Jake Pontius & Shelby Finch
CMC Maymester
Short Film Presentation
Partly Cloudy
The film we chose to present on is Partly Cloudy, one of the most recent Pixar shorts,
which aired before the Disney/Pixar movie Up, one of the most critically acclaimed Pixar works.
As with most Pixar shorts, Partly Cloudy is filled with an abundance of adorableness and
peppered with light-hearted comedy. Despite its overwhelmingly cute charm, however, the 2009
film broaches the subject of employment responsibility and necessity as well as humans’
perspectives on the animal kingdom.
The film opens to a beautiful sky in the middle of sunset. As flighty, light-hearted music
plays, storks deliver babies, puppies, and kittens to suburban homes with manicured lawns and
cooing, white housewives. After delivering their cargo, the storks take to the skies again where
they alight on top of clouds, which are actually “cloud people.” Here, we discover that the clouds
actually create the newborns by forming the shape with cloud material and transforming it into
the physical specimen with a jolt of electricity. These cloud people, who all resemble each other
except being divided by gender, which is represented by color and “hair” (the “female” clouds
have three “balls” of clouds on top of their heads that resemble hair), create puppies, kittens,
chicks, and human babies, which all have exaggerated features such as eyes and heads to add
extra cuteness. These clouds and their storks (all similar) all seem quite happy, laughing and
playing, but the camera pans down to settle on the outlier, a sad, dark cloud who creates a baby
crocodile before his partnered stork arrives.
They exchange noogies and nips, signifying a friendship between the two that may
extend beyond work. From here, it is apparent that not only is this cloud different from the upper
level of clouds (he is male, dark, and does not make cute, domesticated animals), but his partner
stork is also different than his fellow storks (he looks tired and raggedy, with tattered wings and
strained eyes). The cloud presents the baby crocodile to the stork who is promptly assaulted by
the vicious little dinosaur. This abuse of the stork continues as he receives more animals that
physically hurt him such as a ram and a porcupine. Eventually, the stork flies to one of the upper,
female clouds, which causes the dark cloud to become angry. His anger manifests itself as
thunder and lighting, but, as his anger turns to sadness, the storm is replaced with rain. His
attitude brightens, however, when the stork returns to reveal that he had actually gone to the
other cloud so she/it could make him football pads in order to protect him from the rambunctious
beasts his partner cloud creates. At this realization, the camera pans back and fades as the pair
laugh and hug while holding a baby electric eel.
One noticeable characteristic of this short is the quality and detail of the
rendering, which is especially apparent in the textures and vibrant colors of the clouds.
Interestingly, they clouds are mostly swathed in pinks and purples, which could act as signifiers
of gender, especially since the upper clouds seem to be predominantly female, as indicated by
their “hair.” Another aesthetic quality which stood out to us was the exaggeration of the cure
features of the animals like the oversized eyes and heads of the puppies. This contrasted with the
fact that the wild animals had exaggerated negative or violent features such as the teeth of the
crocodile or the horns of the ram. We read this as a sort of commentary on human perceptions of
the animal kingdom, which associate wild animals with their most negative traits while
overlooking their importance to the world. This is furthered by the idea that only one cloud out
of the multitude produces wild animals even though there are far wilder than domesticated
creatures in the world, which could represent the idea that humans generally frown upon animals
that they cannot control.
We also read this short as a comment on working life. Like Greed (2008), it followed the
economic downfall of 2008 and the stork represents the average worker of the time. He may not
like his job, but it is his duty and he needs to do it. By getting the football pads, the stork presents
the idea that if one has issues with his/her work, it is his/her responsibility to make the best of the
situation rather than taking the easy way out by quitting. This also works in terms of the dark
cloud as he does not attempt to elevate himself (figuratively and literally), instead recognizing
his position as necessary since he is the only one who produces wild creatures. Basically, you
already have a job so, considering the high unemployment rates, you need to grin and bear it.
Also, after the class discussion today, we agree with the connection of the cloud as a
single father. The gendering of the clouds and the Othering of the dark cloud speak to this, as
well as the idea use of wild animals, as if the cloud cannot control his children.