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Pixar's Moving New Short Film 'Purl' Takes On Toxic Masculinity In The Work Place

In an unprecedented move for the animation studio, Pixar's new short film Purl speaks to more mature audiences with its incredibly relatable adult themes. In this case, it's a powerful story about toxic masculinity in the workplace . On Monday, Pixar released the nine-minute short which is as recognizable and heartbreaking as it is moving and inspiring. Written and directed by Kristen Lester, Purl is a must-see for anyone in the current workplace and beyond.

The short follows a bubbly, genuine, and enthusiastic ball of pink yarn named Purl who finds herself thrust into a fast-paced start-up called B.R.O. Capital. As a new employee, Purl's excitement is hindered as she almost instantly recognizes how out of place she is at the company. In a sea of suited up, high-energy white men, Purl quickly becomes incredibly isolated. Trying to fit in, she cracks a joke to men around a water cooler only to be met with no laughs and she later pitches an idea at a meeting and gets the feedback, "You're being too soft. We gotta be aggressive."

So, Purl changes her entire demeanor and appearance to fit in. As explained by Pixar's Youtube description, the film asks: "How far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for, and in the end, is it worth it?"

And so, in a story that many working women can relate to, Purl compromises who she is to become one of the boys. She begins donning a suit like them and changing her round shape to be straighter and flat, tells an inappropriate joke in the office to get laughs, and pitches an aggressive idea that's loved by her male co-workers in a meeting. From water cooler talk to happy hours, she's part of the bunch, until however, a new employee comes along who looks like Purl used to. Once Purl empathizes with her for feeling so isolated, she returns to her authentic self and changes the entire culture of her workplace. The audience later sees Purl running the show and welcoming a new employee to a floor of diverse colleagues of different genders, shapes, colors, and sizes.

Helmed by Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan, the SparkShorts initiative is a heartfelt yet poignant way of speaking to prevalent working environments in corporate America. In Pixar's "Meet the Filmmakers" video, Lester explained how Purl was based on her personal experience , in animation nonetheless.

"My first job, I was like 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," the filmmaker revealed. "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."

Because the story was so relatable, there was an instant camaraderie between Lester and her team. Producer Libbert-Duncan said in the video, "When Kristen came to me and said, 'This is a story that I want to tell,' I looked at her and I said, 'Oh my gosh, I have lived the exact same thing.'" In what seems to be a true labor of love, a first look at Purl was revealed to audiences last June, as reported by Slash Film. But its themes and messages are still wildly timely and will likely uplift and inspire anyone who watches.

What Pixar’s “Purl” Teaches Us About Combating Toxic Bro Culture at Work

Being “ the only one ” at work—whether you’re the only woman , the only person of color , or the only of your kind in some other way—is a situation many have experienced with varying degrees of discomfort, confusion, and frustration.

Many folks in this position have felt the pressure to blend in rather than stand out. To not rock the boat or challenge the status quo for fear of losing a big career opportunity, an important contact, or even a job.

This is why Pixar’s new short, “ Purl ”—a product of their SparkShorts program for innovative artists—is so relatable, if not incredibly timely.

In the film, an ambitious ball of yarn named Purl starts a new job at the pointedly named B.R.O. Capital, where she quickly discovers she doesn’t quite fit in. Her co-workers gape and stare as she walks by and eagerly greets them, whisper as she works, ignore her efforts to engage in watercooler talk, and toss her input aside in meetings. After everyone leaves for the day to grab drinks without inviting her, Purl uses a bit of ingenuity to knit herself a suit in the hopes of impersonating her colleagues.

The next day, she successfully impresses them by acting like one of the guys—cracking dirty jokes and shooting off aggressive ideas in meetings. But as they’re about to leave for happy hour, this time with Purl tagging along, another ball of yarn walks in to start her day. While the rest of the team brushes her off, Purl (after a moment of inner struggle) goes over and introduces herself, lending a hand to her new co-worker and starting a chain reaction of positive change in the workplace culture.

The film was inspired by the writer and director’s real-life experience in her first job, where she believed that “in order to do the thing that I loved,” she says in a behind-the-scenes video , she had to become “one of the guys.” Her transition to Pixar, where she finally found herself working with other women, helped her to realize how much of her true personality she’d “buried and left behind” to try to fit in in the past.

Her experience isn’t unique. A 2018 Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org found that a fifth of women report being the only woman (or one of the only women) in the groups of people they work with, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology reported that only 26% of the computing workforce in 2017 was composed of women, despite the increasing number of women learning to code, studying computer science, or pursuing STEM degrees. As a result of a lack of gender diversity, women often experience microaggressions, sexual harassment, and sexist behavior that hinders their ability to advance their career on a regular basis.

What makes art so special is that it doesn’t just make us think—it encourages us to act, too. If there’s one thing we can take away from this film, or any story we hear about people who have to work 10 times harder than the rest to feel a sense of belonging, it’s that we all have the power to make the office a more inclusive and enjoyable place to work. And a place where people can truly be themselves without judgement or fear of retaliation.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few ways:

• We can rethink how we write reference letters for women, and thus influence how they get hired and offered opportunities equal to men.
• We can consider how we talk about women in terms of their expertise and qualifications.
• We can avoid delegating “office housework” to women and people of color only.
• We can advocate for better treatment of women at companies and to close the pay gap once and for all.
• And we can become better allies to our LGBTQ colleagues by using gender-inclusive language and calling out microaggressions .

Or we can simply take a page out of Purl’s book and help out someone who’s in a position we may have been in previously. Those little actions can make a massive difference in how we treat each other at work, how we work together effectively, and how we all ultimately come out more successful. As Michelle Obama poetically states , “Thinking of changing your workplace, changing the way the world thinks, that’s big and it gets daunting and then you shrink from that. So start with what you can control. And that’s you first.”

Read more on The Muse’s “toxic aware” landing page .

Short of the Week

The debut short from Pixar's new SparkShorts program. An earnest ball of yarn gets a job in a fast-paced, high energy, bro-tastic start-up. Yarny hijinks ensue as she tries to fit in, but how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for, and in the end, is it worth it?

Though Pixar have become somewhat synonymous in the world of animated shorts, finding these films online is more of a rarity, than a common occurrence. However, this all looks to change with their latest program SparkShorts , a series of films designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows , that all look set to be released online. Kicking off this series, is Kristen Lester’s Purl , a deceptively cute tale of toxic masculinity in the workplace.

Set in the high-powered world of B.R.O capital, Purl follows its titular central character as she goes to work in a male-dominated office and finds herself struggling to fit in. A story centred around themes of belonging and understanding, Purl is left with a tough decision – change her ways to fit in or carry on being herself and face a life of loneliness and isolation at work. The story was obviously a personal one for writer/director Lester, as she reveals in this Meet the Filmmakers video:

“It’s based on my experience being in animation”, says Lester, “my first job, I was like 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. Then, I came to Pixar and I started to work on teams with women for the first time and that actually made me realise how much of the female aspect of myself I had sort of buried and left behind”.

Purl combines Pixar’s usual saccharine approach with some bitter undertones, to make a film that’s somewhat difficult to judge tonally. On the surface, Lester’s film feels instantly accessible and family-friendly due to its recognisable aesthetic, however there are some more adult themes bubbling under the surface that result in this being more of a discussion starter than you might have expected.

Visually, Lester and her team create a super slick, generic office environment for her wooly story to unwind in, with the obvious result being to create contrast between the fluffy ball of yarn thrown into this landscape. Though this aesthetic choice undoubtedly has the required effect in driving the narrative and making Purl the outsider of the story, I’m not sure depicting the film’s central female character as a pink, fuzzy ball is doing much for gender representation.

Personally, Purl isn’t the type of animation I tend to gravitate towards, as I found it a bit flat and unchallenging in terms of both storytelling and design, but fans of Pixar are bound to gobble it up. What I did like about Lester’s film though, was that is started a positive discussion between my six-year-old son and I (after I’d tried to explain that BMW joke!), as we discussed the film’s themes and how they relate to real life and for this I was grateful…and impressed!

Purl was the first release from the SparkShorts program, which sees a further five films being released as part of initiative, with Pixar’s Twitter account revealing there will be more coming to Disney+ later in 2019

• Meet The Team

“Purl” – The Message of Gender Equality in Pixar’s 2019 Short Film

I was excited for the Disney Plus app along with the rest of the world. When the app was released on November 12th of this year, I flooded my watchlist with old favorites as well as new content. One of my favorite creations of Disney is their unique short film collection. I watched my old favorites, such as “Knick Knack” and “Lava,” but I also tried one of the new ones: “Purl.” I admit the reason I watched the eight minute short was because my mom is a knitter and I thought it would be a fun show for us to enjoy together. It is cute and fun if you choose to watch it on a superficial level. However, there’s an important underlying message to the short film: gender equality in the workplace.

I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will be disclosing a few minor plot details. The film revolves around a ball of yarn getting a job at an exclusively male company. The ball of yarn, affectionately named Purl, is meant to represent the typical workplace woman who likes crafting. While I thought having Purl animated in a bright pink color was a little too on the nose, it did get the message across. She’s separated from the professional men in their black suits by her pink color. Purl struggles to adapt to her new job and with her fellow employees. Over time the audience is shown what day to day life for a woman in the workforce is like. My favorite moment was when Purl is feeling left out and confused, but then she looks at the wall and sees pictures of employees of the month. This moment was striking to me because all the pictures are of middle-aged white men with no diversity among them. This moment hit hard for me, because it reminded me of just how rare it is to see diversity in the workplace.

While Purl is depicted as shallow at times and with an air-head personality, she always has good intentions. Her hard work and intelligence makes her a likable character for the audience. It’s impossible to not feel frustrated for her sake when she struggles at work. The short film shows relatable, everyday obstacles that women experience, such as water cooler talk with male employees, specifically gross locker room jokes. For a short film there’s a remarkable amount of character growth for Purl as she learns what it means to be a successful skein, aka a successful working woman.

Overall, this creative and beautifully animated short film is one of my new favorites. I’ve watched it twice now and the second time I noticed details I hadn’t caught before. Purl specifically is animated in such extraordinary detail that you can watch the individual strands of yarn move on her. The animation alone is a great reason to give this a watch. Also it’s interesting how all the office employees look similar to the animated characters in “The Incredibles” movies. If you need any other reasons to watch, it’s even directed by a woman!

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Pixar's New Short Film Purl Takes on Toxic Bro Culture at Work

Pixar movies have long been as popular with adults as they are with the children they're created for. Who didn't bawl their eyes out during Inside Out or Up, regardless of age? But the first offering from Pixar 's new SparkShorts program, Purl, was made specifically with us adults in mind. The animated short is a searing takedown of toxic bro culture in the workplace.

The film centers on Purl, a talking ball of pink yarn who is the newest hire at the aptly named B.R.O. Capital. We follow Purl through her first day at work and watch as she navigates a sea of white men clad in suits. These dudes make dirty jokes, love happy hour, and act more like they're pledging a frat than conducting a business meeting. After she's consistently ignored at the water cooler, talked over, and shut out of drinks with her coworkers, Purl decides to conform to her office's culture to fit in. She changes her appearance, parties with the boys, and tells borderline misogynistic jokes.

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While Purl's wise-cracking, one-of-the-boys persona makes her a hit at the office, it doesn't take long until she's confronted by the fact that she's only further perpetuating their harmful behavior. When a new hire—another ball of yarn—shows up on the floor, Purl's first instinct is to ignore her and stick with the boys. But she soon realizes that she must stand in solidarity with the new yarn ball, in order to make her transition to B.R.O. Capital easier than Purl's.

In a flash-forward, we see the office has become a much more inclusive place thanks to Purl. There are now just as many yarn balls as men in suits, and they work in perfect harmony. The ending can feel like an oversimplification of how to combat men behaving badly in the workplace—if the 2017 criticism of Pixar's own "boys' club" work culture is any indication, this is extremely difficult terrain to overcome—but the film is still a powerful example of what it feels like to be an outlier at work. Whether you're a woman, trans, a person of color, or a ball of yarn, Purl is an extremely relatable symbol for the need for diversity in the workplace.

Kristen Lester, the first-time filmmaker of Purl, wrote the film for this very reason. "A few times during my career in animation, I would be in situations similar to those in the short and I would feel very alone," she tells Glamour. "I hoped that by making the short, people would watch and know that they are not alone and that being accepted for who you are is possible."

Many women have already taken to Twitter to share how much the film resonated with them. "I feel so seen by this Pixar 'Purl' short about diversity! I even have girly desk decorations too, and it took me years to feel comfortable putting them out. Purl could be any woman in tech, we all know that feeling of trying to fit in with the boys," one wrote . Another tweeted , "#PURL is all of us girls trying to fit in a man’s world. Pixar has done a lot but nothing hits me as close as this short."

You can watch the film in its entirety, here .

Samantha Leach is an assistant culture editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter @_sleach .

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Pixar’s new animated short film Purl takes viewers inside “B.R.O. Capital” — a company dominated by stereotypical “bros” who tell raunchy jokes, shout over one another, and leave work early to get two-for-one chicken wing specials.

So when a pink ball of yarn named Purl is hired, the bros are mystified. Purl tries to participate in the work culture, but is shunned. She tries to fit in by knitting herself a suit-and-tie look.

When a yellow yarn of ball joins the company, Purl reassess what she’s become. Soon, the office is teeming with balls of yarn and the overbearing culture of toxic masculinity is replaced by a more collaborative, open, and tolerant environment.

Purl  is part of Pixar’s SparkShorts series, which seeks to empower filmmakers of different backgrounds. The quirky short film was created by Pixar filmmaker Kristen Lester, who said that Purl is based on her past work experiences.

Take Action: Sign the Petition Calling on Influential Companies to Support Women-Owned Businesses

"My first job, I was like the only woman in the room," Lester explains in a behind-the-scenes video . "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 made me realize how much of the female aspect of myself I had buried and left behind,” she added.

While Purl is an animated film, the only aspect of its story that strays from reality might be the talking balls of yarn.

The film highlights how gender biases can drive unequal outcomes in the workplace and underscores how far many companies in the US still have to go to achieve gender equality. It also shows how difficult it is for women to be accepted in male-dominated work spaces, even when they behave the same way as their male colleagues.

Read More: It Could Take 170 Years for Women to Earn as Much as Men

An investigation by the Harvard Business Review found that women at one company were paid less and held fewer senior leadership roles, despite behaving no differently than their male co-workers in terms of who they interacted with and how much time they spent working. The women were also promoted less often, though they received identical performance reviews to men.

The authors of the report concluded that implicit biases were at the root of the company’s inequalities. These findings hold true throughout the broader US economy.

Women in the US earn 80% of what their male counterparts make despite having identical qualifications, and that gap is even wider for women of color. While 44% of the employees at S&P 500 companies are women, fewer than 20% of senior level roles are held by women. Similarly, only 6% of S&P 500 CEOs are women.

Read More: Gillette's Newest Ad Is a Razor-Sharp Takedown of Toxic Masculinity

Workplaces are often openly hostile to women, according to Vox .

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) estimates that anywhere from 25% to 85% of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. This wide range accounts for the fact that many women are deterred from reporting instances of harassment because they believe their allegations won’t be taken seriously or that they will face consequences. In fact, 75% of women who have reported workplace harassment encountered retaliation, according to one report that the EEOC cites.

A Pew Research Study found that 42% of women have experienced discrimination in the workplace , including being insulted, passed over for assignments, and treated as though they were less competent than their male counterparts.

At the end of Purl , B.R.O. Capital is a lot more welcoming to employees like Purl, which suggests that workplace discrimination and inequality can be reduced by improving employee diversity.

Read More: Equal Pay Day: 8 Reasons Why British Women Should Still Be Really, Really Angry

While increasing diversity is essential, it doesn’t necessarily get rid of the glass ceilings that maintain gender inequality in the C-suite. In addition to hiring people of diverse backgrounds, companies can also mandate diversity quotas for senior level positions and boards to control for implicit biases and ensure that their leadership is more inclusive.

Beyond that, the government can support legislation to address pay inequity and workplace discrimination. Right now, a bill for equal pay is making its way through Congress . The Paycheck Fairness Act builds on the Fair Pay Act of 1963 and supporters say it provides women with a critical tool for closing the pay gap.

"We cannot subject another generation of women to this injustice," Lilly Ledbetter, a pioneer of pay equity, said in a press conference supporting the bill.

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Pixar Takes on Toxic Masculinity in the Workplace With Latest Short

Feb. 5, 2019

Entertainment

Pixar Released A Brand New Short & It Contains An Empowering Feminist Message

You may love Pixar for its quippy shorts, classic movies, and beloved characters, but its latest project is actually a cultural commentary laced with tons of metaphor and poignancy. In fact, Pixar's new short, Purl , contains an important message about women at work, and it's one to pay attention to.

The new short, which was released on Monday , is just the first from the Pixar's SparkShorts Program, which the company's website explains is a new program designed to feature "new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows," adding that the shorts will be " unlike anything ever done " at Pixar, offering new artists a chance to create freely without the pressure of doing it on such a huge scale.

It's clear that even just the first short of the series definitely hits the nail on the head, providing a more serious subject matter than usual, but animated with the same quality and characterization that makes Pixar so beloved.

In the short, a ball of yarn named Purl tries to get — and keep — a job at a new workplace, but has trouble fitting in because she is literally and metaphorically "soft," represented by a ball of knitting yarn placed next to human men working at the company.

The short opens with Purl landing the job and being told she had the "most qualified résumé," but soon afterwards having trouble fitting in with the office culture.

Purl is seen decorating her desk in "soft" things, like knitted patterns, and trying to join the conversation at the water cooler but quickly being shut down. At that point, Purl is seen trying to navigate a meeting while using language that's funny and light, though her colleagues agree that the approach must be "aggressive" if they want to "win."

Of course, Purl, despite being as smart and capable as her peers, feels out of place, if not ostracized, because she's different. It's at that point that she begins to conform to the masculine expectation of the workplace, literally re-sewing her "clothes" into a straight suit, remodeling her formerly round body into a straight one. There are a lot of potential metaphors in this, but let's stick with the most obvious one: to thrive at a company, Purl had to lose any semblance of her femininity.

It all comes crashing down, of course, when Purl is greeted by Lacey, another female who joins the company, and is made of yarn like her.

At this point, the pair seem to recognize that their femininity and own unique qualities are actually an asset to the workplace, and they shouldn't have to give it up in order to fit in.

The short's director, Kristen Lester, and producer Gillian Libbert-Duncan, told Polygon that the inspiration for the short was Lester's experience being in the field of animation . “My first job, I was like 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," she told the site. "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."

Pixar is set to release two more SparkShorts this month, first Smash & Grab, a love story about robots, and then Kitbull, a story about a pitbull and a kitten. Whether or not these will contain such a profound undertone isn't yet clear, but what is evident is that Pixar is willing to experiment , and it seems that it's working for the better.

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‘Purl’ Director Kristen Lester On Tide Change In Animation Inclusivity & Finding Faith In Her Voice With Pixar Short

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Matt Grobar

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Serving as Head of Story at Pixar Animation Studios, Kristen Lester recently got to write and direct her first animated short with Purl , a timely and topical short inspired by Lester’s challenging journey in animation.

The short centers on a hardworking and open-hearted ball of yarn who takes a job at a fast-paced, male-centric company, aptly named B.R.O. Capital. The first ball of yarn to work at the company, Purl finds herself excluded and discriminated against by her coworkers. Considering changing her personality and appearance to fit in with the guys, Purl ultimately realizes that doing so would be doing a disservice to herself, and all other employees who stand out as different from the established norm.

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While animation is an area of entertainment with a historic reputation of excluding or marginalizing women in the workplace, Lester has been excited to see the tide begin to change. “It’s weird to be part of an industry that is changing so rapidly, and so drastically. I went from being in a situation where, if I was on a story team, I would be the only woman. I would be sitting in a room, and we would be talking about a female character or something, and they’d be doing something that I didn’t feel was authentic and true to my experience. And I was the only one in there ranting like, ‘They should not be kissing. This movie is not about kissing,’” the director explains. “I went from that in my career to now, I’ve been on movies with a female director. I’ve been on movies with a female head of story. I’ve led a story team that had four women on it. It’s so inspiring and exciting, and I feel so lucky that all of this has happened and come along, and that I’ve been part of it.”

At the same time, with Purl , Lester wanted to tap into the earlier days of her career, when change within the industry had yet to come. The first Pixar short made as part of the SparkShorts program—a series of independent animated shorts, made on a limited budget over the course of six months, created with the intention of spotlighting new storytellers— Purl  was a challenge for Lester to make, largely due to the limitations she had faced with career growth in the past, and the way in which she’d been conditioned to think.

“I think my biggest challenge making Purl was to have faith in my own [voice]. I know that everybody says this, but I felt for me it was really true. I had this muscle called my voice, and I had never used it. Obviously, you use your voice to contribute to films, and come up with ideas, but it’s not the same as, ‘Okay, here you go, you’re steering the ship,’” Lester says. “So that was sort of the thing that I was most surprised by, and it was challenging. I definitely had a few times where I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. This is a terrible idea.’ Or, ‘Why did they pick me?’ I was really lucky that everybody, from my family, to my coworkers, to my boyfriend, didn’t let me fall into that.”

DEADLINE: What was the inspiration behind Purl ?

LESTER : The short was actually inspired by my long journey getting to Pixar. In school, my class was pretty gender balanced. We were about 50% men, 50% women, and when I graduated, I thought that that’s what my industry looked like. Then, when I graduated and got my first jobs, I was like, that’s not what my industry looks like at all. I was often the only woman on the team I was working with, and it was very isolating, and I found it really hard to fit in. I just wanted to be one of the guys, so I could have friends and colleagues—and also, so I could do the thing that I loved, because I just wanted to work in animation so badly.

I didn’t even realize it as it was happening, but as I was going through working in all these different jobs, I put the feminine part of myself away. I felt like I hid it, I buried it. I wouldn’t talk about certain films that I liked; I wouldn’t make certain references, and I didn’t realize how much of that part of myself I had given away in order to get acceptance, until I actually came to Pixar and started to work with women for the first time.

Nothing makes you reflect on who you are more than looking at [the] people [who surround you]. At Pixar, I was working with women who were younger than I was, who were coming up in the industry, and they so unabashedly embraced their femininity. They suggested ideas like, “I like this movie, and I want to do this with this character,” and when they first started doing that, I felt very embarrassed, because I felt like by suggesting this stuff, we were making everybody uncomfortable, and who would want to talk about bras in a movie?

I went to this talk with a woman who had been in the animation industry for a long time, longer than I had. She showed up at this talk and was wearing a suit, and her behavior and her attitude was exactly like mine. She was like, “It’s 9:00 AM. What are we doing talking? We should be at the bar, drinking and hanging out,” and I had this realization that I felt like we were all sort of turning ourselves into men to be accepted, to do the things that we wanted to do. If I turned to women who were younger than me, or any woman, or anybody of any difference, and said, “That’s embarrassing, don’t do that. We just want to fit in,” I would be be falling in line and creating like a copy of people, just for the rest of our lives. Like, we would all sort of conform to the same thing forever.

When I realized that, I went back to these women that I worked with and was like, “Tell me more about the bras you would like to put into this movie.” It was very awkward, and I was really bad at it. But I felt like when I did that, a whole new world opened up for me. It was acceptance of myself, and the fact that I was a woman and I work in this business. Also, I felt like I opened the door for other people to be themselves around me, and around the people that I work with. It wasn’t just women. It was people of all different genders, people of all different sexual orientations. I sort of had this epiphany, right as Pixar asked me to make a short. I felt like, all right, that’s what I want to make a short about. So, that was sort of the genesis of Purl . I feel like Purl was a long time coming.

DEADLINE: How did you arrive at a pink ball of yarn, as the main character you’d filter your experience through? Obviously, there are a set of associations attached to yarn that the short touches on—that it’s soft, perhaps feminine, and can easily unravel.

LESTER : On the side, I’ve always really been interested in fabric art— knitting or sewing or crochet or quilting, all sorts of stuff like that. At the time, I was really inspired also by knit bombing. It’s kind of all over the city in San Francisco. You’re walking down the street, and then there’s a bicycle, just covered with yarn. I just was like, “Wow, yarn can really be anything. It can be a sweater, it can be a piece of artwork, it can be made to look like food.” Because of the story, I was really interested in this idea of transformation, and the wish fulfillment of being able to knit yourself another identity, and another persona.

That’s kind of where it came from. Then, it was funny. I was working on the short and pitched the idea to somebody who worked here, and they were like, “Oh, my sister is doing her whole PhD thesis about knitting.” It was called “Knitting and the Feminist Ephemera,” or something like that. She gave me this book and was like, “There’s all these associations between knitting and feminism, and just the feminine.” I was like, “Wow.” I wasn’t consciously thinking about it, but somehow I have kind of tapped into this thing that we associate with the feminine, and associate with the ability to transform, and be other things. So, it was just a weird coincidence. I was like, “Was this in my brain somewhere?” [Laughs]

Then, I pitched it to people, and I’ve also really always loved stuff that’s kind of bizarre and strange. I really enjoyed it when I would pitch to people and say, “It’s about a ball of yarn that comes to life, and gets a job in an office full of guys.” People would be like, “Whoa, that’s really weird,” and I’d be like, “All right, I want to make that then.”

DEADLINE: What were some of the fundamental visual choices you made in putting this short together? The world of B.R.O Capital you created is very tactile and interesting, with its implementation of yarn into the design.

LESTER : I love working at Pixar, and I love the community here, and one of the things that I had as a story artist is that we often don’t get to go outside of our department and meet people, and work with people. So, I felt like I had this idea, and I was really excited to do something that was very tactile. The fact that [Purl] was yarn was really important. I wanted it to look fuzzy, and I wanted the world to be hard and steel and concrete, because that would make her feel more alien, and more out of place.

I was really excited to do that here, because there’s so many people who can help bring that idea to life and are so good at it, so it was this awesome cross-pollination, [and] I really wanted to focus on the material. Like, what does yarn look like? What does concrete feel like? It was so great that everybody who worked here knew exactly what that was, and had the same level of curiosity to explore what that looked like, and how we could do that.

DEADLINE: Could you describe the technical process you went through to arrive at the aesthetic you had in mind?

LESTER : I feel like the way that I described it was like, I had this idea, and to make one of these shorts with the SparkShorts program, we had six months to make it from conception to finish. So, the technique that we used was every part of the buffalo, all hands on deck. Whatever works, do it.

When I said, “I want to make a ball of yarn,” that was an incredibly complex thing to try to model, so we did all sorts of stuff. We tried to 3D scan a ball of yarn. We tried to make a ball of yarn in CG, but the geometry was too heavy, because we had thousands and thousands of tubes wrapped around each other. So, it was just this crazy back and forth, even just to try to get what a ball of yarn looks like.

One of the things about a ball of yarn is that you could hold it up to a light and you can see all the little fuzzy hairs along the edge of the ball, and we were like, “How are we going to get that? What are we going to do?” Somebody found this program that we wrote at Pixar called Wonder Moss, [which] was [used] to make moss in Brave , so they could just procedurally make a bunch of moss, and not have to place everything. So, we put Wonder Moss on Purl, and it made her fuzzy. That’s where her fuzz comes from.

Because she was so geometry heavy, I really wanted to make her feel more like a stop-motion character than a 3D modeled character. I was looking for, “I just want a pair of eyes, glued on top of a ball, and a mouth glued on top of the ball,” and we looked forever. We were trying all sorts of different things, and we couldn’t think of anything. Then, somebody went searching through all of our characters and found the 2D mouth that is from Abstract Bing Bong in Inside Out . I was like, “Yes, that’s it.” [Laughs] So, we just took it and stuck it on her face, and her eyes are like eyes from Mr. Potato Head. Because of the time pressure we were under, and because we had to be innovative, we did a lot of borrowing from other films and repurposing things, and I actually loved it.

DEADLINE: Purl is the first Pixar short I’ve seen that features overt commentary on important real-world issues. What did it mean for you for Pixar to support the discussion of inclusion, diversity and tolerance in the workplace in one of their shorts?

LESTER : It meant so much to me, especially as the person who’s telling this story. It’s not an easy story to tell, especially if you’re the person telling it. I was sort of coming to terms with it myself, as I was seeing it, and the fact that Pixar stood behind me, and encouraged me, and supported me, was such a huge deal for me. I could not be more grateful. I’m so proud of us for making it.

I kind of also was a little naive about it, like, “Yeah, this is what we’re going to make, and this is important to me.” It wasn’t really until the end that I looked back on all the things that we had done, and all the things that we had said, and everything that was going on in the world at the time that we made it, and I was just so touched and grateful that Pixar was like, “Absolutely you have to tell the story.” And anytime I faltered or felt like I wasn’t confident, somebody from here was there to be like, “No, you should keep going. This is a story worth telling.” I’m so grateful to work here.

DEADLINE: The SparkShorts series is quite new, having just been announced to the world last year. What did you most enjoy about being a part of it?

LESTER : Being a part of the SparkShorts program was amazing. I enjoyed actually having the shorter time schedule, because it meant that I didn’t have time to really second-guess myself. Considering that that was one of the challenges I faced, I actually felt like that was really helpful. I just had to kind of go on gut instinct, because of that pace.

One of the things that I enjoyed about it also was that the SparkShorts program was intended to be a different flavor from what our normal theatrical shorts are. So, I appreciated the ability to be like, “Okay, what does having some racy language in there look like? What does having some adult material in that look like?” I enjoyed being able to put that in there, because that was also part of the truth of my experience. It was not rated G. So, I was really fortunate that I felt like the program suited the subject matter.

DEADLINE: What’s next for you? Are you working toward getting a feature project together?

LESTER : So, I just wrapped a couple of months ago…I was working for Pete Docter [as] the head of his next film. Then, I’m talking to you from my own room in development, trying to figure out some cool ideas. Pixar has given me the chance to develop a feature, which I think is really cool.

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Pixar debuts Purl , the first short film released as part of the company's SparkShorts venture meant to promote up-and-coming storytellers. Pixar shorts have become as beloved among fans of animated fare as the studio's full-length features themselves. Arguably, Pixar introduced generations of moviegoers to the short film medium, making them accessible to viewers of all ages. Similarly, Pixar has used their short films to foster talent within its own ranks. In recent years, Pixar has shown a focused effort in spotlighting different voices and stories with their short films, as evidenced by 2015's Sanjay's Super Team and 2018's Bao .

Earlier this year, Pixar announced the creation of SparkShorts , an in-house " experimental storytelling initiative " that aims to give more opportunities to up-and-coming creators within the company. Purl was among the initial group of short films announced as part of the SparkShorts program, and now the full version is available to watch online.

Related: Every Exclusive Movie & TV Show Coming To Disney Plus

Pixar unveiled the full 8-minute short film  Purl on YouTube, along with a poster for the project, and teased that there will be more coming to Disney's streaming service, Disney+ , later in 2019. Purl  was written and directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan. The film follows the titular young ball of yarn who starts working at the high-energy, male centric start-up B.R.O. Capital, but she doesn't quite fit in. Purl explores what lengths to which the character will go to in order to fit in at B.R.O. Capital and how that will affect other employees. Watch Purl and check out the poster below.

Purl touches on the phenomenon of male-dominated workplaces, particularly what women do (or feel they need to do) in order to fit in within those offices. In a meet-the-filmmakers video released by Pixar , Lester explained that the inspiration for Purl came from her own time working in animation, an experience shared by Libbert-Duncan. Lester said:

It’s based on my experience being in animation. My first job, I was like 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.

Folks who have felt similarly ostracized in their workplaces will no doubt relate to Purl , which goes to show how important SparkShorts is as an initiative within one of the biggest animation powerhouses in Hollywood. The initiative will also hopefully go a long way in bolstering in-house community at Pixar, which was the center of a #MeToo news story in late 2017 when CCO John Lasseter took a leave of absence amid sexual harassment and misconduct accusations.  Lasseter left Pixar officially at the end of 2018. According to reports, Lasseter fostered a work environment where employees felt uncomfortable due to his behavior, which included "grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes." Though Purl doesn't tackle the issue of behavior like Lasseter's head-on, the short film does address certain folks, particularly women, feeling ostracized in male-centric workplaces. Both are, arguably, different symptoms for the same overarching problem in Hollywood and other male-dominated industries.

In terms of other upcoming SparkShorts projects, Pixar is planning to debut short films Smash and Grab , Kitbull , Float , Loop and Wind . While Smash and Grab and Kitbull will be made available on YouTube in the coming weeks, it's unclear when the next three will release or whether viewers will have to wait for the launch of Disney+. For now, Pixar fans can get an idea of what to expect from SparkShorts with Purl .

Next:  Pixar Can (And Should) Be Better Under Pete Docter

Source: Disney/Pixar

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Pixar Short ‘Purl’ Champions Diversity in Feminist Yarn

First short film from the studio’s Sparkshorts experimental storytelling initiative is directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan.

Pixar Animation Studios kicked off its experimental storytelling initiative, SparkShorts , on Monday with the online release of Purl .

Directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan, the 3D computer animated short film is the first to emerge from the program, which was designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows.

Set in the high-powered world of B.R.O capital, Purl follows its titular central character as she goes to work in a male-dominated office and finds herself struggling to fit in. A story centered around themes of belonging and understanding, Purl is left with a tough decision -- change her ways to fit in, or carry on being herself and face a life of loneliness and isolation at work:

“It’s based on my experience being in animation,” Lester comments in a Meet the Filmmakers video . “My first job, I was like 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. 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.”

Pixar also released a behind-the-scenes video that delves into the making of Purl :

Pixar production lead & short film producer David Lally also discussed how Purl was created on Twitter:

Many of you noticed that #Purl was animated on 2s and 3s, while the Bros were always animated on 1s! More than just being a yarn ball, we thought that if Purl’s motion was different from the Bros, that would make her even more of an outsider visually. #Pixar #SparkShorts pic.twitter.com/vnRmcTDPKw — David Lally (@davidmlally) February 4, 2019

Purl , alongside Smash and Grab and Kitbull -- the first three shorts to emerge from the program -- is currently screening in an exclusive one-week run at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood . Smash and Grab debuts online on February 11, and Kitbull debuts on February 18. These first three shorts, along with the rest of the projects in the SparkShorts program, will also be available for viewing on Disney+ when the streaming service launches in late 2019.

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.

View the discussion thread.

Elsewhere on AWN

Pixar Weaves A Yarn About Belonging In Short Film Purl

Pixar ’s short films have always been a treat, from Luxo Jr. to last year’s brilliant Bao . The animation studio has just unveiled a fresh 8-minute film titled Purl on YouTube, and it’s a witty and beautifully crafted story about systemic inequality in male-dominated industries, and how to bring about cultural change. Except, because it’s Pixar, it’s done in an entirely non-preachy way, with gags, emotion, and visual invention to spare. Watch the film here:

From director Kristen Lester, the short stars Bret Parker as Purl – a pink ball of wool, who bags a job at a male-dominated testosterone-heavy office, amusingly titled B.R.O. Capital. She finds herself forced to change in order to fit in – until she’s confronted with a new yarn co-worker, and uses her newfound acceptance in the office to elevate others like her. All that, and it’s stuffed with knitting puns, and the occasional (extremely mild) swear word.

“It’s based on my experience being in animation,” Lester explains in this making-of video. “My first job I was, like, 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 I came to Pixar, and started to work on teams with women for the first time, and that actually made me realise how much of the female aspect of myself I had sort of buried and left behind.”

Purl is the first short to emerge from Pixar’s SparkShorts program, giving employees at the company six months and a limited budget to create a short. In the coming days, two more shorts will hit YouTube – Smash and Grab , and Kitbull – while further SparkShorts creations are destined for the Disney+ streaming service. Bring on more touching yarns, please.

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Pixar drops first short film from new animation program SparkShorts

Pixar has debuted its first short film under its nascent animation program SparkShorts , a new initiative at the studio aimed at cultivating independent projects from the company’s own artists and directors.

The first film, Purl , follows a bright pink ball of yarn who begins work at a homogenous corporate office filled with men who waste no time ostracizing her. The short is written and directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan.

While Pixar has always operated on dual levels of humor for adults and children alike, Purl ’s jokes and language shoot noticeably higher in maturity here. The film nevertheless makes its themes clear for any age, commenting quickly but efficiently on the prevalence of toxic masculinity in office culture and the old boys’ club social systems in place across corporate America.

“It’s based on my experience being in animation,” Lester said in a meet-the-filmmakers video also released by the studio. “My first job, I was like 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.” Producer Libbert-Duncan added, “When Kristen came to me and said, ‘This is a story that I want to tell,’ I looked at her and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I have lived the exact same thing.’”

Disney and Pixar teased that more projects from the SparkShorts program will debut on the company’s forthcoming streaming service, Disney+, later this year. Meanwhile, the Pixar short Bao is among the nominees for this year’s Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

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Pixar’s new short stars a swearing ball of feminist yarn

The cheery, pink yarn ball is an allegory for something deeper

by Petrana Radulovic

If you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

“Purl,” the first film out of Pixar’s SparkShorts program , is about a ball of yarn trying to keep a job. But it’s also so much more.

The short follows the bright pink ball of yarn named Purl as she arrives at a male-dominated company (titled B.R.O. Capital) and tries to fit in. But in a quest to be one of the boys, she might just lose part of her own identity. Pixar always delivers themes and messages meant not just for children, but for people of all ages, but “Purl” packs a bit of a heavier punch — and it’s not just because Purl swears at one point.

In a ”meet the filmmakers” clip, director Kristen Lester and producer Gillian Libbert-Duncan discuss the motivation for telling this particular story.

“It’s based on my experience being in animation,” Lester said. “My first job, I was like 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.”

While Lester speaks highly of Pixar — and indeed, the SparkShorts program is designed to showcase stories from new voices with new techniques — Pixar itself came under fire last year — not just because company legend John Lasseter left the company after allegations of sexual misconduct, but also because of an essay by a former employee from the art department about the very male-dominated workplace culture that the animation company fostered.

The full list of shorts under the SparkShorts program can be found on Pixar’s website . Two more are set to release this month: “Smash and Grab,” a robot love story, will premiere on Feb. 11; and “Kitbull,” a story about a pitbull and a kitten, will be available on Feb. 18.

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First Look At Pixar's 'Purl', The Second Film From Their Experimental Short Film Program

The first look at  Purl , the latest from from Pixar's experimental short film program, is here. Pixar previously announced they would begin releasing experimental short films, and kicked things off with  Smash and Grab , directed by Brian Larsen. Now Kristen Lester 's  Purl is next. See the first images from  Purl below.

Here's a first look at Kristen Lester's "PURL" the second film from Pixar's new experimental story program! How much yarn does it take to yarn-bomb the Luxo Ball? Find out! The team will be sharing more at @siggraph in August! #pixar #animation #SIGGRAPH2018 pic.twitter.com/YoGeEYeG1q — David Lally (@davidmlally) June 28, 2018

The images above are from  Purl , Pixar's new experimental short. At Pixar's SIGGRAPH panel last year, the animation company announced the launch of new experimental shorts, in which filmmakers are given creative freedom (but limited resources) to create something new. Here's the original announcement:

"Pixar launched an internal, experimental storytelling initiative to create short films without executive oversight, to explore new creative visions and increase studio opportunities. This talk shares Pixar's six-month journey of creating seven-minute shorts, with limited resources, amidst the backdrop of a busy studio, juggling multiple feature productions."

And here's the announcement that accompanied Pixar's first experimental short,  Smash and Grab :

In 2016, Pixar launched an internal, experimental storytelling initiative to enable new creative voices and explore alternative storytelling techniques, pipelines, and workflows in production. Within the new program, filmmakers are granted total creative freedom to develop a story, design a world, and produce a short film, within six months, and without any executive supervision.  Smash and Grab  is a seven minute short film that explores  the use of a comic book development process, virtual production, performance/camera capture, and procedural shading and lighting techniques. With the backdrop of a busy feature film studio, limited resources, and a minimal crew, this talk is the story of our journey.

Now Pixar is will keep the ball rolling, unveiling  Purl at this year's SIGGRAPH. The film comes from Pixar storyboard artist Kristen Lester. "This certainly doesn't feel like a fluke. I worked really, really hard to get here," Lester said of her path to work at Pixar. "I loved animation more than anything. It's work done with joy...For me, it was in my soul. It was something innately in me. I was always the kid drawing and watching cartoons and years later, at 36, I'm still watching cartoons and drawing."

Here's a description of  Purl :

Last year, SIGGRAPH '17 featured  Smash and Grab: Off the Rails Filmmaking at Pixar , kicking off the results of a new, experimental storytelling initiative at Pixar Animation Studios. This initiative enables new creative voices and explores new storytelling techniques, pipelines and workflows in production.The program's second short film, Purl, directed by Kristen Lester, continues to raise the bar for the program, and creates another example of what's possible when filmmakers are granted this type of creative freedom within a fully functioning studio. Purl is an eight minute short film that explores the use of "digital backlot" management, an evolution of Smash and Grab 's motion capture application, shareable animation libraries, our real-time shading software Flow, and production practices that allow a busy feature animation studio to continue telling even more stories.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Nov 12, 2019

An earnest ball of yarn named Purl gets a job at a start-up and must decide how far is she willing to go to be accepted. An earnest ball of yarn named Purl gets a job at a start-up and must decide how far is she willing to go to be accepted. An earnest ball of yarn named Purl gets a job at a start-up and must decide how far is she willing to go to be accepted.

• Kristen Lester
• Michael Daley
• Bradley Furnish
• Bret 'Brook' Parker
• Emily Davis
• 55 User reviews
• 2 Critic reviews
• 1 win & 1 nomination

Top cast 14

• (as Bret Parker)

• Office Lady

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia This is the first Pixar short film to be part of SparkShorts.

Purl : So then he says, "I know this suit is expensive, baby, but at my place it's one hundred percent off!"

[the office bros laugh]

• Connections Features SparkShorts (2018)

User reviews 55

• Kirpianuscus
• Jun 20, 2020
• November 12, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Pixar Animation Studios - 1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California, USA (Studio)
• Pixar Animation Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 8 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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