Geri's Game (1997)

an old man . in a fall afternoon. playing a game of chess. against himself. poetry. and a lot of errors about the details of a game of chess. but, more important, a lovely story, beautiful animation and touching end. childish solution for win. and a bizarre prize. but the subject is more profound than an impeccable animation. because the great impact source is the reflection of the life of viewer in the images of this gem. if the youngest version of you is in your face.What are you doing ? the game of chess proposed by Jan Pinkava is a reasonable answer. for its symbols. for the signification of the end. for the spirit of an age who seems represent the fall. short, a lovely animation. about yourself.

this is another of animated short by Pixar.i thought it was alright.it's kinda cute,but maybe a bit redundant.the story is really simple,about an old man and a chess game.i didn't find it all that funny,but it was mildly amusing.of course,i had just previously watched Lifted(another Pixar short)which i thought was excellent,so maybe that raised my expectation for this one.still,it's a good little film,(just under 5 minutes)with excellent animation,as always.i did really like the ending.it thought that was kinda neat.Pixar has a collection of animated shorts(13,i believe)on DVD,if you wanna see more of them.anyway,for me,Geri's Game is a solid 7/10

'Geri's Game' is a short, animated film by the geniuses at Pixar Animation, and it was screened in cinemas to precede 'A Bug's Life' (which happens to be my favourite Pixar production).This short film borders on perfection. Absolutely no dialogue is spoken in the film, but it doesn't need to be. The simple plots concerns an old man named Geri (whom you may recognise from Toy Story 2) who loves to play a high-stakes game of chess in the park. The only catch: He has nobody else to play with! This is a highly-enjoyable short. The music is beautifully fitting, and the animation is first-rate. The character of Geri (or, at least, one of his characters) is a very likable, bumbling old man.You can certainly see how Pixar earned themselves an Oscar with this short. Highly recommended.

Pixar, especially now that Monsters, Inc. (preceded by the endlessly amusing For The Birds) has been released, is quickly becoming more and more famous for the tremendous quality of the short short animated films that precede their feature films. Geri's Game, which can be seen before A Bug's Life, is one of my favorite of all of Pizar's short animated films. It's a testament to the quality of the film that the punchline (that Geri is playing chess against himself) is not only revealed in the film's tagline, but is also clearly revealed right at the beginning of the film, and yet it still retains the surprising and amusing affect. The editing in this film is so well-done that, as the chess game switches back and forth between Geri and his alter ego, you almost forget that you already saw that he is alone in the park and is therefore playing against himself in this heated game. I just learned from one of the other IMDb reviewers that Pixar dedicated enormous resources just for such a minor detail as to get Geri's coat to crease just right, and that is exactly the kind of thing that makes a good film, especially a short one. That is a tiny detail, but Pixar is so determined for their films to look just right that it is no surprise that they are now winning Oscars left and right for those films. Pixar spends all of the money that they put into their films in just the right places, and this can clearly be seen in the final product. The purpose of these short film is clearly just to add to the huge amount of entertainment that is almost invariably involved in watching a Pixar film, because they can obviously not serve any other purpose, being so short. It's obvious that they are not put in to increase the viewing time of the sometimes rather short films that Pixar puts out, but rather just to increase the enjoyment derived from their films. When you go to see a Pixar film, you get more than your money's worth, and not because the films take up more of your time, but because the quality is so high. If anything, people should be grateful that the people at Pixar are able to create such huge amounts of entertainment in relatively short periods of time, unless you have nothing better to do than spend your days in a movie theater. While that is definitely how I would personally LIKE to spend my days, I just don't have the time, and I am grateful that Pixar is so good at what they do that they are able to provide entertainment of such high quality and not take up two and a half hours of my time. Bravo!