Geri's Game (1997)

Geri sets up a chess game to play his greatest opponent - himself.

Director:

Jan Pinkava

Writer:

Jan Pinkava

Star:

Bob Peterson

Won 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Bob Peterson	...	Geri (voice)

Storyline

In a park, an old man is playing a game of chess against himself; he's physically moving from side to side as he plays from white to black. As the game progresses, the two sides of himself become individual and distinct players, "white" being the pensive and thoughtful side, "black" being the aggressive hard hitting side. But as the game looks to be coming to a conclusion, white makes a surprisingly aggressive move which could change what looked to be the obvious outcome of the game.

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Plot Keywords:

chess | park | eyeglasses | false teeth | leaf | 

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Genres:

Animation | Short | Family

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Release Date:

25 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

El juego de Geri

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pixar Animation Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

4 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.70 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Jan Pinkava loosely based the main character on his grandfather who was a keen chess player.

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Goofs

Pieces teleport between squares all the time.

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Quotes

Geri: [only line in the film] Ah-ha!

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Connections

Featured in The Pixar Shorts: A Short History (2007)

User Reviews

Yet another classic short film from Pixar.

Pixar, especially now that Monsters, Inc. (preceded by the endlessly amusing For The Birds) has been released, is quickly becoming more and more famous for the tremendous quality of the short short animated films that precede their feature films. Geri's Game, which can be seen before A Bug's Life, is one of my favorite of all of Pizar's short animated films. It's a testament to the quality of the film that the punchline (that Geri is playing chess against himself) is not only revealed in the film's tagline, but is also clearly revealed right at the beginning of the film, and yet it still retains the surprising and amusing affect. The editing in this film is so well-done that, as the chess game switches back and forth between Geri and his alter ego, you almost forget that you already saw that he is alone in the park and is therefore playing against himself in this heated game.

I just learned from one of the other IMDb reviewers that Pixar dedicated enormous resources just for such a minor detail as to get Geri's coat to crease just right, and that is exactly the kind of thing that makes a good film, especially a short one. That is a tiny detail, but Pixar is so determined for their films to look just right that it is no surprise that they are now winning Oscars left and right for those films. Pixar spends all of the money that they put into their films in just the right places, and this can clearly be seen in the final product.

The purpose of these short film is clearly just to add to the huge amount of entertainment that is almost invariably involved in watching a Pixar film, because they can obviously not serve any other purpose, being so short. It's obvious that they are not put in to increase the viewing time of the sometimes rather short films that Pixar puts out, but rather just to increase the enjoyment derived from their films. When you go to see a Pixar film, you get more than your money's worth, and not because the films take up more of your time, but because the quality is so high. If anything, people should be grateful that the people at Pixar are able to create such huge amounts of entertainment in relatively short periods of time, unless you have nothing better to do than spend your days in a movie theater. While that is definitely how I would personally LIKE to spend my days, I just don't have the time, and I am grateful that Pixar is so good at what they do that they are able to provide entertainment of such high quality and not take up two and a half hours of my time. Bravo!