the warning label. Disney definitely dropped the ball on this one. Need to do better
No perfect parents here, however this is NOT what I expected my kids to get from a Disney Plus cartoon. It’s not just the cuss word But also the actual use and phrase. I definitely don’t want my little ones walking around telling people “if they don’t like it, they can Kiss their 4$$!” ? I wish there was a blocking option to cover shows you don’t want opened or something.