Pixar Shorts:
Geri's Game

This was the first time one of Pixar's short films was directed by someone other than John Lasseter. The director for Geri's Game is Jan Pinkava, who contributed to A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and began as the director for Ratatouille (later resumed by Brad Bird).

The main character, Geri, makes a cameo appearance in Toy Story 2 as the toy repairman who fixes Woody.

The main technical objective for creating Geri's Game was to work on a technique to make skin more life-like and less plastic looking. This technique is called subdivision surfaces, and it also worked well with fabric folds and rumples.

Geri's Game was released with the feature film A Bug's Life.

Geri's Game Plot

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On an autumn day in a deserted park, an elderly man named Geri plays a game of chess against himself. Geri plunks down the chess board and dumps the pieces out of a wooden cigar box. He puts the empty box down and on the box it says, "Pt. Richmond Hand Made Pixar Shorts". (Point Richmond is the city where Pixar Animation Studios was housed at that time.)

Geri plays the game with himself, starting out as the "white" player who wears glasses. He then moves to the other side of the table as the "black" opponent who wears no glasses. The scenes go between moves that it looks as though there are two players. The "white" Geri is caught in a bind with his king piece and outsmarts "black" Geri by feigning a heart attack and turning the board around. The "black" Geri realizes he has lost the game and hands over a set of false teeth as the prize. "White" Geri puts them in his mouth and grins real big as the shot zooms out, again showing us that there is only one Geri.