If you didn’t see Raya and the Last Dragon in theaters, chances are you haven’t seen Us Again, the first animated short from Walt Disney Animation Studios in five years. With the studio’s latest animated feature arriving on Disney+ for all subscribers on Friday, June 4th, the masses will finally be able to see this uplifting musical short.
(Disney)
The short tells the story of Art and Dot, an elderly couple who rediscover their youth during a magical rainstorm. “As I started thinking about the main character, Art, who is a little bit of a curmudgeon, he kind of feels like his best days are behind him, I thought, well, wouldn't it be cool if the whole world was one of dance, where it isn't something that you go and do, but how you do everything?” Director Zach Parrish shared lots of behind the scenes details during a press junket to promote the Disney+ release. Us Again was inspired by his own feelings about aging compared to his mother’s more young-at-heart outlook. “That really allowed us to use dance as a mechanism to exaggerate the entire world and a way to show a youthful spirit.”
Zach Parrish immediately thought of dancers/choreographers/real life couple Keone and Mari Madrid, who incorporate stories into their movements. It was producer Bradford Simonsen who reached a point where he decided to call them and see if they’d be interested in choreographing the short. “They agreed to come in for a conversation and we knew immediately that they were the perfect partners for this film. They had great story ideas, character ideas, and they saw our world of dance entirely of their art form perfectly clearly, and they were so excited.”
A composer doesn’t typically get involved until the final stage of production, but Pinar Toprak needed to write music during the storyboarding process, which could then be used by Keone and Mari. “It's been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life because I've never been involved in something from that early on and every step of the way. Sometimes I get hired on things to write some themes during script and then I don't hear from them, they go off, do their thing and then I come back near the end… And the fact that we didn't have dialogue meant that every note mattered, every choice mattered, every instrument mattered.”
(Disney)
The allure of working for Disney Animation was exciting to the choreographer couple, but more than that was the chance to work with a director who understands the storytelling power of dance. “Not all people see dance that way,” Mari Madrid explained. “Even some dancers don't see it that way. To be able to have that opportunity, and then on top of that, have the score made original, to be able to get as final as possible a version as we could before we started making movement and having all of the story contexts, it made everything really easy for us.”
The animators matched the choreography so well that watching Us Again was a bit surreal for the couple. “At first there's that first watch of like, oh my gosh, there's Disney characters doing our choreography, what world are we in?,” Keone Madrid joked. “And then once you get past that layer, then you're watching like two students of yours just destroy your choreography in amazing ways. And you kind of get jealous there, like, they do it better than us."
Among the many Easter Eggs in the film is a nod to an area of Disney California Adventure, Paradise Pier (now known as Pixar Pier. “I think that was one of the faster conversations we had on the film,” Zach Parrish recalled. When the conversation started about what to call the pier, the first suggestion was “Paradise Pier” and the team quickly agreed. “We didn't want to necessarily recreate literally what it is at Disneyland, but we kind of wanted a simple graphic read… It was within a day-and-a-half, we had this thing in the set and it looked amazing. That was one of the easier conversations on the whole film.”
Us Again starts streaming June 4th on Disney+. For more behind the scenes information, check out our video interviews with the director, choreographers, producer and composer below.