A Hero's Journey: For the birds

The short film 'For the birds' was created by Pixar Animation Studios. Originally made to accompany the theater release of Monsters, Inc. In 2001, it is a light hearted story in which 2 small birds get irritated at each other for sharing a phone wire. Before they could annoy each other any further, more birds gather on the wire making a small congregation of little blue birds sitting in a neat line on the phone wire. As they continue to irritate each other with their presence its interrupted by a unusual honking noise. The birds look beside them and notice an awkwardly large, funny looking bird peering over at their small gathering. We automatically sympathize with the seemingly out-caste bird before we even get to know its character. One of the small birds then begin to mock the bird by puffing up their plumage and imitating the large bird's honk. With that, all the other birds begin to join in. We as an audience then become some what protective over the bird being made fun of, as it is not its fault for being large and wanting to join in with the others. The birds look up at the large bird then shuffle further along the wire away from him and begin to get comfortable, but not for long, as the large bird plucks up the courage to sit amongst the rest of them and settles himself right in the middle of the wire, sagging it down to the ground and making the little birds hit into each other as it stoops lower. Just as the birds thought they were out of luck, one of the little birds contract an idea; knocking the large bird off the wire. Although the first few attempts seem futile, the weight of the large bird finally swings him upside down, hanging him off the wire by only his feet. The little birds, at first agitated with the situation egg-on two of the birds as they peck at the feet of the large bird so he lets go of the wire. Suddenly, one of the birds panic and realize that it's not a good idea, as the wire has become so low down to the weight, that once the bird lets go, they will spring back up with great force. But this realization has come too late as the last claw of the bird is released and the birds sling shot into the sky, leaving only their feathers behind. We are then left with the large bird landing safely on the ground, looking around him as feathers cascade him. One by one, the little birds plummet from the sky; featherless and in shock. The large bird can do nothing but laugh at the little naked birds who once mocked him.

In this short film, we can confidently connect it with some stages of A Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell. I feel some instances can be compared to the Tests, Allies, Enemies, Approach and Ordeal stages (stages 6, 7 and 8), the sixth strategy or stage which usually involves the hero learning the rules of a new world, meeting new friends and/or coming face to face with foes. This is similar to the opening of the film as the gathering of birds on the phone line (the phone line which could be seen as the 'new world' in this case) are complete strangers and at first squabble, but then come together against the large bird. We could say that the opposing bird is the foe of the gathering as they all see him as a threat, whether it be due to his size or how much space he would take up on the wire, as these little birds seem to comprise of liking their space even when another tiny bird, like themselves, join them on the wire. This is how the next stage of A Hero's Journey could possibly integrate itself within this short film as the next scene is the large bird physically joining the birds on the wire. In my opinion this could be compared to the Approach stage. The Approach stage generally consists of a setback that occurs, which sometimes causes 'the hero' to adopt new ideas. Although it is not a hero who contracts an idea in this short film, the same principle can be applied as the writers are entirely in-control of the storyline narrative and can switch the purposes of each stage. The little birds finally getting comfortable on the wire then being disturbed again by the large bird could be seen as the setback, which gives one of the birds the idea to try and push the large bird off the wire, which is similar to the idea of adopting/approaching an idea. The last stage which could be a great use within For the birds could be the Ordeal. In this short film, there is a very viable message; what goes around comes around. The Ordeal stage generally means the hero experiencing an ultimatum, hurdle or obstacle, such as a life or death situation. This ties in with the idea of giving a message to the audience with this tricky situation as it tests the audience's consciences, helping them differentiate between right and wrong. The way this has been put across is through the birds who are trying to get rid of the large bird for their own selfish gain, being given their just deserts by being swung into the air by the phone wire they wouldn't share with the large bird, while also losing all their beautiful feathers and eventually being mocked by the other birds for not fitting the standard of what a bird should look like; just what they did in the beginning to the large bird. This has taught the little birds that fighting fire with fire usually ends up with one of them or in this case all of them being burnt.