Gerri’s game is an animated short film directed and written by Jan Pinkava. The short was shown with the theatrical release of Bugs life and won an academy award for best animation.
This short film follows a story about an elderly man named Gerri who plays a game of chess against himself. He quickly dominates the game as the black side, although he is his own opponent. As the game looks to be coming to a conclusion, white makes a surprisingly aggressive move and fakes a heart attack to outsmart the black side. While the black side is not paying attention the white flips the board around. He checkmates black side and Gerri wins an ultimate prize – dentures. As the short end, the camera backs out, revealing that there is only one Gerri.
The composition and camera angles help visually split Gerri’s personality. The more experienced, fast and aggressive Gerri has a red background. The other Gerri has a yellow background. In many shots camera is taking red Gerri from a low angle to make him look dominant.
The Exposition: Gerri sits down at a table in an empty park and sets up chess.
Rising Action: Gerri realises he is the only one in the park and so he has to play against himself. Gerri’s personality split into two – red Gerri without glasses and yellow Gerri. The red Gerri is a much more aggressive and experienced player and is dominating the yellow Gerri.
The Climax: Yellow Geri is about to lose and so he decides to fake a heart attack. When the red Gerri is not paying attention the yellow Gerri flips a board and outsmart him.
Falling Action: Laughing Gerri realizes he is losing. Yellow Gerri sits back and smiles.
Resolution: Yellow Gerri manages to defeat the red Gerri with his smart trick and wins the dentures. In the final shot, the camera reveals that Gerri was the only player sitting at the table.
Yellow Gerri seems to genuinely be motivated to get the teeth. We see this from the first shot where he chews on his gums, missing the dentures. In fact, throughout the film, yellow Gerri is the only one who does this. Red Gerri seems most disappointed in having lost the match, being as competitive as many very skilled people are.
Yellow Gerri technically cheats to win the chess match, or more accurately, he uses his creativity to solve his problem. Red Gerri is focused on winning by means of his skill, and he’s ruthless. So what we see In my opinion is that creative problem-solving triumphs over raw talent.