How Disney’s Animated Short ‘Versa’ Tells a Story of Loss, Grief and Hope Through Dance and Music
Long-time Walt Disney animator Malcon Pierce’s animated short “Versa” is a deeply personal story. The animated short, playing at the Animation Is Film Festival this weekend, follows a young couple looking to start a family who experience a gamut of emotions—from grief and loss to ultimate joy—as they embark on an ethereal, abstract and imaginative cosmic dance of life.
During the making of “Moana,” Pierce and his wife Keely lost their infant son, Cooper. In grieving their loss, Pierce was inspired to tell their story. Their son’s baby shower theme revolved around stars, and his mother-in-law gifted the couple a crystal star, which was placed in a kitchen window.
“Every morning we’d come downstairs, all these little rainbows would be spread around the house from the little star, and it became a way of remembering Cooper and keeping him close to us,” says Pierce.
With visual storytelling serving as a way to work through his loss and grief, Pierce found strength in his artwork. Eventually, he soft-pitched the idea to Disney Animation’s Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee with a slideshow of concepts. As the two discussed the idea over coffee, Pierce recalls Lee being supportive but advising him to think about the character’s point of view, “She said, ‘You should talk to Paul Felix. He’s one of our amazing artists and is interested in astrology.’”
With that, Felix took Pierce’s ideas to the next level by presenting seven paintings inspired by the slideshow. “He brought so much amazing visuals to that early development cycle,” says Pierce.
“Versa” is set to music and dance, including an ice dance that required choreographers to help thread the story together. The challenge was to portray a journey of love, loss, grief, and healing through choreography and without dialogue.
As Pierce was searching for inspiration, he thought about ice dancing and skating. While learning about the art form, he realized it was perfect for his story. “That allowed us to free up this idea of these characters potentially being able to be highly kinetic but still emote in a very sensitive way. Whereas when I was looking at dance, I found that if they stopped, they were stuck to the earth.”
Pierce turned to ice skaters and choreographers Katherine Hill and Ben Agosto, who brought their skills to the table, adding authenticity to the animation. They navigated how choreography and ice dancing combined could show the push and pull between the two parents.
“There’s a shot where the dad skates around the mom and puts his head to listen to their baby in the belly and gets kicked. In the storyboards, we had the dad coming up and kneeling down, but Ben and Kat were like, ‘What if Dad skates around Mom?’ So we were starting to uncover these really incredible nuances,” says Pierce.
The storytelling through ice skating taught Pierce a different process of narrative building and allowed him to step into someone else’s world to help tell the story he wanted.