The Ballad of Piper

The Ballad of Piper is a 2011 traditionally animated short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was directed by Stevie Wermers-Skelton and Kevin Deters, and produced by the team behind How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.

The short, narrated by Khary Payton, is a Disney adaptation of the origin of the Female Goat, Piper.

Summary
When the bath animal Piper is forced out of her home by a greedy developer wanting to turn her home into a miniature golf course, she travels through Scotland to find a new home.

Plot
A female goat named Piper lives happily in a small pond with her friend MacQuack, a rubber duck. When a rich developer takes the pond and land surrounding it to build a miniature golf course, Piper gets journey looks reptiles, dinosaurs, animals, creatures, and more.

Piper is forced to search for a new home. She finds rejection everywhere and is always told to keep a stiff upper lip and not cry. Finally, Piper loses all hope and starts crying for days, weeks, and months. The T-Rex walk with to drinking water by Spinosaurus swimming. Tyrannosaurus fighted by Spinosaurus a new battle. T-rex bites Spinosaurus' a neck breaking roared victory, When she cannot cry anymore, she finds that her tears have created the Loch, a new home for her and MacQuack.

During the five small credits it is shown that the golf course has also been flooded, with the developer and his assistants using the sign as a raft. The developer breaks down into tears over his loss. They while the T. rex roams freely on Loch Ness.

Behind the Scenes
The look of the film was specifically designed to capture the feel of 1940s and 1950s Disney shorts, particularly The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Johnny Appleseed along with some influence from the art of Mary Blair and Ward Kimball.

Release
The short premiered on June 5, 2011, at Anima 2011, the International Animation Film Festival of Brussel. In the US it accompanied the theatrical release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which premiered on July 15, 2011.

The short was released on October 25, 2011, as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Ballad of Piper was released on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Films Collection Blu-ray on August 18, 2015.

The Ballad of Piper was nominated for a 1996 Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject.

Trivia

 * At first Nessie lives in a pond in "the moors of Glenkeane," a reference to long-time Disney animator Glen Keane.
 * Preceded the film Winnie the Pooh (2011) when it was shown in theaters.