Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Short Circuit has been delivering creative shorts to audiences for the past ten years. The program gives anyone at the studio the chance to pitch an idea in the hopes of being selected to bring their own project to life.

Now, as Short Circuit celebrates its tenth anniversary, this year’s new entries include Larry Wu’s Life Drawings and Maddie & the Test from filmmaker Heather M. Roberts Russell.

Wu has been with Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2004, building a filmography that spans Bolt (2008), Tangled (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), Moana (2016), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), Strange World (2022), and Moana 2 (2024). In Life Drawings, Wu uses a series of self-portraits to trace one artist’s journey through life. As the character grows from childhood into adulthood, the evolving visual styles reflect changing phases of identity, creativity, and perspective. What begins as a love of drawing gradually gives way to the more practical demands of life before art finds its way back into the story through the next generation.

Roberts Russell joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2018, and her credits include Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Frozen 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto (2021), Strange World (2022), Wish (2023), Moana 2, and Zootopia 2 (2025). For Roberts Russell, Maddie & the Test came from a deeply personal place. Inspired by her niece, who has dyslexia, the short centers on a 10-year-old girl facing the pressure and fear that can come with taking a test.

Through Maddie’s experience, the film explores anxiety, self-doubt, and the inner resilience it takes to push through a moment that can feel overwhelming.

The Nerds of Color joined a select group of journalists to speak with Wu and Roberts Russell about the shorts, their personal connections to the stories, the process of bringing them to Disney+, and what they hope audiences take away from them.

For Roberts Russell, Maddie & the Test began with a deeply personal moment involving her niece, whose experience with dyslexia became the emotional foundation for the short. The filmmaker said the inspiration came during a conversation in the car with her children and niece.

“When the idea came to me, my niece was 12, and we were talking about our favorite things,” Roberts Russell said. “My kiddo asked my niece, ‘What’s your favorite book?’ And she got really quiet. I knew that she was dyslexic, but my child didn’t, and she said, ‘I don’t have a favorite book. I don’t read well.’”

That moment led to a deeper conversation that stayed with Roberts Russell and ultimately shaped the short’s perspective on dyslexia.

“It was really incredible to watch her describe what dyslexia feels like for her,” Roberts Russell continued. “It’s a spectrum, so there are so many different experiences, and this was one experience that we tried to represent on film. At the very end, she said that it’s okay. ‘Yeah, I’m okay.’ And this grace and strength that she had, I was like, man, if the world could see what Amelia sees, we’d all be better off.”

Roberts Russell said the short’s visual approach was driven by what the story needed emotionally. “There was so much on the paper that we wanted to create a sense of dynamism and some of the comedic joy that you get from hand-drawn animation, so it really lent itself to that medium,” she said. “That’s why we chose to have all that hand-drawn animation on the paper and CG around it, which was technically very challenging.”

She also spoke about the significance of collaborating with Disney Animation legend Mark Henn on the short. “That really was the experience of a lifetime,” Roberts Russell said. “I saw Aladdin 13 times in the movie theater when I was younger, so my goal was always to work here. Getting to work with the gentleman who animated Jasmine was really special.”

When it came to the production timeline, Roberts Russell acknowledged that the process took longer than expected, but said that extra time ultimately helped shape the short.

“It was definitely longer than either of us had hoped,” Roberts Russell said. “It was several years, but we were very patient, and it gave us time to really think about certain decisions that we wanted to make. We were both learning as directors in this process, so it gave us a little extra time to learn.”

Wu also explained that Life Drawings evolved over a longer stretch of time, in part because of his responsibilities on feature productions.

“When I first pitched it, I wasn’t sure how we were going to handle some of the stages in life,” Wu said. “I had to pause my project a couple of times because I was in a leadership position and had to finish features. In that time, other projects were able to develop newer tool sets that I could use for my short. Nothing from those bigger projects asked us to help develop stuff for it. It was up to us.”

For Wu, Life Drawings represents a more personal milestone, marking one of the first times he has been able to bring his own original idea to the screen. ““It’s my idea. I’m excited to tell friends and family and other people, just go catch it on Disney+,” he said.

For Wu, the visual evolution in Life Drawings is tied directly to the different stages of life the artist moves through. “In the early stages, you start with crayons, and then you go into grade school where you just have ruled paper and pencils available,” Wu said. “Once he graduates from college and tries to make it as an artist, that phase becomes more like an IKEA instruction manual. That was my representation of working life, because I feel like your working life is the longest stage.”

At their core, both Life Drawings and Maddie & the Test show how animation can go beyond spectacle to create understanding. Through Russell’s personal exploration of dyslexia and Wu’s reflection on the different stages of life, Short Circuit continues to prove that some of Disney Animation’s most meaningful stories come from within.

 Life Drawings and Maddie & the Test can be streamed exclusively on Disney+ now.