Whimsical

Whimsical is a 1997 American animated Christmas Fantasy short film directed by Jimmy T Murakami and Roger Allers. It was nominated for best Animated Short Film at the 1998 academy awards, but lost to Bunny.

SYNOPSIS
"In this animated ballet, viewers will see and witness the wonders and magic of the whimsical and philosophical side of Christmas and Winter, in this silent, emotional, role reversed and more artistic and impressionist inspiration of famous Christmas themed theatre including the Nutcracker ballet. Featuring not only original scores by Michael Giacchino, but even famous orchestral scores from world famous composer Tchaikovsky."

In North Dakota, an unnamed teenage ballet dancer in training is celebrating Christmas with his grandparents. He used to adore celebrating the holidays, but after the tragic death of his parents on Christmas Eve began to feel a bitter sorrow against the holiday and sometimes others in general, and pushes away people to practice dancing and be alone. Just before bed just one day shy before Christmas, he is gifted "The Spirit Of Christmas". A small nutcracker princess. Though the boy does hold some adoration for the doll, he is somber by this gift and angry as it still tries to make him of Christmas "Like it's laughing at him." Later into the night, the boy is taken away by a snowstorm that transports him into a whimsical world overcome by grief and darkness, the main cause being an evil entity simply named "The King.". The only way to stop the king and reverse his spell is by partnering with the exiled princess/knight of her old kingdom and venture into many other grief strucken lands.

PRODUCTION
Production on Whimsical began in 1991 when the production team brainstormed the idea. Inspiration for the direction and conveying of the short was inspired by the 1982 British animated short "The Snowman" including the ideal of a symphonic poem based film with no words and sound effects, with the only sounds being the soundtrack and music as well as it being a whimsical art based film. However, this idea of a symphonic poetic based animated short evolved into it being an animated ballet with liberties taken from The Nutcracker ballet, including the direction and story.

After many concept arts and models created, Jimmy T Murakami would sign on to be one of the two main directors, animators and storyboard artists for Whimsical in 1993, who is best known for his work on The Snowman as well as the 1986 film When The Wind Blows. A year later in 1994 after work on The Lion King, Roger Allers would also sign on to be the second main director and animator.

As previously stated, the entire short film was called an "Animated Ballet" which meant that almost if not the entire set of character movement and direction would be presented through the art of ballet dancing. The choreography would be handled by the New York City ballet dancers who would go on to represent the choreography for Barbie and The Nutcracker. Character models and animation would take source from the dancers movements and the choreography would be lead by Peter Martins.

The soundtrack would be handled by two composers. For original soundtrack pieces and the credits, the music would be composed by Michael Giacchino, who would later be famous for his Pixar compositions including the 2009 film Up and the 2015 film Inside Out. The main ballet music however would be taken from Tchaikovsky's scores from the Nutcracker Ballet. The orchestra for those compositions would be lead by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Production would finish in October 1997. 2 months later on December 5th, the short would be broadcasted on CBS to positive acclaim.