Lava is a 2014 American animated musical short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Written and directed by James Ford Murphy and produced by Andrea Warren, it premiered at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on June 14, 2014, and was theatrically released alongside Pixar's Inside Out, on June 19, 2015.
The short is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years. It is set to a song (also called "Lava") written by Murphy, and was inspired by the "isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes." In an interview with Honolulu-based KHON-TV, Murphy explained that his interest in Hawaii began 25 years prior while honeymooning on the main island of Hawai'i. Shortly before film production began, Murphy went back to Hawaii in order to "reconnect emotionally" with the land that sprung his inspiration.
Years later, Murphy heard Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World", which touched him. Murphy stated: "I put together this fascination and love and this experience I had with my wife in Hawaii, with this feeling I had for this song and thought, wow, if I could blend those two things, it would be really—a film I would love to see."
The idea began to coalesce while attending the wedding of his sister, who married at age 43. Murphy recalled: "As my sister stood up on the altar, I thought about how happy she was and how long she'd waited for her very special day. There, at my sister’s wedding, I remembered Loihi and I had an epiphany... What if my sister was a volcano? And what if volcanoes spend their entire lives searching for love, like humans do?" "Lava" is unique in that it lacks any verbal communication other than the song.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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