Is MARVEL Moving Into The Short Film Business Like PIXAR?

For as long as I can remember, PIXAR films have always been preceded by an animated short film. Weather it was an animated original like Geri’s Game, which was released with Bugs Life. Or a one-off animated adventure of popular characters like Toy Story’s Hawaiian Vacation that was released just this last week, attached to Cars 2. In fact, PIXAR’s short’s have been an effective marketing tool.

When Disney & Pixar first announced their plans for Cars 2 they had quite a bit of time to get audiences excited to see the upcoming sequel. To do this they released a series of short films entitled Cars Toon’s. The series featured everybody’s favorite tow truck, Tow Mater in several misadventures. The series ended up being incredibly successful and helped to keep the Cars brand fresh in the minds of Disney’s target demographic. And their parents.

Now it seems that PIXAR’s corporate cousin, MARVEL is considering getting in on the ‘shorts’ game. FilmSchoolRejects.com is reporting that not only is MARVEL considering it, but they have already produced two of them. In fact, both of the new MARVEL shorts apparently feature MARVEL Studio’s regular character Agent Coulson(Clark Gregg). As if to corroborate this, the DVD & Blu-Ray details of THOR were released yesterday and a mysteriously titled extra Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant may be the first of these shorts. The second Agent Coulson short is set to appear on the DVD & Blu-ray for Captain America: The First Avenger.

Hopefully MARVEL will realize that these types of short films are a very popular item for most film audiences. In fact if Marvel were to eventually attach these kind’s of shorts to their theatrical releases, it would provide a powerful platform to develop lesser known characters for possible feature film projects. For years now Dr. Strange, Iron Fist and Luke Cage fans have been hoping to see those characters on the silver screen. MARVEL shorts could just be the opportunity that the studio needs to develop these high demand characters.


-Admiral Duke