{"id":327912,"date":"2025-12-05T22:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327912\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T22:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:26:08","slug":"versa-short-film-malcon-pierce-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327912\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Versa’ Short Film Malcon Pierce: Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter experiencing a tremendous loss, some try to stay grounded in their community, while others turn to the stars for answers about life\u2019s grand design. In Walt Disney Animation<\/a> Studios\u2019 artistic director Malcon Pierce<\/a>\u2019s Oscar-qualifying short Versa<\/a>, a pair of celestial lovers try to work together to pull themselves out of a black hole of despair after the loss of their baby in the last stage of pregnancy. Though the six-minute short has no dialogue, it has plenty to say through dazzling animation, a beautiful score, and by moving the nameless male and female couple through the galaxy with nothing but expressions that run the gamut from joy to loss, grief and acceptance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Pierce talks to Deadline about the inspirations behind the short, his own journey with loss and expanding the boundaries of complex storytelling at Disney.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Where did the idea of Versa come from?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMALCON PIERCE: I went stargazing 15 or 20 years ago with a friend of [me and my wife], and he showed us a bunch of things. We looked at two stars, called the Albireo star system. It\u2019s two blue and yellow stars that orbit each other. At the time, I was interested in performing arts and how we can use them in film. Thinking about dance and movement, I wanted to do something with it at Disney, so I worked on a lot of ideas and got excited about some, but ultimately, the idea fell through because I felt it wasn\u2019t the right story yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, I was on a treasure hunt for the right story to use about the idea of stars, and it slowly faded away over time, but it was somewhere in my subconscious. Then, during the production of Moana (2016), my wife and I were expecting our son, Cooper, but we had some complications during the pregnancy, and he ultimately ended up passing away. And this reset my wife and I in a very big way. I was just thinking about grief as this incredibly big and nearly impossible thing to get over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How did you manage to push through that to make Versa?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPIERCE: Ultimately, it was my wife who ended up shining a light on how I was dealing with the situation. Her method of dealing with grief was by living it and facing what had happened, and she would always talk about, \u201cI wonder what Cooper would\u2019ve looked like,\u201d Or \u201cMan, remember when we went here and did this and that?\u201d I found it very scary, so I was doing the opposite, where I just tried to keep myself distracted, and I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not going into the nursery. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ready.\u201d It was this idea that if I shut out this loss, I\u2019d get better, and when I\u2019m better, I\u2019ll be able to talk about it. My wife is a photographer, and she said to me, \u201cI feel like it\u2019s important that we capture the moment.\u201d And so, she took pictures of herself in the nursery with the crib, his clothes, and some other stuff we had gotten for him. She found comfort in continuing to have a relationship with Cooper this way. Then it was my turn, but I couldn\u2019t go inside the nursery. So, I\u2019m standing outside in the doorway, and she takes a picture. Then she said that both of us should go in there. And, I was so resistant to it, but she told me, \u201cThis is important, you need to do it. It\u2019s going to be OK, because I\u2019ll be there with you.\u201d So, I went in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat I expected to happen when I entered the nursery happened. I felt like I got split open. Everything was just so heavy; I never made sounds like that before. My wife took a picture of that moment. Then afterwards, we had this picture of the\u00a0two of us in there, and later on, I was looking at these photos, and it was such a turning point in my experience with this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI realized in this picture she took of us, my wife had this star pendant that a friend of ours made \u2013 and on top of that, she started a non-profit for foster children named Cooper\u2019s Totes<\/a> \u2013\u00a0 and she was smiling in the nursery. And in hindsight, Cooper\u2019s [theme] was \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,\u201d and everything we had for him was star-themed and star-related. At the end of Moana, we found out that we were pregnant with [current child] Casper. And when you have a child after the loss of another, the terminology is \u201crainbow baby.\u201d So, we had this baby, and there was an incredible feeling about the circle of life, for lack of a better phrase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe also had this star gifted to us by my mother-in-law, and it was a little crystal candle holder that we\u2019d put in our kitchen window, and every morning we would come down, and the sun would hit it in the morning, and it would make rainbows and shoot all over the house. And that became a way for us to say, \u201cHey, there\u2019s Cooper.\u201d Then, at the end of Moana, I asked John Musker and Ron Clements if we could put a little star next to Cooper\u2019s name in the credits, and they agreed. So, after that, everything started to come back around to this idea that I had learned so much from this experience and felt a need to continue to share that experience, and decided that maybe that\u2019s the story for this high star concept that I had in my head for so long. So that was the genesis of everything, and then the thematic story came together, and we were off to the races.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Disney\u2019s never done a story about pregnancy mishaps or pregnancy in general. How did you pitch this? Was there any fear?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPIERCE: Well, I was inspired by the infant loss groups that my wife and I would go to. There were a lot of people talking about how they were triggered by watching movies featuring pregnant characters. And there was a lot of conversation about grief within couples who deal with the situation differently \u2013 either one of you wants to talk about the issue, or you don\u2019t. So, I eventually saw that this is something a lot of couples go through, and wouldn\u2019t it be cool to have something that can reflect an experience like that and maybe help them relate to one another? I vividly remember a moment in the hospital when I literally thought, \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m ever going to laugh again.\u201d And looking back on that, I was thinking how intense that feeling and thought were. So again, it came back to how I can make something for this community in infant loss and miscarriages. It\u2019s hard to talk about, but it can be impactful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn terms of pitching, I just made it up as I went and put my trust in Jennifer Lee<\/a> [former Walt Disney Animation CCO]. I was an animation supervisor on Frozen, and through that project, I got to know her well, and I admired how personal she was with her storytelling \u2013 she was so vulnerable. I just sent her an email and shared the idea; she was receptive and told me to do it. We put together a slideshow of ideas on how it would look, kind of like elements of Fantasia with musicality, since I\u2019ve always loved performing arts. She then referred me to Paul [A.] Felix, the production designer, because he loves astrology, and that\u2019s the feel I was looking for. So, I shared the idea with him, and I got a little more confident and comfortable with what I was doing. A couple of years later, I shared another update with Jen, including my outline and everything, and during the meeting, she told me she was impressed with the project\u2019s growth and how much easier it was for me to talk about it. This project was a great therapeutic thing, and I\u2019m so glad people helped me along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMy favorite part of all this so far is that we recently played the short at the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival, and there was a meet-and-greet afterward, and a man showed me a picture of his rainbow baby. And I was like, \u201cOh my God, this is exactly what I wanted for this.\u201d There were so many other people coming up to us, saying that their friends or family members had experienced something similar. It was touching and heartbreaking to see people come together because of this short film. Grief is so hard, and the short touches on this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Versa<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tVersa<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWalt Disney Animation<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: The animation is stunning. What was the inspiration there?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPIERCE: It was so tricky. Part of the pitch was essentially me telling people I wanted to do a non-verbal choreographed dance in space about infant loss. I didn\u2019t want it to be too high concept, where the overall narrative doesn\u2019t land. Early on in my head, I was thinking about the stars and what if it was the beginning of a nebula or something? So, the challenge was: how do I take these two characters and use as few elements as possible in the short?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was a version where I had a full kid\u2019s room with cloud toys and everything, and I really wanted it to feel a little bit less literal in some ways. And so, we really felt like we needed a few iconic elements that would be very symbolic. And so, the bassinet was a thing where I was like, \u201cI really need to make sure that there\u2019s a bassinet, and I think that\u2019s going to say all we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe nebula is the nursery, and that\u2019s the cosmic throughline that\u2019s always been inspiring and fun to try to connect [all these different thematics to]. So, we created this wonderful nebula with Ryan Lang, our production designer. Also, there\u2019s a moment when the dad brings in a planet-like mobile, and it\u2019s a surprise for the mom. So, we spent a lot of time thinking about how literal versus how simplistic we can go, and really just trying to make it feel like this cloud-like, fluffy crib. But that was the challenge: how minimal can we go? Because it\u2019s easy to add stuff but really challenging to remove things, the lack of dialogue made it that much harder. I also didn\u2019t want to add more characters. There was a moment when we considered adding other characters for people to see, but we tried to keep it all focused.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What about the choreography? They float around like ice skaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPIERCE: I just love animation and how expressive it is. Dance also just feels raw and emotional, so this was a powerful way to express the performances in the short. I was looking at a lot of dances, from modern to ballet, and they were all very beautiful, but I felt something wasn\u2019t quite landing in the world we were building. I didn\u2019t want them to be totally weightless and flying around. We asked ourselves what choreography makes sense for the idea we had. Through that, we discovered ice dance, which is dancing on ice skates \u2013 not quite like figure skating. When you\u2019re skating, you can be moving very fast, so you have this ability to have these kinetic, lyrical movements for these characters, but also be very controlled and simple in the performance. I also thought about that moment with the fairies who dance across the water in Fantasia 2000. So, we worked with ice skaters and choreographers Katherine Hill, Jordan Cowan and Ben Agosto to help animate the mom and dad\u2019s movements. I would do storyboards, and they would do a version of [what was drawn], and we\u2019d meet on Zoom to give feedback and notes to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOur vocabulary was one of the interesting things about the collaboration. For example, to say, \u201cScreen space left to right\u201d isn\u2019t a thing on the ice. They\u2019re performing at all aspects of the ice rink, so there are moments where I\u2019m like, I need to make sure that screen right is healing for mom, but bad for dad. Screen left is bad for mom, but good for dad because he\u2019s avoiding the situation. It was fun having that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Why the color choice of red and blue for the two parents? And then the gold cracks, which look similar to the Japanese art of Kintsugi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPIERCE: At the time, I was conceptualizing the mom as this peachy color, and the dad was a purpley color, and I was like, \u201cThis is looking great,\u201d and we had already started our character team on making the designs. So, one day, I showed my wife, who I call my spiritual executive producer, the characters and I asked her what she thought, and she goes, \u201cWhy am I peach? I\u2019d be blue. I\u2019m moody and tuned into my emotions. I\u2019m blue.\u201d So then, I was like \u201cOh no.\u201d [laughs]. I got a hold of the producer, Brad Simonsen, who is amazing and got this project across the finish line, to tell him to change the color of the characters [laugh].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yes, we did use the Japanese pottery technique of Kintsugi because I always knew I wanted a transformation between these two characters. So, sort of in line with a Beauty and the Beast-esque transformation, I wanted to do another classic Disney-inspired transformation geared towards rebirth. I remember pitching Jen the idea of the characters going through the loss of their child, only to fully transform into a bigger, better version of themselves. I always wanted them to fall apart to where only their stars are left [after their bodies are disintegrated]. The stars are their soul, and then they come back together. So, it became about how do we earn that new version of those characters?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tChris Buck suggested that I read a book called Permission to Mourn [Tom Zuba], and there\u2019s a line in there that says, \u201cGrief has a way of splitting you open.\u201d And I was like, that\u2019s the way to earn this moment. Mom and dad get split apart. And that was relatable to my own experience in a lot of ways. I had this idea that you could have a great loss and go through the steps of grief, and then you could start the next chapter. But that\u2019s not true. What we learned is that grief is something that you learn to have a relationship with and you carry it with you. Over time, it becomes easier to carry, but it can also be very heavy, so I wanted to show this idea of wearing your scars proudly.<\/p>\n

\n\tRight after we lost our son, I was coming to work, I didn\u2019t want to talk about it and was hiding all these scars. Then, after working through understanding and the power of acceptance, I started to look at it like, I still have a relationship with Cooper. It\u2019s different than what I expected, but I think about him all the time, and he\u2019s with me all the time. So, Liz Watson, our creative executive on the project, just so happened to ask me about Kintsugi, and I hadn\u2019t at the time. And as soon as I googled, I realized that the symbolism I needed was to show that the two characters are visually different but not completely new versions of themselves. It was the intention that you broke apart, but you\u2019re back together, and because you\u2019re stronger now, you can wear these scars, and they\u2019re beautiful and these experiences we go through in this life matter. So that tied a nice bow on the transformation and colors.<\/p>\n

\n\t[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After experiencing a tremendous loss, some try to stay grounded in their community, while others turn to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,144808,144809,337,144810,144811,144812,21484],"class_list":{"0":"post-327912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jennifer-lee","12":"tag-malcon-pierce","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-short-cuts","15":"tag-versa","16":"tag-walt-disney-animation","17":"tag-walt-disney-animation-studios"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}