Pixar’s New Short Film For Adults Tackles Sexism In The Workplace
Video screenshot via Disney Pixar
Pixar’s latest short isn’t about dumplings coming to life or an entire kingdom being frozen over. On the contrary, it combats a more sobering issue that plagues grown-ups: gender dynamics in the corporate world.
As part of Pixar’s new ‘SparkShorts’ program that recognizes new storytellers, the new animation features ‘Purl’, a pink ball of yarn who lands a job at a company called ‘B.R.O. Capital’. As you can guess by its name, the firm’s employees are predominantly male; they don’t take too kindly with their new coworker upon discovering that she’s different.
‘Purl’ struggles to assimilate into the macho culture of the company, and even changes herself to fit in.
As with most Pixar films, though, this animation has a pleasant conclusion, and the workplace ends up being more diverse than when ‘Purl’ first arrived at ‘B.R.O. Capital’.
The eight-minute short comes with a pinch of expletives, so you might want to watch it around kids at your own discretion.
In a clip that goes behind the scenes of Purl, filmmaker Kristen Lester describes, “It’s based on my experience of being in animation. [In] my first job, I was the only woman in the room, and so in order to do the thing that I loved, I sort of became one of the guys.”
“And then I came to Pixar, and I started to work on teams with women for the first time, and that actually made me realize how much of the female aspect of myself I had sort of buried and left behind.”
[via Her, videos and cover image via Disney Pixar]
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