Absolutely brilliant

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

As usual with Pixar, a short precedes the feature: with Toy Story 3 it was Day & Night. More of a conceptual piece than a story as such, this is incredibly cleverly realised. There are two characters, both of whom are relatively straightforward amorphous all-purpose hand-drawn two dimensional cartoon characters - roughly humanoid (ie. two arms, two legs, and a face) though conveniently malleable when necessary. The clever stuff comes by virtue of the fact that their outlines are used as frames for a 3D CGI background. It is the same background for both of them, but the view for one of them is daytime and, for the other, nighttime. This is initially a cause for antagonism, then for interest, then enthusiasm, and finally...These Pixar shorts are always spectacular in their own way, but this one is perhaps the cleverest of all. It succeeds as an entertainment piece - there is bags of visual interest and, as usual, laugh out loud humour. But it also makes a point about embracing our differences because, in the end, we are all the same, and makes it without preaching.Very clever, very entertaining, and highly recommended.

Day and night sees two characters in a black world who, within their outline, represent scenes from night time and daytime. Day first sees night while he is asleep and is drawn to the differences in his outline. When night wakes up it becomes a conflict with a competition to show off who is the best of the two by virtue of what they have going on within their outlines.Day & Night is not quite the usual Pixar animated short simply because the animation is a bit less impressive than previous shorts (where the animation has been on a par with the feature film). This is not to say it is somehow cheap but just that it is not the beautifully detailed world that is about to come with Toy Story 3. This aside though the animation is very clever indeed as the characters move across their black world providing a view into night and day on the other side. It moves so seamlessly and easily that it is easy to follow and I was surprised by how inventive it was while also remaining quite simple an idea.The message is that we should embrace our differences rather than fear them or compete over them. This message has the potential to be a bit corny (and indeed it is a bit bluntly delivered via the radio speech) but the clever manner of the short means it does actually work pretty well and it doesn't feel that way. I know that some viewers will probably sigh at being told this sort of thing in this way, but for most viewers it should be well received and of course, for children, it will perhaps not be seen as so obvious as adults will see it.A clever and well animated little short then. Not quite the stuff one expects from Pixar in terms of looks but very enjoyable and well done.

While other animation studios these days concentrate on features, Pixar likes to remember that it is a cartoon factory and continues to precede each theatrical feature with a short subject. DAY AND NIGHT, the latest, was released along with Pixar's TOY STORY THREE.While Pixar's features -- and those of its competitors' -- become ever more sophisticated in their uses of computer animation to facilitate their stories, their short subjects have been becoming more cartoony. Their last short, PRESTO, recalled Tex Avery. This one suggests the sort of loose animation style favored by UPA, as one cloudy mass containing daylight scenes bumps into another cloudy mass containing night time scenes. The clouds' outlines are vague, populated by the highly detailed visions one expects of Pixar; but while the interiors show their natures, it is the vague outlines that carry the story -- and their characters.Fpr a student of animation, it is a typical Pixar delight. Thanks for keeping the short movie cartoon alive, guys.

This Pixar short that preceded Toy Story 3 seemed different than other shorts that came before other Disney/Pixar features. For one thing, there was no clear story that you got from others. Also, the whole thing wasn't completely computer animated as the two characters of the title seemed actually hand drawn with the computer stuff inside them. And then there is some message that is said by a Dr. Wayne Dyer that seemed to drive home the lesson that one should get along despite differences or a fear of the unknown. Not a bad message though-having read some comments-not everyone is going to get it or want to. Still, Day & Night is a worthy addition to the Pixar group of opuses that provide some humor with whatever points they're trying to make. Mega kudos to the director Teddy Newton.