Walt Disney Animation is debuting its first theatrical short in five years with Us Again. The short will play before Kaya and the Last Dragon in theaters March 5, and will come to Disney+ in June. The first look image from the short gives major Singing in the Rain vibes as viewers are giving a look into a couple’s ability to live in the moment.
Written by Big Hero 6 animation head Zach Parrish, the short features an interracial couple, a Black woman named Dot, described as “young-at-heart,” and a Japanese man named Art, who dance their lives away, literally. According to Entertainment Weekly, a “magical night” allows the couple to rediscover their joie de vivre through dance. The short’s score, described as “funk- and soul-infused,” comes from Captain Marvel composer Pinar Toprak. The couple’s dance is choreographed by world-famous husband and wife dance duo, Keone and Mari Madrid.
The short utilizes Disney’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group by developing organic ways to showcase specificity in Art and Dot’s cultural outlooks on life. For instance, as reported by Entertainment Weekly, the couple’s home and mannerisms are in direct relationship to their different cultural and racial upbringings.
“We really tried to spread that through their apartment to feel as authentically big city as possible through referencing New York and Chicago a lot, but also how to make it authentic to an African-American woman and a Japanese man,” said Parrish.
Parrish said the idea stemmed from his own coming to terms with mortality when he realized he couldn’t play basketball the same way he could when he was younger. As he told Entertainment Weekly, the idea about living in the present without focusing on former abilities became the “core idea” of the short.
Parrish also named the two characters after his grandparents, Arthur and Dorothy. After getting the Madrids on board, who also inspired Parrish after he watched their viral dance routine in which they acted like an elderly couple, the short began to take shape.