The world can be an exciting place in unexpected ways. That’s one of the themes in Drop, an animated short from Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Circuit program, coming to Disney+ on January 24th. The project comes from Animator Trent Correy who recently served as Olaf’s Animation Supervisor on Frozen 2. In his own project, Frozen fans will get to see a film that is completely his from concept to final product.
A new raindrop is born and experiences the streets of a city for the first time on his descent from the sky. Everything is so exciting to the little raindrop and when he lands on a car window, he makes a new friend when a young girl is just as excited to see him as he is to meet her. The charm and the cuteness of Drop are sure to give you the warm fuzzies.
Drop is reminiscent of the simplicity of the Disney shorts of days gone by. While it doesn’t have dialogue, it reminded me of classics like Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet in its tone and style. While the film was made with computers, it employs a 2D esthetic that feels hand-drawn in a lot of ways. The main character squashes and stretches and comes apart in a way that you don’t often see in computer animation, employing old school techniques created by Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men.
That being said, Drop also looks different from most hand-drawn animated films. There’s a chalk-like esthetic to the piece, with clouds moving in a way that reminded me of The Snowman, a British animated short film that I loved as a child. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to copy that esthetic, but perhaps emulate or pay homage to it. At the same time, Drop looks and feels refreshing and new.
Harkening back to the golden age of Disney animation, fans are going to love the charm, whimsy, and simplicity of Drop. It’s sweet, innocent, and imaginative in a way that feels uniquely Disney.
I give Drop 5 out of 5 Sir Jorgenbjorgen plushes from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure