Lava (2014)

Lava is a charming short animation from Pixar.The story is simple, a volcanic mountain in the middle of the ocean is singing for companionship. A female lava or should I say lover.As the centuries turn into millenniums then into millions of years, the lonely volcano is sinking beneath the sea in extinction but right at the bottom for all this years was a female volcano who forever has been enchanted with his song who rises out from the bottom of the ocean just as he dips beneath it.Can the old volcano make his lava stir one more time and find true love?A simple, elegant original cartoon with a catchy song and wonderful animation.

This short animated film is included as an "extra" on the "Inside Out" DVD. It is just about 7 minutes long.In essence it is a 7-minute song, wanting someone to "Lava Me." The elapsed time has to be millions of years because first we see the male volcano in the sea, sitting proudly and high, but as time passes he sinks lower and lower.In the meantime there is a pretty female undersea volcano waiting to erupt, and rise above the sea, but only as the other one continues to sink.In the end they are both above the sea, next to each other, each with someone to "Lava Me."The singing and harmony are done very nicely.

. . . as a Museum of Natural History is a question currently before the Supreme Court, but the Disney Umbrella Corp. has provided a know-nothing answer of sorts with no apparent use of public funds. LAVA teaches kids that volcanoes such as Mount St. Helen and Vesuvius are NOT to be feared as mass killers, but rather seen as misunderstood lovesick puppies yearning to unite with their peers to form Megacauldrons like that Yellowstone monster featured in the movie 2012 in order to provide us with summer-free years, world-wide famine, and shipping mayhem as they proliferate like rabbits under the sea. LAVA is bound to desensitize a generation of the World's Young to three million years or so of primal fear toward volcanic action and lava, which tend to go hand-in-hand. Speaking of hands, how many kids will lose theirs as they stoop to pet the LAVA Disney has so charmingly personified? And what can we expect next from Disney? Tina, the Twinkle-Toed Twister? Sonny, an Amiable Tsunami? Ernie the Earthquake Cracks Like a Duck? Hurricane Hattie Hurries across Cape Hatteras? Barry Blizzard Buries Buffalo? Floyd Floods Folks for Fun? Hail, Hail, the Golf Balls Are Here? Wilma Wildfire Waltzes through the Forest? Disney's options to Defang catastrophe seem endless after LAVA.

Lava (2014)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Exceptionally entertaining Pixar short has a volcano singing about "lava" and how he wishes he had someone to spend time with. Over millions of years we learn that there's a volcano under the water who has heard him the entire time. This Pixar short is another classic from the studio who seem to be just as good at making shorts as they are the features and that's saying a lot. As you'd expect, the actual animation is really wonderful and I'd argue that some of the studio's best work can be found here including a brilliant sequence where we see the volcano over thousands of years. The time elapse was just something beautiful to see. Then there's the song itself, which is incredibly clever and packs a nice little punch at the end. This film really does a great job at showing this love story through the ages and I think parents will enjoy it just as much as children.