Director of Disney’s first film with plus-size heroine on ‘incredibly meaningful’ fan reaction-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Reflect, a two-minute short about ballet dancer Bianca, went viral earlier this year (Picture: Disney)

Back in September, Disney’s first plus-size heroine was introduced in the short Reflect, directed by Hillary Bradfield, the debut of which generated a massive amount of attention online.

Fans praised the two-minute film for its representation, with reactions calling it ‘necessary’, and ‘meaningful’ and one viewer even saying it ‘emotionally tore them up’ as they all resonated with the feelings of young dancer Bianca, who struggles with doubts and insecurities over her body and performance during a ballet class.

Happily, Bianca is seen confronting the ‘monster in the mirror’ and – quite literally – shattering the insecurities that are holding her back in a glorious sequence of CG-animated mirrors, reflections, and choreography.

She goes on to give a triumphant performance.

Bradfield, a Disney Animation artist and alumna of the Disney training programme, says that it’s been ‘so amazing’ to see all of the responses to Reflect, which is part of season two of Short Circuit, a series of experimental short films from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

‘Just seeing how people connect with the short is so special, especially since I put so much into this and so did so many members of the crew – they really invested a lot of their personal stories into this and so it’s been incredibly meaningful,’ she told Metro.co.uk.

Fans praised Reflect for its ballet class setting and story, for which writer and director Hillary Bradfield drew from own experience (Picture: Disney)

Discussing her personal experience behind Reflect, the writer and director explained: ‘I grew up doing competitive figure skating, and I did ballet to cross train for that.

‘A part of performance arts and sports – so much of it is looking at yourself in the mirror and judging your posture, and especially in a situation like a ballet classroom, where a lot of the time you’re even in a uniform and you’re all wearing the same thing, it’s just very exposing.

‘It’s hard not to go there in your mind – it’s very easy to get down on yourself.’

Reflect was widely positively received upon its release on Disney Plus in mid-September, but it reached a whole new (massive) arena of young fans the following month as word-of-mouth excitement spread on social media, helped in part by a viral TikTok video.

Bianca is Disney’s first plus-size heroine (Picture: Disney)

Bradfield, who has previously worked on Frozen 2 and Encanto, was actually on holiday when Reflect first went out but said it didn’t take long for the messages to start pouring into her inbox – and then things went crazy.

‘I got a few very heartfelt messages from young dancers, and that was very meaningful, and then, it almost felt like out of nowhere, there was all this attention on it, and I was like, “Wow, that’s so cool! Oh my gosh, people are watching it, they’re watching our little two-minute film! This is amazing!””

Aside from the incredible animation – more on that later – the headline aspect fans were responding to was the plus-size representation from a Disney film and, for the first time, in the guise of a lead female role.

Asked if she felt a sense of responsibility in this – as a ‘first’ for the studio – Bradfield emphasised her personal connection to the story again. 

Bradfield said the huge fan reaction to Reflect felt like it came ‘almost out of nowhere’ (Picture: Disney)

She previously worked on the story team for Encanto (Picture: Disney/AP)

‘For the most part I’ve always just felt that this was a feeling that I needed to express, and I just really wanted to make this film. It feels good having it out there and having people connect to it.’

‘From the beginning of this, it came from very personal feelings of frustration with, “Why can’t I look in the mirror and feel good?” It came from such a deep, personal place and then sharing stories with people on the crew it just became this thing that we were all connecting with and making.’

‘The overwhelming feeling for me is just how special it is,’ she added. 

Generally, it’s Disney’s big theatrical and long-form animated releases that often get the lion’s share of attention, with films such as Turning Red, Lightyear and the LGBTQ+-led Strange World this year.

How has Bradfield felt being able to shine a light on shorts?

‘It’s fantastic because the shorts, especially Short Circuit, they are a lot of where we’re doing experimentation and we’re really going hard on the art film angle, and we’re try something new and different.

‘So it’s really special to have so much attention on something that is truly a passion project, and we spent a lot of time on this one – I think it took us a little over two years, making it.’

The Reflect director hopes that the attention will continue with future short releases now fans have seen how much they can resonate with them.

However, she also revealed just how hard the core idea of reflections was to do in CG, calling it ‘very artistically and technologically challenging’ – and not a difficulty she had fully anticipated.

Reflect’s complex CG animation meant it took more than two years to make (Picture: Disney)

Bradfield hopes the attention on shorts will continue after Reflect’s reception (Picture: Disney)

‘I had no idea! I thought I was being so clever when I pitched it,’ she laughed, referencing that the story features mostly just one character.

‘Then I remember meeting with my advisor for the short, Brian Leach, a fantastic, amazing lighter [Disney Animation director of cinematography – lighting]. He enlightened me to the fact that reflections are very hard in CG, and I’m like, “Okay, this is basically an entire short of one of the hardest things that you can do in CG!”’

Bradfield praised her team as ‘incredible thinkers and problem solvers’, even with the issues they were up against.

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‘Animating dance is also a very difficult thing to do and then we’re reflecting her into infinity.

‘It was almost like the entire team had to be there with almost every decision, so it was very intensely collaborative, but that was also the exciting part of it, because when you get everybody in the room, coming up with ideas, you’re like, “Oh my god, we’re like filmmakers and scientists at the same time.”’

Reflect is available to watch now as part of season two of Short Circuit on Disney Plus.

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